Theories - Feminism

Question 1

Feminism statistics

Answer 1

• Women earn 20% less than men despite narrowing in pay gap
  -women account for 7% of board chairs and presidents & 6% of chief executives of large companies

Question 2

Liberal feminism

Answer 2

inequalities exist within values and culture not structures
concerned with equal rights for all not just women & policy change needed - laws need to be in place for women’s protection.
Culture change needs to happen e.g catcalling
- promoting female teachers in ‘male’ subject & men doing domestic tasks
-removing sexism from children’s media

Question 3

Ann Oakley

Answer 3

• difference between sex & gender
• gender role socialisation causes sexual divison of labour
• women socialised from young age to take on housewife role and so may be less likely to focus on careers

Question 4

Sue Sharpe

Answer 4

Teenage girls attitudes suggests careers are now more important
Study - 1976 girls prioritised finding love & a husband but same study in 1996 found their main priority was careers & supporting themselves.

Question 5

Liberal feminism strengths

Answer 5

liberal feminists have led to the reform in things like representation of women, equal pay & employment oppurtunities

Question 6

libfem criticisms

Answer 6

Marxist & radfems - doesnt recognise underlying and deep-rooted structures causing women’s oppression e.g capitalism or patriarchy or race
- can be over-optimistic believing that prejudice can be overturned by just future march of progress

Question 7

radical feminism

Answer 7

society is patriarchal and is ruled by men & all female oppression is caused by male domination & men benefit from this exploitation

Question 8

radfem stats

Answer 8

only 1 in 10 households are headed by females
- 3/4 of divorces are initiated by women suggeting married men are happier than married women
- nuclear family is dangerous for women bc of domestic violence (1 in 4 women) & marital rape

Question 9

radfem - firestone

Answer 9

feminism is a political movement motivated by individual and collective experiences of women based on society being made of patriarchal principles
- women produce ‘docile independent workers’ so they’re independant but not needing to be micro-managed & the nuclear family does this

Question 10

Brownmiller - ao2 application

Answer 10

The threat of rape against women became a weapon for men to use as a conscious process of intimidation & so women live in fear which allows men to push them into subordination

Question 11

sexuality & compulsory heterosexuality

Answer 11

patriarchy creates sexuality to only satisfy men’s desires e.g pornography displaying women as passive
Rich - women forced by men into unsatisfactory compulsory heterosexuality

Question 12

radfem solutions & change

Answer 12

baby strike.
seperatism - men and women living apart to create seperate culture of understanding and independence away from patriarchy (Greer- matriarchal households as alternatives to nf)
Political lesbianism -straight relationships are inherently oppressive because its ‘sleeping with the enemy’ & lesbian is non-oppressive form of sexuality

Question 13

radfem strengths

Answer 13

• credited in recognising the dv that occurs higher in nuclear families and when women live with men.
• some heterosexual intimate relationships do involve domination

Question 14

radfem criticisms

Answer 14

Greer’s Babystrike is unrealistic, people actually want to have kids & population would die out
Libfems argue equality is already happening
-Parsons says women need men because each gender plays specific roles in society that are needed for it to function
- assumes all women are in same position despite class & ethnic differences
-ignores violence may occur in lesbian relationships

Question 15

Hakim - horizontal segregation

Answer 15

Men & women do different sectors of the workforce
- women go into public sectors like healthcare/education
-men do manual/skilled jobs or upper professional sectors

Question 16

Hakim - vertical segregation

Answer 16

Within workforce - women hold lower levels of pay or status in the same jobs as men
-Glass ceiling, paygap, women more likely to be in part-time employment or fit their job around their life, not other way round

Question 17

Marxist feminism

Answer 17

patriarchy suits capitalist system as well as men
-women end up becoming housewives to reproduce and raise next gen of dolice workers & provide unpaid labour (Benston)
- Women are ‘takers of shit’ as they absorb the anger from the proletariat male instead of their capitalist bosses, can lead to dv
-Paid less than men & more likely to work part time

Question 18

Benston

Answer 18

-Women are reserve army of labour - often step up in time of economic crisis e.g in the world war 1, can be disposed of easily
-Less skilled than men due to the education system & gendered subjects meaning easier to be fired by employers.

Question 19

marxist feminist eval

Answer 19

Strengt- essential to understand women’s roles in a capitalist society
weaknesses - cant explain that there are non-capitalist societies where women are still oppressed

Question 20

difference feminists

Answer 20

other feminist views assume all women live in a nuclear family & share expiernces but it can vary based on class, ethnicity or sexuality.
- black feminists may argue that black families hold a source of support against racism & white feminsits criticise the family too much ignoring racial oppression

Question 21

dual-system feminists

Answer 21

combining marxist & radical feminst as one theory & these two things form patriarchal capitalism