socialist feminism , patriarchy Flashcards
it can be argued that socialist feminists are strongly supportive of
patriarchy
firstly they recognise that women are oppressed in the economy and its consequences foe the private sphere are
defined by male dominance and female subordination
rowbotham argued that woman faced dual opression under capitalism due to
having to perform both poorly paid insecure jobs in the workforce and unpaid domestic labour
gilamn argued that capitalism forced women into a position where their survival and social status depended heavily on marriage which was
a socio economic contract where women traded their domestic labour , sexual avalaibilty and reproductive capabilities for survival and financial support from their husbands
they also recognised that society needed to be fundamentally transformed to tackle this oppression they agreed that
capitalism needed to be abolished and that to liberate women domestic labour needed to be collectivised and communal
later socilaist feminists didnt simply reduce women’s oppression to capitalism and economics alone instead thy recognised
the importance of societal attitudes and that gender relations in the private sphere needed to be tackled as well as capitalism removed
Gilman argued that societal conditioning subtly
coerced girls into becoming mothers and homemakers from a young age through toys and clothing
this limited their economic independence from a young age
rowbotham called for a “revolution within a revolution” that required
not only restructuring the economic system to eliminate class inequality but also radically transforming societal relations and institutions to eradicate gender oppression
on the other hand it can be argues that socialist feminists don’t fully recognise that
society is patriarchal due to their focus on capitalism
rather than seeing patriarchy as a distinct form of oppression that is the primary way society is shaped socialist feminists see capitalism as
key and believe that gender inequality is strongly linked to capitalism
they therefore focus on the abolition of capitalism as
highly important rather than the dismantling of patriarchy at all levels
earlier socialist feminists believed that removing capitalism alone would remove the oppression of women from society failing to recognise
the pervasive nature of patriarchy in all areas of society that must be directly challenged
