Feminism

• Feminism - the belief that gender is the most significant division in society, and a desire to overthrow any disadvantage conferred due to sex
• First wave (1850s-1940s) - concentrated on removing formal forms of inequality e.g. unequal voting rights
• Second Wave (1960s - 1980s) - recognised that the removal of legal and political inequalities had not removed other forms of injustice and unfair treatment of women, so attempted to politicise women's personal lives as well
• Thirds Wave (1990s) - concerned with the experiences of different groups of women, recognising that traditionally, feminism tended to reflect the concerns and interests of white middle-class women
• Sex = biological differences between men + women
• Gender = difference in cultural + economic status between men and women
• Patriarchy - society dominated by men
• State - all feminists recognise that the state has the potential to serve a useful purpose for women

  • believe the state is complicit in women being subordinate to men
  • believe that state could be used more to enhance women's position in society
• Liberal feminist view on patriarchy - patriarchal power relations are maintained through socialisation processes which encourage girls to internalise their inferiority and boys to believe they have superior rights over women
• Radical feminist view on patriarchy - patriarchal power relations are maintained through male violence against women
• Marxist feminist view on patriarchy - patriarchal power relations are maintained through capitalist exploitation of women's labour
• Socialist feminist view on patriarchy - patriarchal power relations are maintained through class oppression, with working-class women experiencing double oppression from both gender and class
• Economy - feminists agree that women are subordinate to men in the economic sphere in multiple ways, such as gender pay gap, which is the percentage difference between average hourly earnings for men + women
• Liberal feminists -> Human Nature

  Mary Wollstonecraft + Charlotte Perkins Gilman focused on human nature being the same for men + women.

  • Wollstonecraft saw humans as rational, self-seeking, independent individuals who wish to be autonomous + pursue their own version of the good life.
  • Liberal feminists are equality feminists, seeing all humans as being of equal moral value + entitled to formal equality + equality of opportunity
• Marxist/Socialist feminists -> Human Nature

  • Engels saw gender roles part of the construct of capitalism to ensure that women fulfil the role of reproductive labour that is essential to the functioning of capitalism
  • Marxists feminists are equality feminists, focusing on economic equality between men + women
  • Shelia Rowbotham blended the Marxists + radical critiques of gender, arguing the gender is a construct of both capitalism + patriarchy to ensure that women are subordinate
• Radical feminists -> Human Nature

  • Simone de Beauvoir + Kate Millet saw gender roles + traits are artificially constructed + imposed on women to secure the dominance of men through patriarchy. Women are socialised into seeing gender roles as 'natural' when they're not.
  • Most reject difference feminism, arguing that equality in the family + personal life is central to equality between women + men
  • However, some see biological differences as essential to seeing the differences between men and women
• Post-modern/ culturalist feminists -> Human Nature

  • See gender roles as forced on women by society. However, gender is not only influence on identity; it coincides with class + race to create different experiences for different women
  • Postmodernists are also equality feminists, seeing different experiences for different women to understand how all are oppressed under patriarchy
• Liberal feminists -> Human Nature

  • Wollstonecraft + Freidan pointed to the failure of the state to tackle the problem of discrimination against women, so perpetuating women's subordinate role.
  • State is also the source for ending this discrimination through the granting of formal equality for women, campaigned for by Wollstonecraft + Harriet Taylor
• Liberal feminists -> Human Nature

  • State can ensure access to education + the world of work for women to secure economic independence as Perkins argued: Civil Rights Act 1964, Equality Act 2010 + Equal pay Act 2009
  • Freidan argued that affirmative action policies should be used to by state to tackle injustice
• Radical/Socialist feminists -> State

  • 2nd/3rd wave feminists might agree that such measures + laws are useful but argue they are not enough to tackle systematic oppression of women
  • Kate Millett identified the state as part of the problem, as it promotes + sustains patriarchy, while Sheila Rowbotham argued that it serves both patriarchy + capitalism in their oppression of women
  • Sheila Rowbotham argued that equal pay is a starts but that is impossible to see the equal exploitation of women + men under capitalism, given the division of labour in the workplace
• • Sheila Rowbotham argued that equal pay is a starts but that is impossible to see the equal exploitation of women + men under capitalism, given the division of labour in the workplace
  • Bell Hooks saw state as an interlocking system of 'imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy', promoting injustice, exploitation + oppression