Feminism - Non-Core Ideology

1. What are the origins of feminism?

-Feminist role models and themes have been traced back to
ancient Greece. However, as a set of political ideas it is argued that the movement has come in several waves from 1970
to the present day.
-Patriachy is a common theme for explaining female oppression, but there is disagreement and debate over the exact
role and nature of the patriachy as well as potential solutions to female inequality.

2. What are the four main types of feminism?

1) Liberal feminism
2) Socialist Feminism
3)Radical Feminism
4) Postmodern Feminism

3. Define what liberal Feminism is?

Liberal feminism argues that, via democratic pressure, gender
stereotypes can be eliminated. Liberal feminists focus on the public sphere (society) rather than the private sphere
(family), arguing that the private life of women is outside the remit of politicians

4. What are some of the key ideas of liberal feminists?

-They are heavily influenced by liberal
values of individualism, foundational equality and equality of opportunity. Women require the same liberty as men in
determining their role in society and the labour force.
-First wave feminists e.g. Mary Woollstonecraft argued for political equality and that women should have the vote. The assumption was that political emancipation would lead to gender and legal equality.
-Later, Simone de Beauvoir argued that gender differences are not natural but are the creation of men.
-Betty Friedan argued that society confined women to the narrow roles of housewife and mother, which oppressed
women. She championed equality of opportunity across the public sphere. She argued that women should have legal and economic equality with men.
-Third wave feminists argue that patriarchy is constantly changing and adapting in ways that it oppresses women.
Naomi Wolf claimed the patriarchy controls how women perceive beauty. Photo-shopped images of women portray an unobtainable fantasy image that oppresses young women.
-Liberal feminists are reformists and disagree with radical feminists over the omnipresence of patriarchy. Liberal
feminists believe it is possible for discrimination and oppression to be reformed in both state and society.

5. What were Simone de Beavoir's (1908 - 1986) key ideas?

-Sex Vs Gender - gender roles have been assigned to women on the basis of their sex.
-'Otherness' - men are percieved as the norm and women as deviants from the norm

6. Explain Simone de Beauvoir's main ideas?

-As an existential feminist, de Beauvoir argued for
individual freedom above societal conventions and constrictions placed on women.
-The biological differences of sex have been used as a justification for predetermining the role of a 'woman' by a process of socialisation in a male dominated state and society. De Beauvoir therefore rejected the existence of a 'woman's
nature'. All roles within society should be gender neutral.
-De Beauvoir rejected the concept of 'motherhood' and the idea that women had a predetermined nurturing instinct.
Socialisation by parents, education and society removes women's freedoms as they are indoctrinated from birth to roles
and behaviors dtermined by men.
-She developed the idea of 'otherness' whereby men have chracterised themselves as the norm and have designated
women as different and inferior.
-'Otherness' has been imposed on women by men. Women have internalised this false sense of of natural inferiority
and will need to become concious of their socialisation and indoctrination if they are to contest the roles that they have
been designated.
-Women need to liberate themselves and seek freedom from oppression to find their individual identity. Gender roles
in the family and the work place must be equal, the state must fund childcare, and there should be widespread
contraception and legalisation of abortion to give women control over their bodies.
-This will involve liberation via state-funded abortion and contraception, and freedom from set parameters of the nuclear
family, via state funded childcare

7. Define what 'gender stereotype' means?

The argument that men's and women's gender roles are predetermined by society so that they are socialised to behave in a certain way.

8. Define what 'equality of opportunity' is?

Everyone, regardless of their gender should have the
same life chances in society.

9. Define what 'political equality' is?

Women should have the same right to vote and protest as men.

10. Define what legal equality is?

Everybody should be treated the same in the eyes of the law. For
feminsists this means that negative consequences of oppression can, by legislation, gradually alter until equality is achieved.

11. Define what 'reformism' is?

Believing that society can be reformed. In a femisnist context, this means
that negative consequences of oppression can, by legislation, gradually alter until equality is achieved.

12. Define what 'discrimination' is?

Treating a group or an individual less favourbaly than another
group or individual. In feminism, it refers to women being treated less favourably than men in a variety of ways.

