FEMINISM

• Core ideas- Human nature- sex

  • sex= biological differences between men and women
  • for most feminists, sex differences should be irrelevant to how women are treated in society
  • some feminists see bio differences as important as they explain the inferior status of women in society (essentialism)
  • bio differences are essential to understanding as they determine gender roles of women
  • radical feminists agree that biology has informed inferior status of women but this doctrine should not continue today
• core ideas- human nature- gender

  gender=different roles that society prescribes to men and women

  • cultural and economic differences between the sexes
  • historically linked with sex, women not able to undertake demanding jobs bc of childcare, more caring and nurturing characteristics tied to the home
  • radical feminist idea that women were inferior to me due to motherhood role being more important than earning a living
  • lack of education and opportunities for women
• LIBERAL FEMINISM & GENDER

  • Accept differences, but regard gender differences and superiority of men as an artificial construct created by the patriarchy
  • bio differences should not be gender differences, inferiority of women is a learned behaviour reinforced by education and the media
  • reform needed through legislation in equality and education
• RADICAL FEMINISM AND GENDER

  • Gender differences exist in all aspects of life and must be destroyed in all spheres, private and public
  • cultural revolution needed to combat the patriarchy
  • Firestone- sexual function of women should be removed and replaced with androgyny
  • society in which men and women co exist without sexual relations
• SOCIAL FEMINISTS AND GENDER

  • Oppression of women is bound in capitalism
  • women are an oppressed class, assigned gender roles so they can become cheap labour, unpaid workforce at home and low paid workforce in employment, dispensable to society
  • solution to this is in the destruction of capitalism or at the minimum in workplace protections
• The personal is political

  • helps distinguish between liberal and radical feminists
  • liberal feminists: Seek separation of public and private spheres
  • private sphere is of no concern to other as long as thoughts and actions don't harm others
  • public sphere: actions affect others therefore become concern of government and state, includes how women are treated and portrayed
  • the position of women is a concern for all
• the personal is political

  Radical feminists

  • don't recognise the distinction between public and private spheres
  • everything is political by reflecting the power that men have over women
  • if women are at home child rearing, it is not private as it reflects aspects of the wider patriarchy
  • Greer: even private matters of sexual relationships fall into political discourse as women have been manipulated sexually to be ashamed of their bodies to serve the interests of men
• Core ideas: the state

  • legislation:

  equality laws, anti-discrimination laws, equal pay, domestic violence laws, awareness programmes, female quotas

  • no distinctive theory of the state
  • main concern of state is around patriarchy, state is part of wider oppression and exploitation of women in male-dominated society
  • radical fems: see current developments as superficial as they do not address fundamental inequalities
• core ideas: the economy

  • women are discriminated against in the economic world
  • women were freer in pre-capitalist society
  • are used as unpaid labour in the home
  • used as low pay, often part time disposable labour, discarded during economic crises
  • socialist feminists: believe oppression of women is due to capitalism
  • even in fields where women are welcome, top jobs are held by men (glass ceiling)
  • pay gap
  • reserve army of labour, discarded when no longer needed, eg WW2
• CORE IDEAS: SOCIETY- PATRIARCHY

  • Many see society as deeply patriarchal in nature
  • key characteristic of modern society, women are the exploited class
  • rad fems: removal of patriarchy is vital for the emancipation of women
  • is in every aspect of society- religion, politics, economy, culture, media, education, sport
  • must be combatted in 2 ways:
  • 1: full scale attack on cultural values in society (possible violent resistance to male dominance)
  • 2:creation of female counter culture- matriarchy?
• CORE IDEAS: SOCIETY: PATRIARCHY

  • Liberal feminists
  • similar view of patriarchy but see solution in reform instead of revolution
  • is a characteristic of society, is not fundamental
  • therefore society can be made less patriarchal gradually through peaceful and cultural action
• Equality and difference feminism- society

  • response to patriarchy ended in two different attitudes towards the position of women in society
  • Equality feminism: limited aspirations, seek equality for women in all spheres, normally lib fems
  • male superiority must be destroyed
• Equality and difference feminism- society

  • Difference feminism: men & women have fundamental differences, should be recognised in society
  • don't accept that one gender is superior to the other, they are different and such differences should be embraced instead of opposed
  • attributes peculiar to women are superior to male characteristics ( nurturing, caring, non-aggressive)
  • world dominated by women better, less violence, more focus on environment
• Intersectionality

  • feminism tended to be largely white, middle class, one size fits all movement
  • women from many social & cultural backgrounds face very different problems
  • oppressions faced by black women are different in character to those faced by white women
  • same w gay women, low income backgrounds, minority religions and ethnic groups
• intersectionality 2

  • segmented movements: we all have multiple identities in modern societies, gender is only one, gender is important but not the only identity
  • Hooks: stressed race as key identity, insisted battle against racism must go hand in hand w battle against sexism
  • implication is that there must be black feminist, gay feminist, working class feminist movements
• Liberal feminism- 5 key principles

  1. liberty: women should be free to choosing the nature of their own lives
  2. equality of opportunity should be enjoyed alongside men, full access to education and careers
  3. civil rights equal to men, rule of law should extend to them & not discriminate
  4. equal rights to privacy
  5. democratic rights equal to men, voting and standing for election
• Liberal feminism

  • as many of the objectives of LF were realised, clear they were not enough, women still the inferior gender still suffering from discrimination
  • 1960s- Friedan argued that patriarchy was blocking liberation of women
  • didn't recognise nature of their oppression, dominance of men alongside self-assigned inferiority of women, men also victims of the patriarchy
  • Beauvoir & Friedan- concepts of otherness- certain groups are outside society & inferior
  • women should be free to choose whether they take up traditional domestic roles of enter worlds historically dominated by men
• 3 main forms of liberal feminist action

