Feminism

• Charlotte Perkins-Gilman


  Socialist Feminist
• Gilman's key ideas


  • Sex and the capitalist economy were interlinked
  • Women were reliant on their sexual assets to gratify their husbands, who in turn would support them financially
  • Gilman viewed marriage as comparable with prostitution, 'the transient trade we think evil. The bargain for life we think good.'
• Gilman's views on gender roles


  • Gender roles are socially constructed from a young age
  • Gilman berated the misery of women's private lives and the exploitative nature of domestic roles
  • Societal pressure forced young girls to conform to motherhood with gender specific clothes and toys
  • Gilman argued in favour of gender neutral clothes and toys
• Gilman's views on communal living

  • She was a proponent of communal living, which would undermine the capitalist patriarchal family structure and more evenly distribute child-care responsibilities
• Gilman's views on false consciousness


  • She wished to reverse false consciousness so women could no longer see themselves as naturally frailer and weaker than men
• Gilman's views on economic independence for women


  • She sought economic independence for women and advocated centralised nurseries and co-operative kitchens to give women freedom and autonomy
• Gilman's ideas were co-opted by socialist feminism
• Gilman believed that capitalism's exploitative qualities reinforced patriarchy and that socialism would gradually succeed, allowing women and men to coexist in egalitarian society and economy
• • Women are equal to men and biological differences are largely irrelevant; however she did accept that there were innate female qualities whilst also believing in the societal conditioning of gender roles
  • Women have historically been assigned inferior roles in society
  • Men dominate the economy because societal norms obligate women to a domestic role
  • Argued that economic independence was a fundamental part of female emancipation and that there must be equality of opportunity within the workplace
• Femininity


  An artificial societal construct
• Biological differences between men and women

  Used by a male-dominated state and society as a justification for predetermining the gender roles of women
• Otherness


  Imposed on women by men
• Male domination


  Men are the 'first sex' whereas women are the 'second sex', leaving women subordinate to men
• Simone De Beauvoir: '"One is not born but rather becomes a woman"'
• Women's bodies


  Condemn them to 'live forever on their knees'
• Simone De Beauvoir's arguments

  • Contraceptives, abortion, rejection of the family and monogamy would allow women to compete with men in society
  • Consumptive materialism (the idea that society has become addicted to purchasing consumer goods) inherent within capitalism had weakened women's position in society
• Liberal Feminism


  Femininity is an artificial societal construct, and women have been dominated in part because of their bodies
• Simone de beauvoir

  • Gender differences are not natural but the creation of men
  • The state reinforces a male-dominated culture that limits women's authority and freedom
  • Societal norms restrain both men and women from achieving self- realisation and true freedom of expression
  • Men dominate economic life which limits the life choices open to women
• Sheila Rowbotham


  Socialist Feminist
• Sheila Rowbotham was influenced by

  Marx and Engels
• Capitalism worsened the oppression of women


  Forcing them to sell their labour to survive in the workplace and to cede their labour to the family home
• The family


  • Subjects and disciplines women to the demands of capitalism
  • Offers a place of refuge for men from the alienation of capitalism
• Rowbotham concluded that women have always been oppressed and that a revolution was needed to destroy both capitalism and patriarchy
• Marriage


  Like feudalism with women akin to serfs paying feudal dues to their husbands
• • Female consciousness is socially constructed by men
  • The state facilitates capitalism which in turn oppresses women
  • Capitalist society reinforced the dominance of establishment males to the detriment of women
  • Women's main role in the economy is to provide a reserve army of labour
• Kate Millet (Radical Feminist)


  Key ideas
• Family unit


  • Foundation of patriarchal thought
  • Children socialised into gender roles perceived as normal
  • Women lose identity by taking husbands' surnames
• Millett's proposed solutions to patriarchy


  Dismantling of the family unit for communal living and child rearing
• Patriarchy


  Granted men ownership over their wife and children, entrenching sexism with the idea of male superiority
• Family


  • Socialised the young into recognising masculine authority and female marginalisation within society
• Patriarchy reinforced heterosexualism as superior to bisexual or same-sex relationships
• Women's gender roles were stereotyped in art and literature
• Millett


  • Credited with the first analysis of patriarchy and popularising it within radical feminism
  • Defined patriarchy as the 'rule of men' in both the private and public spheres of society
• Millett perceived social construction as beginning in childhood within the family unit, meaning that gender roles are neither natural or inevitable
• Millett's focus


  • Patriarchy in culture, specifically on family art and literature
  • Change in social consciousness, a revolution in the head, whereby patriarchy would eliminated from people's minds so that there was gender equality in the home, the workplace and within culture
• • Women are oppressed by men and should free themselves by engaging in lesbian relationships
  • The state facilitates patriarchy
  • Society is patriarchal in both the public and private spheres
  • Loosely resembles socialism but is peripheral to her feminism
• bell hooks


  Intersectionalist / Postmodern Feminist
• Key ideas of bell hooks

  • Broadened the feminist debate as it was too focused on middle and upper class, college-educated white women
  • Focused on women of colour and all social classes
• Intersectionality


  A term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw which challenged the feminist assumption that gender was the most important factor in determining a woman's life experiences, and women have multiple, overlapping identities that affect their experiences as well as experiences of discrimination
• bell hooks: 'uses the term "imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy" to represent the intersectionality of these systems'