FEMINISM

Question 1

What is Feminist Theory?

Answer 1

• sees society as male dominated and seeks to change women’s position in society.
• roots can be tracked down to 18th century enlightenment
• criticise mainstream sociology for being ‘malestream’ seeing society only from a male perspective
• they examine society from the viewpoint of women

Question 2

What is Liberal/Reformist Feminism?

Answer 2

• concerned with human and civil rights and freedoms of the individual
• believe all humans should have equal rights and freedoms
• believes progress can be achieved by gradual reforms and changes in society
• they believe equality can be achieved through laws and policies and cultural change
• traditional prejudices and stereotypes are a barrier to equality
• biological differences don’t make women less competent or rational than men.

Question 3

What is Ann Oakley’s Theory of Sex and Gender?

Answer 3

• sex refers to biological differences between males and females
• gender refers to culturally constructed differences between the masculine and feminine roles and identities assigned to males and females. includes ideas that cultures hold about the abilities of males and females which are transmitted through socialisation.

Question 4

How can Gender Equality be achieved according to Liberal Feminists?

Answer 4

sexist attitudes and stereotypical beliefs about gender are culturally constructed and transmitted through socialisation. to achieve gender equality we must change the socialisation patterns. hence they promote appropriate role models in education and the family and they challenge gender stereotyping in the media. they believe over time this will produce gradual change and gender equality will become a norm.

Question 5

How is Liberal Feminism an Optimistic Theory?

Answer 5

they believe:
- changes in socialisation and culture are gradually leading to more rational attitudes to gender and overcoming prejudice
- political action to introduce anti-discriminatory laws and policies is bringing progress

Question 6

How is Liberal Feminism a Critique of Functionalist view of Gender

Answer 6

• functionalists distinguish between instrumental and expressive roles. instrumental roles are performed in the public sphere of paid work, politics, and decision making whereas expressive roles are performed in the private sphere of unpaid domestic labour
• according to Parson instrumental roles are the domain of men and expressive roles are the domain of women
• liberal feminism argues both men and women are capable of performing roles in both spheres and that traditional roles are preventing men and women from leading full filling lives
• despite this criticism, liberal feminism is close to the consensus view of society. achieving gender equality will benefit both men and women

Question 7

Evaluation of Liberal Feminism?

Answer 7

• studies conducted by liberal feminists have produced evidence documenting the extent of gender inequality and discrimination and legitimising the demand for reform in areas such as equal pay and employment, media representation etc.
• however they are criticised for over optimism as they see obstacles to emancipation as solely prejudices of individuals or irrational laws that can be gradually reformed. they ignore the possibility that there are deep structures causing women’s oppression such as capitalism or patriarchy.
• Sylvia Walby argues that they offer no explanation for the overall structure of gender inequality
• marxist and radical feminists argue that liberal feminism fails to recognize the underlying causes of women’s subordination and that it is naive to believe that changes in society and law will be enough to bring equality.

Question 8

What is Radical Feminism?

Answer 8

• patriarchy is universal and make domination of women exists in all societies
• according to Firestone the origins of patriarchy lie in women’s biological capacity to bear and care for children
• patriarchy is the primary and most fundamental form of inequality and conflict
• all men oppress all women and all men benefit from patriarchy, especially from women’s unpaid domestic labour and sexual services

Question 9

What does ‘The Personal is Political’ mean?

Answer 9

• patriarchal oppression is direct and personal
• it occurs in the public sphere of work and politics as well as the private sphere of family, domestic labour, and sexual relationships
• all relationships involve power and are political when one dominates the other, referred to as sexual politics
• focus on the ways in which patriarchy is exercised through personal relationships often through sexual or physical violence.
• this controls women through fear
• they also argue that patriarchy constructs sexuality so as to satisfy men’s biological urge

Question 10

How can women become free of patriarchy and oppression according to radical feminists?

Answer 10

• women should live separately from men, separatism
• consciousness raising through sharing experiences
• political lesbianism; heterosexual relationships are oppressive because of involving sleeping with the enemy

Question 11

What is the evaluation of Radical Feminism?

Answer 11

• marxists assert that class and not patriarchy is the primary form of inequality and capitalism is the main cause of women’s oppression
• offers no explanation to why female subordination takes different forms in different societies.
• it assumes that all women are in the same position and ignores class and ethnic differences between women
• Pollert argues that the concept of patriarchy is of little value because it involves a circular argument. eg. male violence is explained as patriarchy while patriarchy is seen as maintained by male violence
• radical feminism has an adequate theory of how patriarchy will be abolished. critics argue that vague utopian nations of separatism are unlikely to be achievable
• patriarchy may already be in decline. liberal feminists argue that women are in a better position in the recent years as a result of social reforms and changing attitudes
• neglects female violence against males

Question 12

What is Marxist Feminism?

