Feminism Nathan

Sex vs gender

Sex vs gender

• sex = biological difference, gender = assigned roles to men/women

• Equality feminists - human nature androgynous

• Difference feminists - women innately different to men (Gilligan)

Patriarchy

• ‘Rule by the father’, social system enabling male domination and female subordination

• Liberal - can be reformed by state (emancipation, abortion ect)

• Radical - too pervasive for reform, change must be revolutionary (both public and private spheres)

• Socialist - female consciousness created by men to uphold capitalism; should destroy capitalism and patriarchy in revolution

Public vs private sphere

• Public sphere - visible area of society (politics, workplace, ect)

• Private sphere - private relationships (domestic)

• Liberals focus on public sphere

• Radicals argue that ‘the personal is political’, patriarchy represent in private sphere (gendered clothes and toys, husband ownership of family, pink tax)

Intersectionality

• bell hooks criticised white MC focus of feminism - excluded women of colour, WC women ect (whilst black civil rights movement excluded women)

• Social categorisations interconnected, with overlapping systems of discrimination and oppression

• Women should form cross-communal links off solidarity to overcome oppression

Liberal feminism

• reformist; gender stereotypes can be eliminated democratically

• Wollenstonecraft emphasised political equality (→ legal equity)

• Public → private sphere

Socialist feminism

• patriarchy a capitalist tool that fuels exploitation; seeks liberation from economic dependence on men

• State exploits women and is an agent off capitalism; capitalism and patriarchy deny ingrained into society and work together to exploit women

• Women unpaid workforce in domestic sphere and ‘reserve army of labour’

Radical feminism

• ‘the personal is the political’ (women’s refuges ect)

• Destruction of patriarchy vital f female emancipation; either violet revolution OR separate female counterculture (abolition of nuclear family and lesbian communes)

• Firestone saw history as a dialectic struggle between men and women - advocated Androgyny

Post modern feminism

• rejects earlier feminisms generalisation, focuses on other factors (intersectionality)

• Addresses intersectional issues (FGM, honour killings, trans feminism ect.)

• ‘Cyberpatriachy’ enables misogyny through social media

Simone De Beauvoir

• gender and femininity a social construct; ‘one is not born, but rather becomes a woman’

• Men impose ‘otherness’ onto women; women treated as a ‘second sex’

• Materialistic consumption weakens women’s position economically

• liberal feminisst

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

• gender roles socially constructed from a young age → women perceived as weaker, provided toys to nurture mother like nature

• Economic independence and legal equality as a necessity

• Suffragist/early feminist

Sheila Rowbotham

• women have always been oppressed, ‘revolution within a revolution’ necessary

• Capitalism forces women to provide ‘reserve army of labour’ and domestic servitude

• Family subjugates women and provides refuge for exploited men

• Socialist feminist

Kate Millet

• ‘the personal is the political’ (woman lose identity through marriage); family unit must be dismantled

• Women should free themselves through lesbian relationships

• Radical/queer feminism

bell hooks

• society a multifaceted arrangement between minority groups; feminism must a knowledge multiple struggles

• Women belong to different minorities and suffer overlapping forms of oppression

• Post modern/intersectional feminism

Human nature

• Beauvoir - gender differences are created by men in sociaty, they are not natural

• hooks - women, in common with men, have multiple identities and therefore experience multiple forms of oppression

• Rowbotham - women’s consciousness of the world is created by men

• Gilman - the biological differences between men and women a re irrelevant. Women can compete equally with men

• Millet - women are all capable of freeing themselves from male oppression by engaging in lesbianism

The state

• Beauvoir - the state reinforces a culture hat prevents women from expressing their true freedom and identity

• hooks - the state is dominated by white males and therefore reflects and reinforces their dominant position in sociaty

• Rowbotham - the state is the servant of capitalism

• Gilman - no distinctive views on the state

• Millet - the state is merely an agent off the patriarchy. It is part of the problem but not the solution

Society

• Beauvoir - De Beauvoir’s existentialism dominated her feminism. Social constraints prevent individuals, not just women from attaining self-realisation and true freedom

• hooks - society is full of complex relationships between different minorities. In order to resolve social conflict, love between different minority cultures must be established

• Rowbotham - the nature of society is economically determined. Society reflects the dominant position of both capitalists and men in general

• Gilman - sociaty h always assigned inferior roles to women. In modern society this no longer has any justification

• Millet - modern society is completely characterised by patriarchy, which is all-pervasive and infests both private and public sphere

The economy

• Beauvoir - men’s domination of economic life restricts the life choices open to women

• hooks - women living in poverty have problems that middle-class women do not face. The liberation off the poor is an economic as well as a social issue

• Rowbotham - Rowbotham has a Marxist perspective. Women are a low paid reserve army of labour

• Gilman - the domestic servitude of women allowed men to dominate the outside economic world

• Millet - Millet is a Quasi-socialist but this is not fundamental to her feminism