feminism - economy Flashcards
(4 cards)
Paragraph One Agreement That The Economy Upholds Gender Inequality And Womenʼs Oppression
Agreement on the Economy and Gender Inequality
Feminists broadly agree that the current economy upholds gender inequality and women’s oppression, largely through socialisation that enforces traditional gender roles.
De Beauvoir argued society “turns girls into women” by teaching passivity, nurturing, and subservience, confining women to motherhood and domesticity rather than broader roles like politics or technology.
Liberal Feminists focus on fighting economic discrimination through reforms—promoting equal access to education and pay so women can access the same jobs as men.
Wollstonecraft stressed that unequal education limited women’s development and economic participation, advocating for equal opportunities to enable women’s independence and societal contribution.
Socialist Feminists and Radical Feminists highlight unpaid domestic labour as central to women’s oppression.
Gilman explained capitalism forces women into marriage as a socio-economic contract trading domestic labor and reproductive roles for survival and support.
Walby identified the household and paid work as key patriarchal structures, where women’s unpaid labor undervalues their contribution and enforces economic dependence on men. Women face barriers to well-paid, secure jobs, reinforcing inequality.
Both Radical and Socialist feminists call for fundamental societal transformations:
Redefining family structures (accepting non-heteronormative families)
Redistributing domestic and child-rearing roles equitably
Ending traditional marriage and the nuclear family, which Millett called “patriarchy’s chief institution,” writing:
“The complete destruction of traditional marriage and the nuclear family is the ‘revolutionary or utopian’ goal of feminism.”
Rowbotham advocated for social services like childcare and community kitchens to reduce women’s domestic burden, enabling full participation in workforce and politics.
Paragraph Two Disagreement Over The Importance Of Abolishing Capitalism To Achieving Gender Equality
Disagreement Over Abolishing Capitalism to Achieve Gender Equality
A major feminist disagreement centers on whether abolishing capitalism is essential for ending women’s oppression.
Socialist Feminists argue capitalism and women’s oppression are inseparable. Women’s unpaid domestic labour reproduces the workforce but is unrecognized and undervalued, making them economically dependent on men and confined to the private sphere.
The family serves as a refuge for men from capitalist alienation, reinforcing male power and traditional gender roles. Women also form a “reserve army of labour,” filling low-paid, insecure jobs, which keeps wages low overall.
Rowbotham highlighted women’s dual oppression under capitalism—both in paid insecure jobs and unpaid domestic work. Early Socialist Feminists believed a socialist revolution was necessary to abolish capitalism, collectivize domestic labour, and fundamentally transform gender relations, including abolishing traditional gender roles and private property.
Later Socialist Feminists, including Rowbotham, emphasized a “revolution within a revolution,” combining economic restructuring with social change to eradicate gender oppression.
Liberal Feminists reject the need to abolish capitalism. They view capitalism as compatible with individual freedom and advocate legal reforms to ensure women’s equal access to opportunities.
Friedan championed anti-discrimination laws and affirmative action, notably succeeding with the Equal Pay Act (1963), aiming for real equality in the workplace.
Radical Feminists also reject capitalism as the primary source of women’s oppression, asserting patriarchy is the overarching system permeating all of society—public and private.
They argue that dismantling capitalism alone won’t end oppression without fundamentally restructuring society’s power relations and cultural norms.
Millett famously wrote, “The complete destruction of traditional marriage and the nuclear family is the ‘revolutionary or utopian’ goal of feminism,” highlighting that changing family structures is central, beyond economic systems.
Paragraph Three Disagreement Over Whether The Economy Is Patriarchal
A final significant feminist disagreement concerns whether the economy itself is fundamentally patriarchal. Radical Feminists assert that patriarchy is a systemic and pervasive structure embedded throughout all of society, including the economy, private sphere, and family. They argue that women’s oppression is rooted in this patriarchal system and that the economy must be fundamentally transformed to dismantle these power relations.
In contrast, Liberal Feminists reject the notion that the economy is inherently patriarchal. Influenced by liberalism’s emphasis on individual freedom and equality in the public sphere, they focus on legal and political reforms to secure equal rights and opportunities for women in the economy. Figures like Betty Friedan championed reforms such as equal pay laws and increased political representation, believing that gender inequality can be eliminated through such changes without a radical restructuring of economic systems.
Post-modern Feminists critique Radical Feminists for oversimplifying women’s experiences by universalizing the concept of patriarchy. They argue that patriarchy is a complex, fragmented set of power relations that differ by culture, class, race, and sexuality. For example, second-wave feminism largely reflected the concerns of white middle-class women, overlooking how women of color often already worked in undervalued, low-paid jobs while facing intersecting racial and gender discrimination.
bell hooks emphasized that feminism must adopt an intersectional and broader approach, addressing the interconnected nature of race, capitalism, class, and gender oppression. She called for a more radical movement that tackles poverty and racism as central to achieving true gender equality, particularly for women of color.
conclusion-
In conclusion, while feminists are united in recognizing that the economy is marked by gender inequality that must be addressed to achieve gender equality, they fundamentally disagree on many key issues. These disagreements center on the nature and root causes of women’s oppression within the economy—particularly the role of capitalism and whether the economy itself is patriarchal. Consequently, feminists diverge on how the economy should be transformed: Radical Feminists advocate for a complete overhaul of both public and private spheres, Socialist Feminists emphasize the necessity of abolishing capitalism, and Liberal Feminists support more gradual reforms within the existing capitalist framework aimed at securing equal opportunity in the public sphere.
