WMST Chapter 5

Question 1

Confirmation Bias

Answer 1

The phenomenon whereby a few cases of the expected behaviour confirm a belief or theory, especially when the behavior is attention-getting or widely reported.

Question 2

Consciousness-raising

Answer 2

A technique of analysis pioneered by North American feminists and Latin American political activists, that political issues through small group discussion of everyday issues and experiences.

Question 3

Difference Feminism

Answer 3

Focuses on the differences between men and women, calling for a valuation of women’s distinct traits and abilities. In some cases, focusing on separation from the work and values of men.

Question 4

Ecofeminism

Answer 4

Theories and activism linking feminism with environmental concerns. Male domination and environmental degredation are seen as related.

Question 5

Essential Feminism

Answer 5

Same as difference feminism.

Question 6

First-wave Feminism

Answer 6

A social movement that lasted from 1850 to the end of WWI. Emphasized women’s legal status and, eventually, suffrage, taking on many social issues.

Question 7

Gender Divisions

Answer 7

According to Jean Acker, the ways in which “ordinary organizational practices produce the gender patterning of jobs, wages, and hierarchies, power and subordination”.

Question 8

Gender Images

Answer 8

According to Joan Acker, symbols and images that “explain, express, reinforce, or sometimes oppose gender divisions.’ For example: symbols of workers in a specific industry reinforce the view that only that gender can perform such work.

Question 9

Identity Politics

Answer 9

Politics based on the interests and identities of groups as distinctive.

Question 10

Institutions

Answer 10

Structures governing the behaviour of individuals and ensuring society’s smooth functioning.

Question 11

Intersectionality

Answer 11

The analysis of intersecting or multiple identities and forms of discrimination. No one form can be understood as operating independently from other forms of discrimination.

Question 12

Lesbian Feminism

Answer 12

A social movement within 1970s feminism that contributed a critique of heterosexuality as an institution and, in some cases advocated lesbianism or separatism as a political option.

Question 13

Liberal Feminism

Answer 13

A from of feminism that that focuses on legal remedies for inequality between men and women and creating the most gender neutral society possible.

Question 14

Maternalist

Answer 14

Celebrating mothering as a source of prestige and dignity, and as an argument and basis for women’s participation in society and politics.

Question 15

Marxist Feminisms

Answer 15

Marxist feminists who tend to view the eradication of capitalism as the way to create gender equality.

Question 16

Men’s Movement

Answer 16

Movements of men seeking changes, emerging in the 1970s. Split in several directions in the 1990s, and now includes both pro-feminist and anti-feminist groups.

Question 17

Men’s Liberation Movement

Answer 17

A 1970s movement, sympathetic to feminism, that criticized the restrictions and burdens of the male sex role.

Question 18

Men’s Rights Movement

Answer 18

A movement that split from the men’s liberation movement in the 1970, becoming focused on alleged discrimination against men in a variety of areas, including child custody and post divorce financial support.

Question 19

Men’s Studies

Answer 19

An interdisciplinary academic field dedicated to the study of masculinities, men’s lives, gender and feminism.

Question 20

Mid-life Crisis

Answer 20

A developmental “crisis” characterized by a pressure to make wholesale changes in work, relationships and leisure.

Question 21

Multiracial Feminism

Answer 21

Feminism that emerged in the 1970s a part of a critique of racism and Eurocentrism within the 2nd wave feminism movement.

Question 22

Mythopoetic/New Man’s Movement

Answer 22

A segment of the men’s movement that focuses on reclaiming archetypal and mythical forms of masculinity through poetry, literature and ritual.

Question 23

Narrative Coherence

Answer 23

In the simplest terms a story that hangs together. The making of stories is fundamental to human cognitive processes.

Question 24

Organizational Gender Neutrality

Answer 24

The vehicle by which the gender order is reproduced. . Joan Acker: this covers up, obscures, the underlying gender structure, allowing practices that perpetuate it to continue even as efforts to reduce gender inequality are also underway.

Question 25

Post-colonial Feminism

Answer 25

A form of feminism, closely associated with women of the “Third World,” that offers a critique of Western feminism’s universalizing tendencies and then analyzes colonialism, racism, and global capitalism in relation to the status of women.

Question 26

Post-feminism

Answer 26

Emphasizes the following:

• a belief that feminism has achieved its goals
• a view that feminism is irrelevant or insufficiently intersectional
• a refusal to identify with feminism while accepting many of its beliefs
• hostility towards feminism

Question 27

Post-modern Feminism

Answer 27

Feminism that draws upon literary and linguistic theory to argue that reality is constructed, primarily through language, and that sex itself has no stable character. Influential in scholarship but not in action.

Question 28

Primary Sex Characteristics

Answer 28

Sex characteristics present at birth.

Question 29

Pro-feminist

Answer 29

Supporting feminism without considering oneself a feminist or a member of the feminist movement. Generally used by men.

Question 30

Queer Theory

Answer 30

• Developed in 1990
• Draws on feminism and LGBTQ activism
• Moves beyond notions of gender, sex, and sexuality
• Focuses on the unstable/multiple nature of gender and sexuality

Question 31

Radical Feminism

Answer 31

A form of feminism that sees women’s unequal status as rooted in patriarchy and particularly in its control over the bodies and sexuality of women.

Question 32

Riot Grrrl Movement

Answer 32

A cultural movement of the 1990s based on punk /alternative music and consciously feminist politics.. Names: Ani diFresco, Bikini Kill, and Sleater Kinney

Question 33

Secondary Sex Characteristics

Answer 33

Sex characteristics that develop at puberty and are less distinctive than primary .

Question 34

Second-wave Feminism

Answer 34

A social movement and body of theory that developed after WWII, particularly in Western societies in the 1960s. Its greatest impact can be traced back to the 1970s, were varieties emerged.

Question 35

Sociology

Answer 35

A discipline within the social sciences that studies social structures and relations, described by C. Wright Mills as “the intersection of biography and history”

Question 36

Symmetry in Oppression

Answer 36

The idea that the system of domination oppresses both the dominant and the dominated group, only in different ways.

Question 37

Third-wave Feminism

Answer 37

A form of feminist theory and activism that emerged in 1990. Critiques what is sees as the universalizing tendencies of 2nd wave feminism and incorporates the insights of post-modern, post-colonial and multicultural femininities. “Positive view of sexuality.”

Question 38

Transfeminism

Answer 38

The combination of feminism with trans political commitments.

Question 39

Transmen

Answer 39

Female to male trans people.

Question 40

Transwomen

Answer 40

Male to female transwoman.

Question 41

Women Movement

Answer 41

A term for the 1st wave feminist movement.

Question 42

Women of Colour

Answer 42

Non-white women; often includes all women of non- European extraction.

Question 43

Women’s Liberation Movement

Answer 43

2nd wave feminist activism in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in the US and UK.