Feminism Flashcards
What do liberal feminists see as a barrier to women?
Traditional prejudices and stereotypes about gender differences
How do liberal feminists believe that women can achieve equality?
Through gradual reforms, e.g. Laws and policies against sex discrimination
How do liberal feminists distinguish between sex and gender?
Sex = biological differences Gender = culturally constructed differences between masculine and feminine roles
How do liberal feminists think sexist attitudes and stereotypes are constructed and transmitted?
Through socialisation
How do liberal feminists seek to change traditional stereotypes ant women?
Seek to promote appropriate role models in education and the family, e.g. female teachers or fathers performing domestic tasks
How do liberal feminists challenge Parsons?
Women are equally capable of performing roles in both spheres
What are 3 evaluation points of the liberal feminists?
1) Their work has helped demonstrate that gender differences a not inborn but the result of different treatment and socialisation patterns
2) Their theory is over optimistic, ignores deal seated structures such as patriarchy and capitalism which oppress women
3) Marxist and radical feminists argue that liberal feminists fail to identify the underlying cause of women’s subordination
What 3 claims do radical feminists make?
1) Patriarchy is universal
2) Patriarchy is the primary and most fundamental for of social inequality and conflict
3) All men oppress all women
How do radical feminists argue that patriarchy is both public and personal?
- Public because it happens in they public sphere of work and politics
- Private because it happens in the private sphere of the family, domestic labour and sexual relationships
How do radical feminists argue that patriarchy constructs sexuality so as to satisfy men’s desires?
Men force women into a narrow and unsatisfying ‘compulsory heterosexuality’, which becomes they only form of sexuality
How do radical feminists propose change?
- Lesbianism is the only non-oppressive form of sexuality
- Some advocate separatism - living apart from men and creating a new culture of female independence
- Through sharing experiences in female only consciousness, e.g. starting groups
Give 4 criticisms of radical feminism?
1) Not all women are in the same position
2) Marxist feminists argue that class is the main form of oppression, not patriarchy
3) Inadequate theory of how patriarch will be abolished
4) Neglects female violence against males
How do Marxist feminists see women’s subordinate position in capitalist society as resulting from?
Their primary role as unpaid homemaker, which places them at a dependant economic position in the family
What 4 important functions does women’s subordination perform for capitalist society?
1) Women are a source of cheap, exploitable labour
2) Women are a reserve army of labour
3) Women reproduce the labour force
4) Women absorb anger that would otherwise be directed at capitalism
Explain the ideology of familism. What do the Marxist feminists say about it?
1) It presents the nuclear family and its sexual division of labour as natural and normal
2) The family is the only place where women can attain fulfilment
3) We must overthrow the ideology of familism that underpins the conventional family and the unequal division of labour
4) This would free the sexes from restrictive stereotypes and ensure domestic labour was shared equally
