pure theory feminist theories Flashcards
key ideas
Changes in socialisation and culture are gradually leading to more rational attitudes to gender and overcoming prejudice.
Political action to introduce anti-discriminatory laws and policies is steadily bringing about progress.
They challenge the Functionalist distinction regarding instrumental and expressive roles.
liberal feminist
Concerned with human and civil rights and the view that all human beings should have equal rights.
They advocate for both political change and cultural change.
oakley distinguishes between ‘sex’ & ‘gender’
evaluation of liberal feminists
Despite its critique of the functionalist view of gender division, it is the feminist theory that is the closest to a consensus view of society. E.G: Women’s emancipation is a ‘win win’ situation from which men, too, will gain.
Walby (1997) They are criticised for over-optimism. They believe that laws and attitudes are easily changed, yet they ignore the fact that such views are deeply ingrained.
Marxist and radical feminists claim they fail to recognise the underlying cause of women’s subordination and that they are naïve to think that small changes will bring about equality!
radical feminism
Emerged in the 1970’s.
Patriarchy is the problem.
Men are the enemy-the source of women’s exploitation and oppression.
The family and marriage are key patriarchal institutions in society.
Men benefit from women’s unpaid domestic labour and their sexual services.
They dominate women through domestic and sexual violence or the threat of it!
the personal political
Patriarchal power is exercised through personal relationships. Brownmiller (1976): fear of rape is a powerful deterrent against women going out at night.
In terms of sexuality, patriarchy constructs it so as to satisfy men’s desires. E.G: The portrayal of women in pornography as ‘objects’.
what needs to change
The patriarchal system needs to be overturned!
The family must be abolished
Separatism- women must live independently of men.
Heterosexual relationships are oppressive because they involve ‘sleeping with the enemy’.
Germaine Greer and Somerville
Germaine Greer (2000) argues for ‘matrilocal’ households- aka all-female households as an alternative.
CRITICISM: Somerville (2000) argues that separatism is unlikely to work. Heterosexual attraction is too strong.
evaluation of radical feminism
Marxists assert that class and capitalism, not patriarchy and men is the primary form of inequality.
They offer no explanation as to why female subordination takes different forms in different societies.
Pollert (1996): The concept of patriarchy is a circular argument. Male violence is defined as patriarchy, yet patriarchy is explained by male violence.
it neglects female violence against men
Marxist feminism
The main cause of women’s oppression in the family is not men, but capitalism!
- women reproduce the labour force:
Through unpaid domestic work
Through socialising the next generation of workers.
Through maintaining and servicing the current one!
marxism
Fran Ansley (1972)
Women absorb anger:
- Anger at capitalism!
describes women as ‘takers of shit’ who soak up their husbands frustration/ alienation at work.
For marxists, this explains domestic violence against women.
marxism
RESERVE ARMY OF LABOUR
Marxist feminists argue that women are a reserve army of workers who can be taken on and dropped when needed.
They see the oppression of women in the family as linked to the exploitation of the working class. The family must be abolished along with the idea of a revolution that will create a ‘classless’ society.
MICHELLE BARRETT: THE IDEOLOGY OF FAMILISM
This ideology presents the nuclear family and all it has to offer as natural and ‘normal’.
E.G: Fulfilment, love, motherhood, intimacy and sexual satisfaction.
We wouldn’t just need an overthrow of capitalism to change women’s position, but also an overthrow of the ideology of familism!
evaluation of Marxist feminism
It fails to explain women’s subordination in non-capitalist societies.
Unpaid domestic labour may benefit capitalism, but Marxist feminists fail to explain why only women, not men perform it. According to Hartmann (1981), this is because Marxism is ‘sex blind’.
dual systems feminism
Combines features of Marxist and radical feminism into a single theory.
Hartmann (1979): Capitalism and patriarchy are two, intertwined systems.
E.G: Domestic work limits women’s availability for paid work, but the lack of work opportunity drives women back into the home!
A03: Pollert (1996): Patriarchy is not the same type of system as capitalism, which is driven by its own internal dynamic of profit making.
DIFFERENCE FEMINISM AND POSTSTRUCTURALISM:
The problem of essentialism
Poststructuralist feminism
Poststructuralist feminism
Is more concerned with discourses and power/knowledge. E.G: The way that the medical profession can call childbirth a ‘medical condition’ and healthy women ‘patients’.
The problem of essentialism
Essentialism is the idea that all women share the same experiences. Difference feminists claim that the other feminist theories are essentialists- they fail to reflect the diversity of women’s experiences and problems.
THE ENLIGHTENMENT PROJECT:
Poststructuralists argue that the Enlightenment project, with its talk of reason, humanity and progress, is one such discourse.
the enlightenment project
Butler (1992)
Enlightenment ideals were simply a form of power/knowledge that legitimated domination by Western, white males and claimed to benefit all of humanity when in reality it excluded women.
She also argues that white, Western middle-class feminists have falsely claimed to represent ‘universal womanhood’
THERE IS NO FIXED ESSENCE OF WHAT IT IS TO BE A ‘WOMAN’
E.G: ‘Womanhood’ in Saudi Arabia is constituted partly by Islamic discourse. By contrast, Western womanhood is constituted largely by the discourses of advertising and the media.
there is no fixed essence of what it is to be a ‘woman’
In Butler’s view
by rejecting essentialism and by stressing the diversity of discourses, poststructuralism recognises and legitimates the diversity of women’s lives and struggles, rather than prioritising some and excluding others.
EVALUATION OF POSTSTRUCTURALIST FEMINISM:
Walby (1992): There are also important similarities between women- they are all faced with patriarchy!
Celebrating difference may divide women into an infinite number of sub-groups, thereby weakening feminism as a movement for change.
Segal (1999): It abandons any notion of real, objective social structures. Oppression is not just the result of discourses, but also real inequality.