  1. opportunities to be able to make own choices had to be opened up by ending discrimination & inequality, aspirations often described as gender equality
  2. cultural attitudes that weakened & reinforced sense of inferiority had to be combatted -- achieved through education, propaganda & allow opposition to sexist language & attitudes
  3. can't achieve formal equality in all fields, largely involved in legislation- must be political and legal equality ( first wave)
• Radical feminism

  • not one single movement, series of different perspective posed by the patriarchy
  • 4 key common characteristics
  • 1: destruction of patriarchy & transformation into completely new society
  • 2: stress importance of female consciousness in both critique of patriarchy & proposals for new social order
  • 3:revolutionary in outlook, don't usually favour violent rev
  • 4:mostly known as difference feminists, instead of trying to ignore bio & cultural differences, rad fems stress & celebrate differences between men & women
• 2 types of difference- radical feminism

  1. how they analyse patriarchal society
  2. how they seek to defeat the patriarchy
• radical feminism & the patriarchy

  • Millet: looked into family first to understand it, women sexually and economically exploited through marriage
  • men oppress women in all fields
  • domination is political in nature, it involves the exercise of power, male chauvinism
  • men will exercise and celebrate power over women
• radical feminism & the patriarchy

  • Greer-The Female Eunuch
  • men hate women and that is why they oppress them, women are taught to hate themselves in order to accept their inferior position - women must reject this stigma
• radical feminism & the patriarchy

  • Firestone: history of civilisation as dialectic struggle between men & women
  • origins of struggle live in the biological differences between men and women
  • patriarchy exists because of women being constrained by childbirth
• radical feminism & the patriarchy

  • Andrea Dworkin: saw pornography as evidence that men viewed women as sex objects
  • women must form lesbian communities to combat this
• radical responses to patriarchy

  • abolition of nuclear family & replacement by communal forms of child rearing & general living
  • will naturally remove male domination of the family
  • sexual liberation is critical
  • escape form limitations of traditional heterosexual relationships - women free themselves from male domination & cease to hate themselves
  • elimination of biological roles perhaps most radical solution
  • Firestone celebrates potential of modern bio tech to free women from biological enslavement
  • recommends androgyny
• Cultural feminism

  • accept there are natural gender differences between men and women
  • female characteristics superior to those common in men
  • differences should be embraced not opposed
  • caring & nurturing side of women better than men's competitive and aggressive behaviours
  • world domination by women would be more peaceful and just, would protect our environments more effectively, eco feminists
  • value domestic role as or even more highly than roles played by men
• socialist feminism

  • inspired by work of Engels and Marx
  • Engels understood that women were key element in future oc capitalism
  • women always been deprived of private property, thus oppressed by property owners
  • women are a source of low paid labour
  • modern marxist feminists criticise Engels for oversharing importance of property
  • women increasingly owning property, yet oppression persists
  • destruction of capitalism is precondition for liberation of women
• socialist feminism

  • focus on working class women, only extreme modification of capitalism will liberate women from inferior economic position
  • eg, state ownership of industry eliminates needs for to compete against men for employment
  • Rowbotham- female oppression has economic roots but stems from nuclear family & male domination
  • seek liberation of women from economic dependence upon men
  • power more widely ds¡distributed among women, better education for women
• post modern feminism 1

  • reject fixed ideas of various theorists, see position of women as complex issues w many competing explanations and solutions
  • stress importance of language in carrying forwards patriarchal attitudes and sexism
  • women must be give choices for themselves
  • can choose traditional female role in family or compete w men on equal parts
  • women choose nature of relationships w men or women without resorting to traditional feminist attitudes
• post modern feminism 2

  • each woman has own unique experience of life & must liberate herself in her own way
  • search for legal, political and cultural equality continues
  • 3rd wave feminism, intersectionality, post structuralism
  • post feminism emerged: reject traditional discourse by radical feminists, is for each woman to choose her own lifestyle
• Tensions within feminism- Patriarchy

  • Liberal fems: see patriarchy in terms of historical dominance of men in society
  • Radical feminists: number of explanations, all suggest lies deep in human consciousness, so deep there is a need for dramatic, revolutionary change in such patriarchal consciousness
  • mere legal, political and cultural reform won't make a significant difference
  • Rad Fems reject Lib Fems on the grounds that it fails to understand the nature of the patriarchy
• Tensions within feminism- patriarchy

  • Lib fems argue rad fems are imposing their own views on female consciousness, seeking to restrict their freedom of choice
  • criticise rads as they believe there is no private sphere where women should be free to choose her own status & consciousness
  • rads are imposing forms of consciousness on women by breaking down the barrier between public and private spheres
  • as long there is a framework of political & legal equality, women should be free to adopt their own opinions and aspirations
• tensions within feminism- economy

  • socialist fems argue libs & rads have de-emphasised the importance of economic factors in the oppression of women
  • the inferior, exploited status of women in economic life is the true source of their oppression
  • the patriarchy has economic origins and has intensified under modern capitalism
• tensions within feminism- economy

  • rad fems take issue w socialist fems for excessively stressing economic factors
  • argue patriarchal domination may have economic elements, patriarchy is cultural and psychological as well
  • argue that by over stressing economics, socialist fems fail to recognise there's still a great deal of patriarchy in socialist societies
• difference feminists v equality feminists

  • difference fems say that seeking equality is a recognition that male characteristics are superior
  • feminism of differences denies male superiority
  • seeks a different road to liberated consciousness by stressing sexual differences &celebrating superior qualities of women