Topic 7 - Feminism

• Feminism


  A conflict perspective which sees inequalities in society as being based on gender
• Feminism is not a unified perspective: although feminists agree on the fact that society is characterised by patriarchal ideology, they also form many different views on the causes of female oppression
• Liberal Feminism


  • Neither males nor females benefit from the gender inequalities in our society
  • Concerned with campaigning against sex discrimination and for equal rights and opportunities for women
  • Believe that sexual attitudes and stereotypical beliefs about gender are culturally constructed and transmitted through socialisation
  • Believe that changes in the law and education are the most effective ways to overcome patriarchy and believe that progress has been made
• Examples of progress made by liberal feminists


  • The Equal Pay Act means that it is now no longer legal to pay men more for doing the same job
  • The Sex Discrimination Act outlaws discrimination in employment
  • Laws against domestic violence and marital rape
  • An increase in male primary teachers
• Feminists believe that full equality can be achieved if further reforms are made
• Liberal feminists' view on the family


  They hold a 'March of Progress' view - they do not believe that there is full gender equality yet, but they do believe progress has been made
• Studies have produced evidence of gender inequality and discrimination, and legitimising the demand for reform in areas such as equal pay and employment practices
• Their work has helped show gender differences are not inborn but result from different treatment and socialisation patterns
• Other feminists criticised liberal feminists for failing to challenge the underlying causes of women's oppression and for believing that changes in the law or attitudes will be enough to bring equality
• Radical Feminism


  • Patriarchy is the source of all our discontents in society
  • Men exploit women as husbands, partners, sons, brothers etc.
  • Men are the enemy and oppress and exploit women
  • The family is a particularly exploitative institution
  • Men benefit from women's unpaid domestic labour and sexual services
  • They use domestic and sexual violence to dominate women
• Solutions/strategies for women to gain freedom according to radical feminists


  • Separation of men and women - separatism
  • Consciousness-raising - sharing experiences in women-only groups which may lead to collective action
  • Political lesbianism - all heterosexual relationships are oppressive because they involve 'sleeping with the enemy' and so lesbianism is the only non-oppressive form of sexuality
• Idea of the personal is political and reveals how intimate relationships can involve domination. Draw attention to political dimensions of areas like marriage, domestic labour, DV, rape and pornography
• Marxists say class, not patriarchy, is the primary form of inequality and that capitalism is the main cause of women's oppression – not men
• Radical feminists ignore class, ethnic etc. differences between women – assumes all are in the same position
• Anna Pollert (1996) concept of patriarchy holds little value as it's a circular argument
• Liberal feminists say that radical feminists fail to recognise that women's position has improved considerably with better access to divorce, jobs and greater lifestyle choice
• Jenny Somerville (2000) Separatism is unlikely to work, heterosexual attraction means that the conventional nuclear family is unlikely to disappear
• Marxist Feminism


  • Advocate the overthrow of capitalism as being necessary to free men and women from a position of slavery
  • Women are seen as cheap and exploitable in the labour market because constraints on childcare keep them concentrated in low paid jobs
  • Women's unpaid, domestic labour allows them to maintain the current workforce (their husbands) and reproduce and socialise the next generation
  • Women are also 'takers of shit', they absorb anger that would otherwise be vented by their husbands in the workplace
• Ideology of familism


  Presents the nuclear family and its sexual division of labour as natural and normal, helping to keep women subordinated
• Given the importance of economic production to most other areas of social life, Marxist feminists are correct to focus on the relationship between capitalism and women's subordination. They show greater understanding of the importance of structural factors than liberal feminism
• Marxist feminists fail to explain women's subordination in non-capitalist societies
• Radical feminists criticise Marxist feminists saying that they underplay the extreme oppression suffered by women and that capitalism is not to blame
• Difference Feminism


  • Do not see women as a single homogenous group
  • Argue different groups of women have very different experiences of patriarchy, capitalism, racism, homophobia etc.
  • Argue the feminist theory has claimed a 'false universality' for itself – it claimed to be all about women but in reality it was only about the experiences of white, Western, heterosexual, middle-class women – it fails to reflect the diversity of women's experiences and they exclude other women and their problems
• Poststructuralist Feminism


  • Concerned with discourses (ways of seeing, thinking or speaking about something) and the relationship between power and knowledge rather than 'politics and opportunities'
  • Argues the Enlightenment project is a type of discourse and its ideals were simply a form of power/knowledge to legitimate domination by Western, white, middle-class males
  • Women are not a single entity who all share the same 'essence'
• Sylvia Walby (1992) agrees there are differences among women, but argues that there are also important similarities – They all faced patriarchy
• Celebrating differences may have the effect of dividing women into an infinite number of sub-groups, thereby weakening feminism as a movement for change
• Lynne Segal (1999) criticises poststructuralist feminism for abandoning any notion of real, objective social structures
• Oppression is not just the result of discourse – it's about real inequality
• Feminist should therefore continue to focus on the struggle for equality of wealth and income