13. Define what socialist feminists are?

All socialist feminists argue that economics leads gender
inequality and that capitalism causes patriachy. However, socialist feminism cannot be described as coherent as there are different branches, revolutionary and reformist, each offering differeing solutions and disagreeing with them.

14. What are the beliefs of revolutionary socialist feminists?

-Socialist key thinker Friedrich
Engels was the first to argue that economics caused gender inequality and that capitalism created a patriachy.
-Engels argued that capitalism altered pre-existing societal structures, which meant that women were needed as unpaid
helpers to enable male workers to be emplyed in the workplace.
-He claimed that women were complicit in both reproducing the workforce and socialising their children in the
continueing cyle of capitalistic oppression.
-Sheila Rowbotham adopted a marxist theory of history, concluding that women have always been oppressed.
-Rowbotham argued that men do not fully understand the nature of oppression of women - 'men will often admit that
women are oppressed but not you.' Following Marx she argued that women's alienation from capitalism and patraichy
meant that there needed to be a 'revolution within a revolution' to destory capitalism and the patriachy.

15. What were the key ideas of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860 -1935)

-Sex and domestic economics go hand in hand - for women to survive, they have to depend on their sexuality and body in order to please their husbands.
Societal pressure - young girls are compelled to conform in society and prepare for motherhood by playing with toys and wearing clothes that are specifically designed for and marketed to them.

16. Explain the main ideas of Charlotte Perkins Gilman?

-Gilman reacted against Social Darwinism, which argued that male domination of society was linked to Darwin's idea of the survival of the fittest. She asserted that biological differences were irrelevant in a modern society and that women were intellectually equal to
men, which is what matters most in a modern society.

-Sex and domestic economies were interlinked. Women were reliant on their sexual assets to gratify their husbands, who in turn would support the family financially.

-Societal pressure forced young girls to conform to motherhood and the domestic role with toys and clothes conforming to gender stereotypes. Gilman argued for gender-neutral toys and clothes to counter this.

-Only economic indpendence could give women freedom and equality with men.

-Motherhood should not prevent women from working oustide of the home.

-The traditional role of women in the nuclear family with sole responsibility for childcare and domesticity was comparable to slavery. Gilman argued for a communal form of living whereby child rearing and housework would be shared, allowing a greater role for women in society.

-"A house does not need a wife anymore than it needs a husband."

17. Explain the idea of Social Darwinism?

Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) concerned solely
with evolution of the human species and the natural selection of plants and animals. Social Darwinsists appropriated
Darwin's ideas and applied them to human beings. A common mistake people make its suggest Gilman is rebutting
Darwin's ideas. Social Darwinists believe in "survival of the fittest"—the idea that certain people become powerful in
society because they are innately better. Social Darwinism has been used to justify imperialism, racism, eugenics and
social inequality at various times over the past century and a half.

18. What were the key ideas of Shiela Rowbotham?

Capitalism - Women are forced to sell their
Labour to survive and use their labour to support their family under the capitalist system.
The family - not just an instrument fo disciplining and subjecting women to capitalism but a place where men took
refuge from alianation under a capitalist economy.

19. Explain the main ideas of Shiela Rowbotham?

-Adpating marxist historical materialism,
Rowbotham concluded that woemn have always been oppressed. Marriage is like feudalism, with a women akin to a
serfpaying feudal due to her husband.
-Capitalism argued worsend this oppression and women were doubly opressed, forced to sell their labour to survive
in the workplace and to cede their labour in the family home.
-Alienation from both capitalism and patriachy meant a 'revolution within a revolution' was needed to restructure both
sources of oppression.
-Men do not fully understand the nature of oppression of women - 'men will often admit other women are oppressed
but not you.'
-The family performs a dual function - to subject and sidicpline women to the demands of capitalism and to offer a place
of refuge for men from the alienation of capitalism.
-'Clearly society has a tremondous stake in insisting on a woman's natural fitness for the career of a mother; the
alternatives are all too expensive.' (Shiela Rowbotham)

20. What do radical feminists argue?

Radical feminism's origins lie within second wave feminism. All
radical feminists argue
-That society is purely patriarchal and is a system of oppression unconnected with any other ideology.
-For fundamental changes to society's structure.

