feminists Flashcards
(12 cards)
overview of liberal feminists
Lib fems are concerned with achieving gender
equality and making sure everyone in society has the
same rights.
They believe this can be done through
gradual reforms in society.
* Laws & policies- women can achieve gender
equality this way, such as securing equal
opportunities through sex discrimination policies.
* Cultural change- traditional prejudices and
stereotypes of gender differences are the barrier to
equality, but once this is changed there will be equal
opportunities.
Oakley :Liberal Feminists
Oakley distinguished between sex (what you’re biologically born as) and gender (culturally constructed differences in society/what you identify as).
* Gender differences vary cross-culturally, which means the roles women are expected to fulfil can vary (such as Saudi Arabia women not allowed to drive in the past.)
* In the lib fem view, sexists attitudes and stereotypes of gender are therefore socially constructed, and equality will come about by changing what are taught in the socialisation process.
Liberal Feminists:Gradual progress:
Liberal feminism is an optimistic theory that believes we are coming closer and closer to gender equality:
- Changes in socialisation & culture- are leading to more rational attitudes towards gender, prejudice and ignorance are being overcome.
- Political action to introduce anti-discriminatory laws/policies- are steadily bringing about a fair society where someone’s gender isn’t important.
Lib fems are also critical of Parson’s functionalist sex role theory, which distinguished between the instrumental role for men, and expressive role of
Evaluation of liberal feminism:
Their research has produced evidence
documenting the extent of gender
inequality/discrimination, as well as
demonstrate that this process is due to
socialisation patterns and is not a natural
event.
- However, they’re criticised for their rose-
tinted/march of progress view, which ignores
deep-rooted structured of women’s
oppression like capitalism or the patriarchy,
which need more than attitude and law
changes to overcome.
overview of marxist feminist
They see women’s subordination as rooted in capitalism and this link means that women will only be free when capitalism is overthrown.
* Though individual men can benefit from subordination, capitalism is still the main beneficiary.
* Women’s subordination in capitalist society is due to their unpaid role as unpaid homemaker, which lands them economically dependent on men in
the family.
Functions women’s subordination serves for capitalism:
Women are cheap/exploitable labour- employers can pay women less
by assuming they’re dependent on husband’s earnings.
* Women are the reserve army of labour- can be moved to the labour force during economic booms, and out again inn recession as it’s assumed
their primary role is in the home.
* Women reproduce the labour force- through unpaid domestic labour, by nurturing and socialising children to be the next gen of workers, and by
maintaining/servicing the current gen (husbands)- all at no cost to capitalism).
* Women absorb anger- Ansley (1972) says women are takers of shit who absorb the frustration husbands feel from being exploited/alienated at work.
Evaluation of Marxism feminism:
The show the relationship between women’s
oppression and capitalism, and have a greater
understanding of the importance of structural factors
than lib fems do.
- Fails to explain women’s subordination in non-
capitalist societies. - Though unpaid domestic labour may benefit
capitalism, that doesn’t explain why women perform
it and not men. Hartmann (1981) argues this is
because Marxism is ‘sex blind’. - Marxist fems downplay the extent to which men DO
oppress women for their own benefit, not
capitalism’s.
Marxist Feminist::Barrett (1984)- the ideology of familism:
- All Marxist fems agree that women’s subordination in the family performs economic functions for capitalism.
- However, to understand and change women’s position, we need to look at non-economic factors,
- Barrett- we should give more emphasis to women’s
consciousness and motivations, and the role of ideology in maintaining their oppression. - Barrett argues that the ideology of familism presents the family and sexual division of labour as normal and natural, and that they only way women can be fulfilled is in the family- motherhood, intimacy and sexual satisfaction.
This ideology is what keeps women oppressed, and
why many women live and marry into conventional
nuclear families despite the oppression.
overview of difference feminists
Difference fems don’t see women as one homogenous
group
* Instead, they argue that MC and WC women, black and
white women, lesbian and heterosexual women all
have different experiences of patriarchy, capitalism,
racism, homophobia, etc.
* False universality- other feminist theories claim to be
for all women but really on represent white, MC
women. EG: regarding the family as oppressive
undermines black feminists who see the family as a
source of resistance against racism.
Poststructuralism feminists:
Poststructuralism is concerned with discourses and
power/knowledge, and the sociologist here is Butler.
* Discourses- ways of seeing/thinking/speaking about
something, such as scientific, religious, medical, artistic,
etc.
- Discourses enable its users to define others in a
certain way, which puts power over them. - EG: by defining childbirth as a medical
condition and women as patients, medical
discourse empowers doctors and disempowers
women. - Knowledge is power- to define/constitute
The problem of essentialism: Difference Feminists
- This is the idea that women are all essentially the same and share the same experiences
of oppression. - Differences feminists believes liberal, Marxist and radical feminists are all essentialists
who see women as all the same and therefore fail to reflect the diversity of women’s
experiences, as well as excluding other women and their problems. - EG- Western feminists pre-occupation with sexuality is irrelevant to women in poor
countries where the pressing problems are water and health care.
The Enlightenment project:
Postructuralists see the Enlightenment project as a discourse because of its talk about humanity, reason and
progress.
* Butler criticises the project because its ideas as they’re a form of knowledge/power that now legitimised
White, Western, MC in dominating feminism and claiming to represent universal womanhood.
- Butler rejects essentialism because there’s no fixed essence of womanhood, this identity changes cross-
culturally, cross-temporally and through different discourses.
