Liberal

• Some modern men voluntarily share routine necessities of family survival, while others may be shown the door if they do not pull their weight
• Jennifer Somerville: 'Many feminists have failed to acknowledge progress for women such as the greater freedom to go into paid work and the greater degree of choice in various aspects of life'
• Liberal Feminists focus on policies encouraging greater equality in work to help women demand fair share of housework and childcare
• Empowering women in politics and work

  Leads to greater power in domestic life to demand that men pull their weight or to leave unequal relationships
• Liberal Feminists support monitoring the promotion and pay of women in higher-level professional careers to address the gender pay gap
• Liberal Feminists support the shift towards both partners working full-time rather than one partner being the main breadwinner
• Liberal Feminists argue there is nothing inherently wrong with the traditional nuclear family or the public-private divide between work and politics on the one hand private family life on the other
• Flexible working hours result in more equal sharing of domestic work
• Support for traditional gender roles is declining
• Liberal Feminist campaigns focus on social policies and legal frameworks which give women the freedom to make choices
• Liberal Feminists


  • They believe feminists should mainly focus on campaigning for social policies which promote equality in the workplace and other areas of the public sphere
  • Greater equality within the family can be achieved through empowering women in politics and work
• Increased choice for women and the rise of the dual-earner household have helped create greater equality within relationships
• Many young women feel a sense of grievance about inequalities in their domestic lives but do not entirely support the feminist movement
• Social policies to help working parents

  • Encouraging employers to have more flexible working hours
  • Allowing mothers and fathers more freedom to choose work days and times
  • Policies encouraging equal sharing of maternity and paternity leave
  • Policies providing more free childcare for younger children
• Flexible working arrangements

  Lead to men doing a more fair share of housework
• Dual-earner households are the norm in 2022
• Shift to working from home during the pandemic resulted in women doing a greater share of domestic work
• Feminists argue that the family is patriarchal, with men having power over women.
• Criticism of Liberal Feminism: 100 years of gradual reform and women still do more housework statistically speaking.