Feminism

• LF - Oakley

  sex = biological, gender = socially constructed - through socialisation

  - manipulation - how you treat boys/girls e.g. boys don't cry

  - canalisation - gendered objects e.g. girls = dolls, boys = trucks

  - verbal appellations - how you talk to girls/boys e.g. boys = strong, girls = pretty

  - gendered activities - boys = physical, rugby, girls = less physical, dance
• LF - Critique, Oakley

  - passive, assumes children accept parents norms

  - doesn't explain why boys socialised as dominant and girls as subordinate
• LF - Somerville - laws

  - want laws/policies changed rather than revolution

  - anti-discriminatory laws = gender equality - laws to benefit women e.g. pay gap

  - evidence of this - e.g. suffragettes, right to vote
• LF - Critique. Somerville - laws

  (MF + RF) - naive to think laws will lead to equality, what about people's attitudes

  - assumes Western women's problems are universal
• MF - Ansley

  'women are takers of shit'

  - men take frustrations from working in capitalist system out on women e.g. domestic violence
• MF - Barrett

  - against familism

  - patriarchy + capitalism makes women value being a mother, makes them have these goals - makes them want to do unpaid labour
• Critique of Marxist feminism

  - women's oppression in family before capitalism, so men wouldn't stop exploiting due to classless society

  - ignores other factors leading to oppression e.g. sexuality, race, disability
• RF - Greer

  - separatism = women and men need to be separated to be free from patriarchy

  - political lesbianism = heterosexual relationships are oppressive, lesbianism is the only non-oppressive form of sexuality

  Critique: Somerville, can't erase heterosexual attraction
• RF - Firestone

  - root of women's oppression = pregnancy - women carry the child so they're expected to look after it

  - solution = artificial wombs
• RF - Patriarchal values - spheres

  - patriarchal values embedded in society

  - public sphere: men prioritised. women's opportunities limited e.g. pay gap

  - private sphere: personal relationships, men dominate women, power relationship - sexual politics
• Criticism of radical feminism

  - RF ignores intersectionality and diverse experiences of women

  - ignores women's violence on men and lesbian relationships

  - too extreme
• Difference Feminism

  - not a single women's experience is the same: ethnicity, sexuality, class etc

  - groups of women not relatable to other groups - different main concerns e.g. Western women = pay gap, may be different to Middle Eastern women
• DF - Ahmed

  30% professors in UK = women, only 20 black women professors in UK - woman of colour have different struggles than a white woman
• Post-Structural Feminism - Butler

  - social constructions of gender - nothing concrete e.g. no reason boys should like blue

  - patriarchy uses gender roles to oppress women

  - patriarchy = hegemonic = controls knowledge