Different types of feminism

Question 1

What were some of the features of first wave feminism that made it distinctly liberal?

Answer 1

-focus on liberty- women should be free to choose their own lives
-women should enjoy equality of opportunity with men in education and professions
-equal civil rights- the law must be applied the same to all
-women should enjoy private rights, especially in relation to property
-women should be allowed the same democratic rights as men- right to vote and stand for election

Question 2

Who were the key figures of early feminism and what do they all have in common?

Answer 2

all liberal:
JS Mill
Wollstonecraft
Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Question 3

What was the problem discovered in the 60s that held women back, who discovered it and what was it nicknamed?

Answer 3

The patriarchy was preventing female liberation
It was named ‘the problem with no name’ as it involved the dominance of men as well as self assigned inferiority of women, that women themselves did not realise

Question 4

Why do liberals argue men are victims of the patriarchy?

Answer 4

They have been socially conditioned to think of themselves as superior

Question 5

What idea did liberals like Freidan and de Beauvoir place a stress on?

Answer 5

Otherness

Question 6

What did Charlotte Perkins Gilman attack in her writing?

Answer 6

attacked those who suggested that Darwin’s theory could be used to justify male domination in society

Question 7

What is Darwin’s theory and how did it justify male domination?

Answer 7

Survival of the fittest, suggested it was biologically inevitable that men should be the dominant sex because they were more suited to compete in nature and not being tied down t rear children.

Question 8

Why did Charlotte Perkins Gilman argue Darwin’s theory applied to male domination was no longer valid?

Answer 8

The nature of economic activity had changed so much and there is no reason why women cannot play an equal role as men in modern economies. Biological differences were now irrelevant and women have equal brain power to men

Question 9

How did Charlotte Perkins Gilman think that women should be liberated?

Answer 9

the key lay in equality of opportunity and therefore a full place in the world of employment

Question 10

What did Gilman understand that made her ahead of her time?

Answer 10

Woman’s confinement to the role in the home was culturally, not biologically determined as girls were socialised from an early age

Question 11

What is Gilman’s quote in her book Women and Economics?

Answer 11

The labor of women in the house, certainly, enables men to produce more wealth than they otherwise could; and in this way women are economic factors in society. But so are horses.’

Question 12

What did Gilman think about family reform?

Answer 12

She believed child rearing and housework was domestic slavery and so she campaigned for the destruction of the traditional nuclear family and argues for replacement by forms of communal living, where housework is shared equally among men and women

Question 13

What do liberal feminists place an emphasis on which means they refuse to insist all women should compete with men for superior roles in society?

Answer 13

All liberals accept a women’s right to choose whether they take up traditional household roles, or whether they enter a world historically dominated by men

Question 14

What are the three main forms of action to combat patriarchy according to liberals?

Answer 14

-opportunities for women to choose had to be opened up by ending discrimination and inequality. This is often termed as gender equality
-cultural attitudes which reinforce women’s inferiority had to be combatted. This was done through education and propaganda
-women had to achieve formal equality in all fields through legislation- there must be political and legal equality

Question 15

Arguments that liberal feminism doesn’t understand the true nature of patriarchy…

Answer 15

-mainly white, middle class women and doesn’t consider intersectionality
-in supporting capitalism, they don’t understand how it oppresses women
-underestimate the importance of the personal is political as sexual relationships are power relationships

Question 16

Arguments that liberal feminism do understand the true nature of patriarchy…

Answer 16

-they understand formal inequality is not the only problem, but the cultural nature of patriarchy is key
-by achieving legal or formal equality, patriarchy will decline they believe as men no longer hold dominant positions in society
-Women now have a more developed understanding of patriarchy and are now more able to combat it

Question 17

What are the common characteristics of radical feminism?

Answer 17

-destruction of patriarchal society and its transformation into a new form
-revolutionary thinkers
-mostly difference feminists and look to celebrate differences

Question 18

What are the things that separate radical feminists?

Answer 18

How they analyze patriarchal society and how they go about defeating it

Question 19

What did Kate Millet argue about family life and the breadth of oppression?

Answer 19

In marriage women are exploited sexually and economically- this became a common theme among radical feminism. Her book states men oppress women in all fields: in the home, in the economy and life in general. Their domination is political in nature because it involves the exercise of power

Question 20

What term did Millet popularize?

Answer 20

Male chauvinism
The tendency for men to exercise and celebrate their power over women

Question 21

What was Millet’s book called?

Answer 21

Sexual politics

Question 22

What does Germaine Greer argue?

