Feminism

• Feminism is the focus on gender. The UK is a patriarchal society. It is a conflict theory. The conflict is between men and women. There are different types of feminists. It is a macro theory.
• Liberal Feminists:

  • How social institutions such as the family, education and media encourage male exploitation of women
  • Men and women's behaviour is according to patriarchal culture
  • They argue that equality can be brought about through legal reform
• Radical Feminists:

  • They argue that the oppression of women is a universal feature of all human societies
  • Society is structurally and inherently biased towards men at the expense of women
  • Men show their physical, economic and cultural power to dominate in all areas especially personal relationships
  • They believe that there are no good guys
• Marxist Feminists:

  • They see women's oppression as a product of the economic position of women
  • They argue that women occupy a lower position than men in the class structure, women tend to be below the working class
  • Women are responsible for domestic labour at home, which isn't paid
  • They believe that patriarchy suits capitalism
• It is a good theory as it helps to show how unequal society is as we can see things like the gender pay gap where men are paid roughly 9.4% more than women. There is also the fact that 41% of women work part time compared to 12% of men. In the UK alone 1/3 of women will be raped or sexually assaulted.
• Beliefs against this theory could be that they are stereotyping men and don't include class, age of ethnicity in this theory. They would also say that over the years women's rights have improved a lot even though they are not yet fully equal, they still are a lot more equal than they used to be.
• Patriarchy - male domination of society and its institutions
• Exploitation - the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from them
• Oppression - prolonged unjust treatment
• Legal reform - equal pay, equal employment chances
• Conflict - disagreement