21. What suggests that the radical feminism is incoherent?

-Liberal feminists mostly focus
on the public sphere of society when discussing their own ideas. Second wave radical feminists argued that both the
public sphere and the private sphere of life must be addressed and claimed that 'the personal is political'.
-Radical feminists argue that patriarchy is prevalent in the private sphere of life such as the family. Traditionally, liberal
feminists and politicians do not focus on this personal sphere.
-Radical feminists argue that, by ignoring the private aspect of women's lives, the oppression of women's domestic
circumstance is ignored. Personal life has to be political if patriarchal oppression is to be challenged.

22. What are the beliefs of difference feminists?

Difference feminists argue that a world
dominated by feminine essence would be more peaceful and environmentally friendly. Difference feminists have
influenced ecofeminists, who both see the oppression of women and the oppression of nature as aspects of the male need to dominate. Naturally nurturing, women are therefore better suited to coexist and protect the environment.

23. Provide some examples of the patriarchy and how this should be solved?

-Erin
Pizzey's analysis of the 'personal is political' focused on domestic violence in the family life. Pizzey set up the first women's
refuge in London in 1971, offering women and their children a refuge from domestic violence.
-Charlotte bunch argued that heterosexual relationships were based on power and that lesbianism was a political
choice. Andrea Dworkin argued that pornography was symptomatic of men's perceptions of women as sex objects.
They proposed the nuclear family should be abolished and replaced with lesbian communities.
-Germaine Greer argued that patriarchy had socialised women to view their sexual desires as unfeminine and to be
embarrassed about their bodies. Women had been indoctrinated to believe that they must try and retain eternal youth
rather than physically and emotionally embrace their age and experience. Greer argued for sexual liberation and the
abandonment of traditional marriage and the male domination that this entails. She favoured favoured communal
living and childbearing.

24. What were the key ideas of Kate Millett (1934-2017)?

Family - undoing the traditional
family was the key to true sexual revolution.
Portrayal of women in art and literature - patriarchal culture had produced writers and literary works which were
degrading to women.

25. Kate Millett believed the state is merely the agent of patriarchy. What were
    her main arguments or proposals?

-The family is the chief institution that reinforces patriarchy.
Dismantling the traditional family unit is the key to a sexual revolution.
-Patriarchy grants men ownership over their wife and children, which entrenches sexism, the idea of male superiority.
Marriage sees women lose their identity by having to take their husbands's surname and offer domestic service and
sexual consent in return for being financially supported.
-The family unit is the chief instigator of socialising the young and supporting masculine authority in all aspects of
society, while women are largely marginalised.
-The portrayal of women in art and literature reinforces patriarchy. Millett argued that sex in culture subjugates women.
Women are also portrayed as possessions of men, to be fought over and owned.
-Millett was critical of romantic love, monogamous marriage and the family unit as this reinforces patriarchy.
-Patriarchy also reinforces heterosexualism as being superior to homosexual relationships.
-'The complete destruction of traditional marriage and the nuclear family is the utopian goal of feminism.' (Kate Millett)

26. What are the similarities between some branches of radical feminism and
    revolutionary socialism?

Radical feminists substitute 'patriarchy' in place of 'capitalism' as the explanation
for why the exploited members of society are women rather than workers.

27. How did post-feminists critique liberal feminism and radical feminism?

-Post
feminists of the 1980s and 90s argued that most of the feminist goals had been achieved and women should move
on. Writers such as Camille Paglia criticised feminism for portraying women as victims and that women should take
responsibility for their own destiny.
-Post feminism has been roundly criticised for examining feminism solely through a whiten middle class framework
that ignores the complexity of female experience that postmodern feminism explores.