Answer 22

men actually hate women and that is why they oppress them. Women have also been taught to hate themselves and so willingly subject themselves to an inferior position. Women must understand, and then get rid of the stigma of inferiority imposed by men

Question 23

What did Firestone argue?

Answer 23

origins of the gender struggle lay in biological difference and traditional ideas they should be at home. Patriarchy exists because it has always existed and it has always existed because women are constrained by childbirth, destined to ever by enslaved by men

Question 24

What did Andrea Dworkin believe?

Answer 24

She campaigned against sexual oppression and in particular saw porn as an example of men’s views of women as little more than sex objects. The only way for this to be combatted was for them to form themselves into lesbian communities

Question 25

Who are some of the key figures in radical feminism?

Answer 25

Millet, Greer, Firestone, Dworkin

Question 26

Why was Millet’s perception of patriarchy a dual one?

Answer 26

She saw dominance of men in terms of sexism - superiority of men- and heterosexualism - the idea heterosexual relationships were superior to gay relationships

Question 27

What does Millet think about the personal is political?

Answer 27

it is necessary for women to find sexual liberation first if they are to achieve liberation in life in general. All heterosexual relationships are effectively political in a patriarchal society because they involve men exercising power over women. The patriarchy is highly political in nature

Question 28

How does Millet think we can move towards a path of personal liberation?

Answer 28

Women who are able to accept their lesbianism or are able to convert to that form of sexuality place themselves on the road to personal liberation. (although this is highly controversial)

Question 29

Other than radical feminism, what do Millett, Greer and Firestone all have in common?

Answer 29

They have a common stress on the importance of the female consciousness of patriarchy. Women’s consciousness of their own inferiority stems partly from their biological role, which appears to be second of that to men. Furthermore, patriarchy consciously destroys any ideas of potential liberation among women

Question 30

What does radical feminist Zillah Einstein say about the patriarchy and the limited horizons of liberal feminists?

Answer 30

Patriarchy, as a system of oppression, recognises the potential power of women and the actual power of men. Its purpose is to destroy female consciousness about her potential power, which derives from the necessity of society to reproduce itself

Question 31

What are three of the different radical responses to patriarchy?

Answer 31

-the abolition of the nuclear family and replacement by communal forms of living
-Sexual liberation is notably important, especially to Greer. By escaping the limitations of male-female relationships, women can free themselves from male domination and cease to hate themselves
-the elimination of biological roles is perhaps the most radical response. Firestone celebrates the potential of modern bio-technology to free women from their biological enslavement in a state of androgyny

Question 32

What is cultural feminism?

Answer 32

branch of the radical movement who accept there are some natural gender differences between men and women. Some suggests female characteristics are actually superior to men and so such differences should be embraced rather than opposed. They believe females would make the world a better place and accept that women are more likely to be more suited to domestic roles, but value them as highly, than roles traditionally played by men

Question 33

What do Marxist feminists believe?

Answer 33

The look to the work of Engels to see that women have always been derived of private property and women have become a vital source of available, low paid labour in the system of capitalism. They criticise Engels for overstressing the importance of property as women increasingly own property, yet their oppression hasn’t ceased

Question 34

What do Marxist feminists feel need to be destroyed as a pre-condition of liberation and what can this be changed to?

Answer 34

capitalism to socialism- the state ownership of industry will eliminate the need for women to compete against men for employment

Question 35

What do less extreme socialist feminists argue?

Answer 35

They argue both class and patriarchy are sources of oppression and so they tend to focus on working class women

Question 36

Where does socialist thinker Rowbotham believe oppression stems from?

Answer 36

has economic roots, but also stems from the traditional nature of the nuclear family and the cultural domination of male sexuality

Question 37

What does postmodernism mean?

Answer 37

In a modern complex world we should reject all encompassing theories about society and we must now view each issue within its context

Question 38

What does post modern mean when applied to gender?

Answer 38

rejecting fixed ideas of various theorists and seeing the position of women as a complex problem with many competing explanations/solutions

Question 39

What do post modern feminists propose about how women should live?

Answer 39

Women must be given the freedom to make choices for themselves. For some, this may include choosing a traditional female role, while for others it may mean competing with men. Each women has their own experience of life and therefore must liberate themselves in their own way

Question 40

What are some of the themes of third wave feminism?

Answer 40

intersectionality
reject essentialism
women should be looking to take a more leading role in society as liberal goals have been achieved and we need to seek a new feminist identity