Answer 12

• women’s subordination is rooted in capitalism, a result of their unpaid domestic jobs
• this places them in a dependent economic position in the family

Question 13

What does the subordination of women perform for capitalism?

Answer 13

• women are a source of cheap and exploitable labour for employers. they are payed less due to the assumption that they are partially dependent on their husband
• women are a reserve army of labour that can be moved into the labour force during economic crisis or booms and out again at times of recession
• women reproduce the labour of force through their unpaid domestic labour both by nurturing and socialising children to become the next generation of workers
• women absorb anger that would otherwise be directed to capitalism. they soak up the frustration of their husbands. this also explain male domestic violence

Question 14

What is Barrett’s ideology of Familism?

Answer 14

• argues that we must give give more emphasis on women’s consciousness and motivations and to the role of ideology in maintaining their oppression
• the ideology of familism presents the nuclear family and its sexual division of labour as natural and normal. family is presented as the only place a woman can be fulfilled through intimacy, motherhood, and sexual satisfaction
• barrett argues overthrowing capitalism isn’t enough to securing women’s liberation. the ideology of familism should be overthrown to free the sexes from restrictive stereotypes and ensure domestic labour is shared equally

Question 15

Evaluation of Marxist feminism?

Answer 15

• they show a greater understanding of the importance of structural factors than liberal feminism
• however fails to explain women’s subordination in non capitalist societies
• unpaid domestic labour may benefit capitalism but doesn’t explain why it is women and not men that perform it
• places insufficient emphasis on the ways in which men and not just capitalism oppress women and benefit from their unpaid labour
• it hasn’t been proved that unpaid domestic labour is the cheapest way of reproducing labour power. eg. it might be done more cheaply through the market

Question 16

What is dual system feminism?

Answer 16

combines the key features of marxist and radical feminism; capitalism and patriarchy: Patriarchal Capitalism

Question 17

What is Patriarchal Capitalism?

Answer 17

• Hartmann sees capitalism and patriarchy as intertwined systems that form a single entity
• to understand the subordination of women we must look at the relationships between their position in both the domestic labour and paid work
• eg. domestic labour limits women’s availability for paid work, but the lack of work opportunities drives many women into a marriage dependent on a man
• Walby argues the interests of capitalism and patriarchy are not always the same. they collide over the exploitation of female labour. whilst capitalism demands cheap female labour, patriarchy wants to keep women in the domestic sphere
• as a result women are only allowed in low status jobs
• Pollet argues that patriarchy is not a system in the same sense as capitalism driven by its own dynamic of profit making.

Question 18

What is Difference Feminism?

Answer 18

• they do not see women as a single homogenous group and argue that middle class and working class women, white women and black women, have very different experiences of patriarchy and capitalism
• for example, by seeing the family only as a source of oppression, white feminists have neglected black women’s racial oppression

Question 19

What is the problem of Essentialism?

Answer 19

• idea that all women share the same fundamental essence - they are all the same and share the same experiences of oppression
• difference feminists argue that liberal radical and marxist feminists are essentialists. as a result they fail to reflect the diversity of women’s experiences and exclude women

Question 20

What is Poststructuralist Feminist Theory’s Enlightenment Project?

Answer 20

• Butler argues that enlightenment ideas were simply a form of power/knowledge that legitimated domination western white middle class men
• they excluded women and other oppressed groups
• white western middle class women who have dominated the feminist movement have falsely claimed to represent universal womanhood
• there is no fixed essence of what it is to be a woman because our identities are constituted through discourses in different times and cultures
• eg. religious discourse is more common in some parts of the world

Question 21

What is Butler’s View?

Answer 21

• postructuralism offers advantages for feminism by enabling feminists to de construct different discourses to reveal how they subordinate women
• such as religion, media, science etc
• different discourses give rise to different forms of oppression and thus different identities and experiences for women
• therefore by rejecting essentialism and stressing the view of diversity of discourses, postructuralism recognises and legitimises the diversity of women’s struggles.

Question 22

Evaluation of Postructuralist Feminism

Answer 22

• Walby argues there are differences between women but also important similarities such as patriarchy
• celebrating difference may divide women into groups and weaken the movement of feminism
• Segal argues they neglect any notion of real and objective social structures