Feminism Flashcards
(13 cards)
What type of theory is feminism ?
Feminism is a conflict theory, it believes that the structure of society moulds and shapes the individual person.
What are the types of feminists?
-Liberal feminists
-radical feminists
-Marxist feminists
-difference feminists
What were the waves of feminism?
-first wave (19 century): first political movement, women fought for the right to vote and many died fighting.
-second wave (1960’s-1980’s): traditional gender and family roles began to be questioned.
-third wave (1990’s): women had more right, it was the era of reclaiming their identity.
-fourth wave (present day)- MeToo movement and social media has a big impact.
What do liberal feminists believe?
The enlightenment project (period in which science is providing the truth rather than religion) results in a better understanding of women’s oppression and results in improvements. They argue equality can be achieved through REFORM & LEGISLATION. for example legislations that improved women positions are:
-marital rape act (1969)
-equal pay act
-divorce act
What does Oakley believe about women’s inequality ?
Women’s inequality arises from society’s culture and values. They generate a lack of equal opportunity for women and keep women in a subordinate position to men. And equality can be achieved through a gradual process to reform.
What are some evaluations of liberal feminists?
-liberal feminists ignore the significance of deep rooted structures causing women’s oppression such as patriarchy and capitalism
-liberal feminists are over optimistic they see the obstacles of inequality as simply the prejudices of individuals or irrational laws that can be gradually reformed.
What do radical feminists believe ?
Society is patriarchal this refers to the systematic, institutionalised and universal process of gender oppression. MILLET described patriarchy as a system that runs through all political and social structures and it’s found in every society, it’s a system of oppression where half the population which is men controls the other half which is women.
What do radical feminists say about men?
Men are the enemy. Radical feminists look at violence and sexuality and argue that sexuality is socially constructed by men to suit their own desires. Men make women their ‘playthings’ and so are seen as sexual objects. BROWNMILLER argued men dominate women through the process of physical and sexual abuse, and argues men rape women because they can, as they have the biological capacity to do so.
What do radical feminists say about revolutionary change?
Radical feminists offer a number of solutions to the oppression that women experience:
-sexual revolution, in which women develop of a common consciousness and overthrow patriarchy.
-separatism, women should live away from men and create a culture of female independence.
-lesbianism, heterosexual relationships are ‘sleeping with the enemy’
What does Walby argue?
Women are kept in a subordinate position through six structures for example:
-the household: soluble burden/ triple shift
-cultural institutions: religion media and education reinforce patriarchy
What are some evaluations of radical feminists?
-radical feminists assume that all women are the same and ignores differences between social class and ethnicity
-radical feminists are extreme to assume that all men are the same and therefore ‘all men are the enemy’.
What do Marxist feminists believe?
Women’s subordination is rooted in capitalism. Women’s disadvantaged position stems directly from the capitalist economy , as capitalism leads to the accumulation of wealth and so men need to have heirs to inherit that wealth and so it’s a women’s job to produce the heirs and the future labour force, which is referred as ‘reproduction of labour power’.
What does Barrett argue?
Familial ideology fits in with the capitalist system as women become domestic labourers and dependent on men. Therefore the working classes becomes divided into waged and unwaged. As well as women stay in oppressive family types as they see it as natural and normal. Meaning this ideology keeps them subordinate.
