Feminist key ideas Flashcards
(70 cards)
1
Q
Two liberal feminist key thinkers
A
- Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- Simone de Beauvoir
2
Q
Other liberal feminist NON-KEY thinkers
A
- Mary Wollstonecraft
- Betty Friedan
3
Q
Socialist feminist key thinker
A
Sheila Rowbotham
4
Q
Radical feminist key thinker
A
Kate Millet
5
Q
Intersectionalist / Postmodern key thinker
A
bell hooks
6
Q
What does Gilman argue is linked?
A
Sex and the capitalist economy were interlinked.
- Women were reliant on their sexual assets to gratify their husbands, who in turn would support them financially.
7
Q
How did Gilman view marriage?
A
Viewed marriage as comparable with prostitution, ‘the transient trade we think evil. The bargain for life we think good.’
8
Q
What did Gilman argue gender roles are?
A
Gender roles are socially constructed from a young age.
9
Q
What did Gilman argue about gender roles?
A
- Misery of women’s private lives and the exploitative nature of domestic roles.
- Societal pressure forced young girls to conform to motherhood with gender specific clothes and toys so she argued in favour of gender neutral clothes and toys.
- She was also a proponent of communal living, which would undermine the capitalist patriarchal family structure and more evenly distribute child-care responsibilities.
10
Q
What did Gilman wish to reverse?
A
- Wished to reverse false consciousness so women could no longer see themselves as naturally frailer and weaker than men.
11
Q
What did Gilman advocate for women?
A
- She sought economic independence for women and advocated centralised nurseries and co-operative kitchens to give women freedom. and autonomy.
12
Q
What did Gilman adopt from socialist ideas?
A
- Believed that capitalism’s exploitative qualities reinforced patriarchy and that socialism would gradually succeed, allowing women and men to coexist in fair society and economy
13
Q
Gilmans view on human nature
A
Women are equal to men and biological differences are largely irrelevant.
- However she did accept that there were innate female qualities whilst also believing in the societal conditioning of gender roles
14
Q
Gilmans view on society
A
Women have historically been assigned inferior roles in society
15
Q
Gilmans view on the economy
A
- Men dominate the economy because societal norms obligate women to a domestic role
- Argued that economic independence was a fundamental part of female emancipation and that there must be equality of opportunity within the workplace
16
Q
What does De Beauvoir argue that femininity is?
A
- Femininity is an artificial societal construct.
- The biological differences between men and women have been used by a male-dominated state and society as a justification for predetermining the gender roles of women.
17
Q
What does De Beauvoir mean by ‘Otherness’
A
‘Otherness’ is imposed on women by men. Male domination means that men are the ‘first sex’ whereas women are the ‘second sex’, leaving women subordinate to men.
18
Q
What is De Beauvoir’s famous quote on gender being a social construct?
A
“One is not born but rather becomes a woman”
19
Q
What does De Beauvoir argue that women had been dominated in part because of their…?
A
- Their bodies:
‘her ovaries condemn her to live forever on her knees’. - Argued that contraceptives, abortion, rejection of the family and monogamy would allow women to compete with men in society.
20
Q
What did De Beauvoir argue weakened women’s position in society?
A
- Consumptive materialism (the idea that society has become addicted to purchasing consumer goods) inherent within capitalism
21
Q
What is De Beauvoir’s book
A
Wrote “The Second Sex” 1949
22
Q
De Beauvoir’s view on human nature
A
Gender differences are not natural but the creation of men
23
Q
De Beauvoir’s view on state
A
The state reinforces a male-dominated culture that limits women’s authority and freedom
24
Q
De Beauvoir’s view on society
A
Societal norms restrain both men and women from achieving self- realisation and true freedom of expression
25
De Beauvoir's view on economy
Men dominate economic life which limits the life choices open to women
26
What did Rowbotham argue that capitalism did?
- Capitalism worsened the oppression of women, forcing them to sell their labour to survive in the workplace and to surrender their labour to the family home
27
What did Rowbotham argue that the family performs?
- A dual function: to subject and discipline women to the demands of capitalism and to offer a place of refuge for men from the alienation of capitalism
28
What did Rowbotham argue is needed?
- A revolution within a revolution was needed to destroy both capitalism and patriarchy
- Argued that women have always been oppressed
29
What did Rowbotham argue that marriage was like?
- Marriage was like feudalism with women akin to serfs paying feudal dues to their husbands
30
Rowbotham's view on human nature
Female consciousness is socially constructed by men
31
Rowbotham's view on the state
The state facilitates capitalism which in turn oppresses women
32
Rowbotham's view on the society
Capitalist society reinforced the dominance of establishment males to the detriment of women
33
Rowbotham's view on the economy
Women's main role in the economy is to provide a reserve army of labour
34
What did Millet argue the family unit is?
- Foundation of patriarchal thought.
- Children were socialised into gender roles that they grew up perceiving as normal.
- Marriage also saw women lose their identity by taking their husbands surnames.
35
What was Millett’s proposed solutions to patriarchy ?
- Dismantling of the family unit for communal living and child rearing.
36
What did Millet argue that the patriarchy granted men ownership of?