28. Define what postmodern feminism is?

29. What are the main themes of postmodern feminism?

-Intersectionality challenged the
notion that gender is the most important factor in understanding women's lives. bell hooks first argued that race
was as important as gender in understanding oppression of black women in the USA in the early 1980s. The term
Intersectionality was coined later by Kimberly Crenshaw to help conceptualise overlapping oppression.
-Other examples of how Intersectionality can be thought about in feminism include genital mutilation (intersectional
in at least three aspects

30. Define the term 'intersectionality'?

Challenging the belief that gender is the singular most
important factor in determining a woman's experience. Rather, women have multiple overlapping intersecting identities,
including race, class, age and religion.
Generalising about the female experiences of patriarchy is pointless when white middle-class women will have a very different experience from black working-class women and other types of women.

31. What were the key ideas of bell hooks (1952-2021)?

-Women of colour - she brought the
cultural concerns of 'women of colour' into the mainstream feminist movement.
-Intersectionality - the mainstream feminist movement had focused mainly on the plight of white college, educated,
middle/upper class women who had no stake in the concerns of the women of colour.

32. Explain some of the other ideas of bell hooks?

-hooks argues that children are socialised
into gender stereotypes from a young age.
-She broadened the feminist debate as she felt it was too focused on middle and upper class white women. hooks
focused on women of colour and all social classes.
-'Women of colour faced both racial discrimination and sexual discrimination and neither the civil rights movement nor
the women's movement recognised this dual problem.
-There is a need to reach out to women neglected by mainstream feminist thought, such as women of different
ethnicities and socioeconomic classes.
-hooks' ideas greatly influenced the idea of intersectionality - coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw - which challenged the
assumption that gender was the most factor in determining a woman's life experience.
-hooks argued for the need to recognise a plethora of female experiences in order to construct a genuine, inclusive
'sisterhood'.
-"If responsible women want a feminist revolution… then we must assume responsibility for eliminating all the forces that divide women." (bell hooks)

33. Provide some further examples of postmodern feminism in action?

-Natasha
Walker, Writing in 1999, a echoed hooks in arguing for a more complex assessment of inequality among women across political, social and economic aspects of life. In 2010 she argued modern women were facing new pressures of 'hyper-sexualisation'.
-Postmodern feminists such as Femen (an organisation founded in Ukraine) perceive nudity as empowering and have
made topless protests against important aspects of the patriarchy, sexual exploitation, dictatorship and religion.
-SlutWalk is a global movement of postmodern feminists who dress 'sluts' for protest marches after a police officer
argued that 'women should avoid dressing like sluts'. This was a patriarchal attitude that partially excused rape by
suggesting an 'appearance' could be a mitigating factor.
-Fourth wave post-modern feminists like Kira Cochrane argue that technology is a source of misogyny and patriarchy
via social media. For example, Diane Abbott received more twitter abuse than any other MP during the 2017 GE.
-Conversely, Cochrane argues that social media can be used to challenge sexism and misogyny in the public sphere.
-Transfeminism is an excellent example of intersectionality values as it demonstrates how complex defining sex and
gender are.

34. What are the five key feminist principles?

1) Sex and gender
2) Patriarchy
3) The personal is political
4) Equality feminism and Difference Feminism
5) Intersectionality

35. Explain the feminist view on sex?

-Sex refers to the biological differences between men and
women. We are assigned our sex at birth.
-Biological differences have observable physical attributes such as external and internal anatomy, chromosomes and
hormone prevalence.
-Most feminists are equality feminists, arguing that women's nature is socially constructed - that is, determined by
society, not biology. However, there are debates concerning sex, difference feminism versus equality feminism; and
trans-feminism versus trans-feminist skeptics.

36. Explain the feminist view on gender?

-Gender is used to explain the roles society gives to men
and women.
-Most feminists argue that gender roles are socially constructed and form gender stereotypes.
-Simone de Beauvoir wrote that biological differences between men and women had been used by a male dominated
state and society as a justification for predeterming the role of women.
-Charlotte Perkins Gilman argued that gender roles are socially constructed from a young age, subordinating the
women to the will of men.
-Kate Millett and bell hooks both percieve social construction as begginning in childhood within the family unit. bell
hooks also argues that women have multiple identities that are not based on gender alone and that they therefore face
multiple sources of of oppression, such as racism or class exploitation.
-Shiela Rowbotham, a socialist feminist, argues that women's conciousness is created by men as part of a capitalist
regime.

