Feminist Perspective
- Created by: theshyone
- Created on: 07-04-18 12:17
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- Feminism
- Liberal or reformist Feminism
- both men and women should have the same rights.
- reformism is idea that progress towards equal rights can be achieved by gradual reforms or piecemeal changes in society without the need for a revolution.
- laws and policies - liberal feminists believe women can achieve gender equality in this way.
- sex discrimination
- Cultural Change - traditional prejudices and stereotypes about gender differences are a barrier to equality.
- laws and policies - liberal feminists believe women can achieve gender equality in this way.
- Sex and Gender
- Oakley - Sex - biological differences between males and females like reproductive role.
- Gender - refers to culturally constructed differences between 'masculine' and 'feminine' roles and identities assigned to males and females.
- Changes in socialisation and culture - leading to more rational attitudes to gender and overcoming ignorance.
- Political action to introduce anti-discriminatory laws and policies - bringing process to fairer society
- Oakley - Sex - biological differences between males and females like reproductive role.
- promote appropriate role models in education and the family- fathers taking responsibility for domestic tasks.
- Challenge gender stereotyping in the media. Overtime, actions will produce cultural change and gender equality will become the norm.
- Evaluation
- over- optimism. ignore the possibility that there are deep seated structures causing womens oppression.
- naive to believe that laws and attitudes will be enough to bring equality - Marx and Radical Feminists.
- Radical Feminism
- See: patriarchy as universal. Patriarchy is the primary and most fundamental form of inequality and conflict. All men oppress women from unpaid domestic work and their sexual services.
- The personal is political
- appears not only at work and politics but also at home.
- patriarchy personal and direct
- personal relationships are political. see the personal as political. Men dominate women.
- sexual or physical violence or the threat of it.
- fear of **** powerful deterrent against women going out alone at night. (Brownmiller)
- One evaluation against them is that the desire and attraction towards men - but they say it is constructed to fulfill men's desires.
- appears not only at work and politics but also at home.
- Change
- Separatism - living apart from men, independent and free from patriachy.
- Consciousness-raising - more awareness, women are seeing that others are going through the same. Collective action like 'SlutWalks.'
- Political Lesbianism - heteosexual relationships involve 'sleeping with the enemy.'
- Evaluation
- Marxists see that class and patriarchy is the primary reason for inequality
- they offer no explanation of why female subordination takes different forms in different societies.
- Somerville attraction makes it unlikely that separatism will be achievable.
- Marxist Feminism
- see women's depression rooted into capitalism.
- subordination performs a number of important functions for capitalism
- 1. source of cheap, exploitive labour - paid less assumed dependent on man's earnings.
- 2. reserve of army of labour - moved into labour force during economic booms and out again at times of recession.
- 3. reproduce the labour force - socialisation and nurturing
- Women absorb anger - 'takers of ****' Ansley
- Barrett: ideology of familism
- need more emphasis on women's consciousness and motivations and to the role of ideology in maintaining their oppression.
- ideology represents the nuclear family and its division as natural and normal - that's why they choose to live in it.
- Only place women can achieve fullfillment
- She argues that overthrowing Capitalism is necessary for women liberation, it's not sufficient.
- must overthrow the ideology.
- Evaluation
- fails to explain women's oppression in non-capitalist societies.
- unpaid domestic labour benefits capitalism but why do women have to perform it and not men?
- Different Feminism and Poststructuralism
- All women have different experiences with patriarchy, racism, capitalism, homophobia and so on
- feminists theory has claimed a 'false universality' claimed to be all about women but was actually about the experiences of individuals
- problem with essentialism
- It's the idea that all women share the same fundamental 'essence'
- Marxist, Liberal and Radical feminists are 'essentialists' only see women as having the same experiences - ignores the diversity.
- It's the idea that all women share the same fundamental 'essence'
- Post structuralist feminism
- Butler concerned with discourses and power/knowledge
- world made up of many, often competing, discourses like religious, scientific, medical and artistic.
- Knowledge is power - the power to define or 'constitute' the identities of others.
- Butler concerned with discourses and power/knowledge
- Evaluation
- Walby - differences among women, argues that there are also important similarities- faced with patriarchy.
- celebrating differences may have an effect of dividing women into an infinite number of sub-groups, thereby weakening feminism as a movement for change.
- Liberal or reformist Feminism
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