- Granted men ownership over their wife and children, entrenching sexism with the idea of male superiority.
37
What did Millet argue the family socialised the young into recognising?
- Socialised the young into recognising masculine authority and female marginalisation within society.
38
What did Millet argue that the patriarchy reinforced?
Patriarchy reinforced heterosexualism as superior to bisexual or same-sex relationships.
39
Where did Millet argue that women's gender roles were stereotyped in?
Art and literature.
40
How does Millet define patriarchy?
'Rule of men' in both the private and public spheres of society.
41
Where did Millet perceive social construction as beginning in?
- Childhood within the family unit, meaning that gender roles are neither natural or inevitable
42
What did Millet argue for?
- A change in social consciousness, a revolution in the head, whereby patriarchy would eliminated from people's minds so that there was gender equality in the home, the workplace and within culture
43
Millet's view on human nature
Women are oppressed by men and should free themselves by engaging in lesbian relationships
44
Millet's view on state
The state facilitates patriarchy
45
Millet's view on society
Society is patriarchal in both the public and private spheres
46
Millet's view on economy
Loosely resembles socialism but is peripheral to her feminism
47
What did bell hooks feel like feminism was too focused on and what did she focus on?
- Middle and upper class, college-educated white women.
- She focused on women of colour and all social classes.
48
What did bell hooks ideas greatly influence the ideas of
- ‘intersectionality’ - which challenged the feminist assumption that gender was the most important factor in determining a woman’s life experiences and women have multiple, overlapping identities that affect their experiences as well as experiences of discrimination
49
What term does bell hooks use to represent the intersectionality of these systems?
- Imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy
50
What did bell hooks perceive social construction as beginning in?
Childhood within the family unit, meaning that gender roles are neither natural or inevitable
51
What does bell hooks describe patriarchy as?
'Single-most life threatening social disease' that blights society
52
What is bell hooks view on human nature?
Women have multiple identities and therefore experience multiple forms of oppression
53
What is bell hooks view on state
White men dominate the state at the expense of women
54
What is bell hooks view on society
- Society is a multifaceted arrangement between multiple minority groups.
- Women who are of lower class and of a racial minority are oppressed on several levels eg Black working- class women
- Love is “the basic desire to make our survival a shared effort” and should be placed at the forefront of progressive circles because, through viewing love as the foundation of political thought, community and the collective good is emphasised
55
What is bell hooks view on economy
Women face different levels of oppression.
E.g., white middle- class, college-educated women face oppression but are more liberated than Black working- class women
Capitalism and the patriarchy are ‘structures of domination’ which undermine the “larger unit of extended kin”
56
What did Mary Wollstonecraft argue for?
Argued for political equality and that women should have the right to vote.
- Argued that political emancipation would lead to gender equality and legal equality, particularly in relation to the economic sphere of property-ownership
57
What did Betty Friedan argue for?
‘The Feminine Mystique’(1963) highlighted the dissatisfaction experienced by many women living domestic lives as wives and mothers
- Emphasised the concept of otherness and that women should be free to choose the roles they took be it the working world dominated by men, traditional domestic roles or a combination of the two
58
What does liberal feminism believe?
- Believe individualism as the basis of gender equality
59
What does radical feminism believe?
- Believes that the biggest problem facing
society is gender inequality
60
Meaning of the personal is political
- The idea that all relationships, both in
society and in private relationships, between men and women are based on power and dominance
61
Meaning of patriarchy
- Society, state and the economy are characterised by systematic, institutionalised and pervasive gender oppression
62
Meaning of sex and gender
- Sex refers to biological differences between men and women.
- Gender refers to the different roles that
society ascribes to men and women
63
What does socialism feminism believe?
- Believes that gender inequality stems from
economics and that capitalism creates patriarchy
64
Meaning of intersectionality
- Argues that black and working-class women’s experiences of patriarchy in state, society and the economy are different from white, m/c women
65
Meaning of equality feminism and difference feminism
- Equality feminists seek equality for men and women in society.
- Difference feminists argue that men and women have a fundamentally different nature from one another
66
Two key beliefs of bell hooks
1. Women of colour
- She brought the cultural concerns of women of colour into the mainstream feminist movement.
2. Intersectionality
- The mainstream feminist movement had
focused mostly on the plight of white, college-educated, middle/upper-class women who had no stake in the concerns of
women of colour.
67
Two key beliefs from Sheila Rowbotham
1. Capitalism
– Women are forced to sell their labour to survive and use their labour to support their family under the capitalist system.
2. The family
- Not just an instrument for disciplining and subjecting women to capitalism but a place where men took refuge from alienation under a capitalist economy.
68
What does post modern feminism believe?
- Believe that patriarchy manifests in
different ways depending on a woman’s race, class etc.
69
Two key beliefs from Simone de Beauvoir
1. Sex versus gender
– ‘one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman’.
2. ‘Otherness’
– Men are perceived as the ‘norm’ and women deviants from this norm.
70
Two key beliefs from Kate Millett
1. Family
– Undoing the traditional family was the key to true sexual revolution.
2 Portrayal of women in art and literature
– She showed how patriarchal culture had produced writers and literary works that
were degrading to women.