37. Explain the feminist view on the patriarchy?

-In feminsim, partriachy describes the social
system enabling male domination and female subordination. Simone de Beauvoir wrote that this has happened
throughout the majority of human history.
-Liberal feminsists believe that patriachy can be reformed by the state, for example female emancipation, access to
education, workplace equality, legalisation of abortion and changes in marital law.
-Kate Millett believed the patriachy men ownershiop over their wife and children, entrenching sexism with the idea of
male superiority.
-Radical feminists including some socialist feminists, believe that female conciousness is created by men as part of
the capitalist machine. Shiela Rowbotham was influenced by marxismwhen suggested that the solution to female
oppression was a revolution that would destory both capitalism and the patriachy.

38. Explain the feminist idea of 'the personal is political'?

-Liberal feminsists focus on the
public sphere of society (e.g. pay and working conditions), arguing that the state should not be involved in the private
life of women.
-Radical feminists argue that 'the personal is political' as patriachy is prevalent in the private sphere of life.
-Charlotte Perkins Gilna highlighted the exploitative nature nature of domestic roles.
-Shiela Rowbotham argued that marriage was like feudalism, with women akin to serfs paying feudal dues to their
husband.
-Simone de Beavoir championed contraception as it allowed women to control their bodies and the chance to avoid
endless childbearing.
-Kate Millett believed 'family' was a social construct and not a natural arrangement. The family socialised the young
into recognising masculine authority and female marginalisation in society. Marriage saw women lose their identity by
taking their husband's surname.

39. Explain the feminist idea of equality feminism and difference feminism?

-The
majority of feminists are equality feminists, who believe that biological differences are inconsequanetial and that gender
differences are socially constructed, the holding that there are no specific feminine traits.
-Simone de Beavoir dismissed the idea of innate female charcatersitics as 'a myth invented by men to confine owmen
to their oppressed state'.
-According to these feminists, the focus of feminism should be on pursuing equality between men and women
-Difference feminists - a minority of feminists - disagree with equality feminism. They believe in essentialism, wherby
biological differences do determine gender differences.

40. Explain the feminist idea of Intersectionality?

-bell hooks criticised second wave feminists
for conceptualising feminism from a white middle-class perspective. She argued that both liberal and radical feminists
largely excluded the concerns of minority groups such as 'women of colour'.
-hooks argued 'individual black feminists despaired as we winessed the apropriation of feminist ideology by elitist,
racist, white women'.
-hooks' ideas inspired Kimberlé Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality, which challenged the notion that gender is the
most important in understanding's women's lives.

• Intersectionality suggests women can be oppressed in multiple overlapping areas such as their gender, class, race,
  sexuality or disability, to name a few. hooks argues that every woman has multiple identities, so the singular notion of
  'sisterhood' gives way to a more communal concept to solidarity.

41. How do feminists have different views on human nature?

-As we have seen, sex refers
to biological differences such as chromosome make-up between men and women. Gender is used by some people to
explain what they say are innate characteristics, such as men being logical and women being sensitive and caring.
-Most feminists argue that the general status of women in society should not be affected by their biological status
and that gender differences are artificially constructed by society. Liberal, radical, socialist and post-modern feminists
disagree on many points but are all equality feminists, believing the biological differences are inconsequential and
gender differences artificial.
-However, a minority of feminists - different feminists - disagree with equality feminism and believe in essentialism,
arguing that biological differences are important as they determine gender differences, which are not constructed by
society.
-Difference feminists argue that men and women are fundamentally different and women must embrace their
distinctiveness.
-Difference feminists also argued that women's inferior status can be explained by biological sexual differences, which
have been used as a justification for determining gender roles within society.
-Difference feminists like Carol Gilligan can argue that equality feminism has the unintended consequence of encouraging women to replicate male behaviour, alienating women from their own gender distinctiveness.
-Cultural feminism, a more extreme version of difference feminism challenges the dominance of male values in society
and argues that women's values should be promoted, as they are superior.
-Some in transfeminism argue that sex is socially constructed. However, this is a minority viewpoint within feminism

• most feminists argue that sex is a biological fact. Second wave feminist Germaine Greer has explicitly stated that
  transgender women are 'not women'. However, Andrea Dawkins supported the socially constructed definition of sex,
  arguing that the state should finance sex change.

