Feminist key thinkers

Question 1

Betty Friedan (Liberal, Different)

Answer 1

• Liberal feminists, such as Betty Friedan, accept the significance of sex differences but regard gender differences and the superiority of men as an artificial construct.

Question 2

Kate Millett (Radical, Equality)

Answer 2

• Radical feminists like Millett believe gender differences as all pervading .
• Millett believes in the idea that heterosexual relationships are superior to homosexual relationships.
• Women are all capable of freeing themselves from male oppression by engaging in lesbian relationships
• The state is merely the agent of patriarchy. It is part of the problem but not the solution.
• Modern society is completely characterised by patriarchy, which is all-pervasive and infests both the private and public sphere
• Millett is a quasi-socialist but this is not fundamental to her feminism

Question 3

Simone de Beauvoir (Liberal)

Answer 3

• Gender differences are created by men in society. They are not natural.
• The state reinforces a culture that prevents women from expressing their true freedom and identity
• De Beauvoir’s existentialism dominated her feminism. Social constraints prevent individuals, not just women, from attaining self realisation and true freedom.
• Men’s domination of economic life restricts the life choices open to women

Question 4

Sheila Rowbotham (Socialist)

Answer 4

• Women’s consciousness of the world is created by men
• The state is the servant of capitalism
• The nature of society is economically determined. Society reflects the dominant position of both capitalists and men in general
• Rowbotham has a Marxist perspective. Women are a low paid reserve army of labour

Question 5

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (liberal, economic)

Answer 5

• The biological differences between men and women are irrelevant. Women can compete equality with men
• Society has always assigned inferior roles to women. In modern society this no longer has any justification.
• The domestic servitude of women allowed men to dominate the outside economic world

Question 6

bell hooks (post-modern, equality)

Answer 6

• Women, in common with men, have multiple identities and therefore experience multiple forms of oppression.
• The state is dominated by white males and therefore reflects and reinforces their dominant position in society
• Society is full of complex relationships between different minorities. In order to resolve social conflict, love between different minority cultures must be established
• Women living in poverty have problems that middle-class women do not face. The liberation of the poor is an economic as well as a social issue.