Feminist Perspective

• Feminist Assumptions

  Like Marxists, Feminists take a critical view of the family- arguing it oppresses women through focusing on issues like unequal division of domestic labour and domestic violence against women. They don't see gender inequality as natural or inevitable, but something created by society. Though there are various types of feminism- each viewing the family differently and offering different solutions to the problem of gender inequality.
• Liberal Feminism: Defined

  They are concerned with campaigning against sex discrimination, and for equal rights and opportunities for women. Arguing women's oppression is being gradually overcome through changing people's attitudes and the law (e.g. Sex Discrimination Act 1975). They believe we are moving towards greater equality, but full equality requires further reforms and changes in attitudes and socialisation patterns of both sexes.
• Liberal Feminism: Ideas about the Family

  They hold a view similar to that of 'March of Progress' theorists such as Young and Willmott. Although liberal feminists don't believe that full gender equality has been achieved within the family- arguing it is a gradual process. For example, some studies suggest men are doing more domestic labour and socialising their children more equally as their aspirations for them both have become more similar.
• Liberal Feminism: Criticisms

  Other feminists criticise liberal feminists for failing to challenge the underlying causes of women's oppression, and for believing that changes in law or people's attitudes will bring equality. Marxist and Radical Feminists believe that instead far-reaching changes to deeply-rooted social structures are needed.
• Marxist Feminism: Ideas about the Family

  They argue that the main cause of women's oppression in the family isn't men, but capitalism. Their oppression performs several functions for capitalism. Marxist Feminists see the opposition of women in the family as linked to the exploitation of the working class. Arguing that the family must be abolished alongside a socialist revolution to achieve a classless society- replacing capitalism.
• Marxist Feminism: Women's Functions for Capitalism

  Women reproduce the labour force: through their unpaid domestic labour, by socialising the next generation of workers, and maintaining/servicing the current generation.
• Marxist Feminism: Women's Functions for Capitalism

  Women absorb anger which would otherwise be directed at capitalism: Ansley describes wives as 'takers of shit' who soak up the frustration their husbands feel due to the alienation and exploitation they face at work. For Marxists, this then explains the domestic violence against women.
• Marxist Feminism: Women's Functions for Capitalism

  Women are a reserve army of cheap labour: they can be taken on as extra workers if required. When they are no longer needed, employers can 'let them go' to return as their primary role as unpaid domestic labour.
• Radical Feminism: Assumptions

  They argue that all societies have been founded on patriarchy, and that the key division in society is between men and women. Men are the enemy: the source of women's oppression and exploitation. The family and marriage are key institutions in patriarchal society: men benefit from women's unpaid labour and their sexual services, and they dominate women through domestic violence or the threat of it.
• Radical Feminism: Ideas about the Family

  The patriarchal system needs to be overturned. In particular, the family which they see as the root of women's oppression. Seeing the only way of achieving this is through separatism- women must organise themselves to live independently of men. Arguing for 'political lesbianism'- the idea that heterosexual relationships are inevitably oppressive as they involve 'sleeping with the enemy'. Greer argues for the creation of all-female households or 'matrilocal' households as alternatives to the heterosexual family.
• Radical Feminism: Criticisms from Liberal Feminists

  Sommerville: Radical Feminists fail to recognise that women's position has improved considerably- with better access to divorce, job opportunities, control over their fertility, and ability to choose marriage or cohabitation. Also arguing that heterosexual attraction makes separatism unlikely to work. However, Sommerville does recognise that women have still not reached full equality- arguing that there is a need for 'family friendly' policies, such as more flexible working, to promote gender equality between partners.
• Difference Feminism: Defined

  All prior feminist approaches tend to assume that all women live in conventional nuclear families and all share a similar experience of family life. However, Difference Feminists argue we cannot generalise women's experiences. Arguing that heterosexual and lesbian, white and black, middle and working class women have very different experiences of family from one another.
• Difference Feminism: Ideas about the Family

  For example, by regarding the family purely negatively- White feminists then neglect Black women's experiences of racial oppression. Instead, Black feminists view the Black family positively, as a source of support and resistance against racism. However, other feminists argue that Difference Feminists neglect the fact that all women share many of the same experiences- for example, they all face risk of domestic or sexual abuse, low pay, etc.