42. How do you feminists have different views on society?

Feminists agree that patriarchy
is pervasive and is present in every facet of society - religion, culture, education, media, sports and politics. Patriarchy
has been consciously constructed by men to oppress women and to designate them a gender role. However, feminists
disagree on ways to reform it -
-Liberal thinker Betty Friedanargued that society forces women into the roles of housewife and mother.
-Liberal feminists argue that patriarchal society can be resolved by state and cultural action.
-However, revolutionary socialist feminists such as Shiela Rowbotham argue that society is economically determined by
male capitalists and that a revolution is needed in order to change the status of workers and women.
-Liberal and radical feminism disagree on where to challenge patriarchy. Liberals prefer the public sphere of society,
while radicals argue that patriarchy must be challenged in both public and private.
-Post-feminists such as Camille Paglia argue that most feminist goals have been achieved and the patriarchy has largely
been defeated.
-Post- modern feminists such as bell hooks argue that society is too multifaceted to be determined by one variable such
as gender and that we need to look at Intersectionality.

43. How do feminists have different views on the state?

Unlike liberals, conservatives and
socialists, feminists lack a distinctive view on the state and they restrict themselves to percieving the state as the vessel
through which patraichy is reinforced within society.
-Socialist and radical feminists argue that patraichal culture is so emebedded in society and the state is fanciful to
imagine that it can combat the patriachy.
-Liberal feminists agree that the state has been an instrument to reinforce patriarchy, but argue that this function can
change and the state can be a conduit for tackling the patriachy.
-Postmodern feminsists argue that there is a complexity to state oppression that other branches of feminism miss
because of their tendency to generalise. bell hooks argues that race is as important as gender, for example.

44. How do you feminists have different views on the economy?

-Feminists are united
in their belief that the economic world discriminates againts women.
-Discrimination includes unpaid labour in the home and the lack of equality of opportunity in the workplace.
-Charlotte Perkins Gilman argued that economic independence was a fundamental part of female emancipation
-Socialist thinker Friedrich Engels argued women are often reduced to being a reserve army of labour.
-Some socialist feminists maintain that a revolution to overthrow capitalism is needed for true equality in society. Shiela
Rowbotham arhues that women must become a political force to facilitate this communist process.
-Postmodern feminist bell hooks argues that race and class can be as important as gender in understanding economic
oppression. Black women from poor backgrounds face poverty and inequalities that middle-class women will not
experience.

45. Define the reserve army of labour?

The idea that women constitute a spare workforce that can
be called on as and when needed.

46. Define cultural feminism?

Very similar to difference feminism as it argues that women are born with
different cultural characteristics as well as biological ones. Women are more caring and nurturing than men, who are
more competitive and aggressive.

47. List the different waves of feminism and some of the key thinkers from each
    branch?

First Wave Feminism (1790-1940s)
Liberal Feminism
-Charlotte Perkins Gilman (sex &domestic economies, societal pressures)
-Simone de Beauvoir (sex and gender, otherness)
Socialist Feminism
Radical Feminism
Second Wave Feminism (1960s-1980s)
Liberal Feminism
Socialist Feminism (Revolutionary)
-Shiela Rowbotham (Capitalism and family)
Socialist Feminism (Reformist
Radical Feminism
-Kate Millett (family, art and literature)
-Andrea Dworkin (Pornography)
Ecofeminism
Difference Feminism
Postmodern Feminism
-bell hooks (women of colour)
Third Wave Feminism (1990s-early 2000s)
Post-feminism
Liberal Feminism
Postmodern Feminism
Fourth Wave Feminism (post 2008)
Postmodern Feminism
Transfeminism