Feminism

What is feminist theory?

a wide ranging system of ideas about social life and human experiences developed from a woman centered perspective. [woman centered because it examines the situations and experiences of women, tried to describe the social world from the standpoint of women]

First wave feminism

comte coined the term sociology, marx weber and durkheim dominated sociology at this time but there were women doing feminist work at this time also, trying to establish a feminist perspective but their work was overlooked. in the last few years, their work was reevaluated and now they are considered among the classical theorists who helped shape soc.

KEY ISSUES: WANTED TO THEORIZE DIFFERENCE (how the experience of women in society are in contrast to that of men) and THEORIZE INEQUALITY (how the location of women in society is less privileged than that of men)

Classical Theorists:

concerned about the struggle of women for political rights, around the 20s women in many countries were given the right to vote. this was the end point of the first wave

Temporary decline of feminism

20s-60s, 2 reasons 4 the decline: 1. New political rights (faced great difficulty in using their new rights to push for change) 2. social crises (various crises got in the way of pressing for change)

Second Wave Feminism

60s-90s using their political rights to push for change, see the emergence of the concept of gender in theory,see the rise of women's movement, were trying to reestablish a feminist perspective in sociology

Third wave feminism

90s-present, used to describe the ideas developed by women of diverse backgrounds, referes to the ideas of women living adult lives in the 21st c.

Socialist Feminism

Emphasizes how women are disadvantaged by both the existence of capitalism and patriarchy, 2 bases for structural oppression (capitalism/patriarchy) they interact to create the oppression of women and is referred to as capitalist patriarchal society, us emarxs analysis of capitalism and feminsms analysis of patriarchy. Engage in dialectical, historical materialism, there are material changes in the history of economic societies and these changes (from foraging to agriarian to capitalist) has implications for women.

Socialist FEMINISM: foraging

relationships between men and women were egalitarian

Agrarian

relationships started to change, men were n control of the production process on farms and the emergence of patriarchal relationships

Capitalism (socialist feminism)

deepenng patriarchal relationships, split between the domestic world of women and the public world. men earned a wage and women stayed home

Eliminating structural opression

have to overthrow capitalist patriarchy society, need global solidarity among women, practical political strategies

BIO OF DOROTHY SMITH

"dorothy place" England, middle class, BA @ lonon school of economics, under goffman earned PhD from u of cali, divorced mother of two,

CAREER: worked as a leactureer of u of cali and u of essex, assistant prof at UBC, then prof at OISE, published everyday world as problematic: a feminist sociology. & facts and femininity: exploring the relations of ruling

Smiths' Theoretical Influences

• 2nd wave fminism, personal experinecesm rejected arguments by radical feminists,

• Marxism:influenced by marx critical political economy, also influenced by marx's analysis of culture and ideology (marx and engles the german ideology -->the ideas of the ruling classa re in every epoch the ruling ideas) SMITH IS INTERESTED IN EXAMINING THE RULING TEXTS IN A CAPITALIST, PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY

• Phenomenology: particularaly by the micro lvel approach, goffman - micro level, everyday life, Schutz, here and now reality in everyday life, interpretations differ based on bios.

the ruling texts

texts developed by men that define gender adn other power relations in society, they can also be visual (porn/magazine ads)

A discourse of femininity

is articulated by the ruling texts, expresses ideas and images about how women should present themselves and behave in relation to men and society as a whole

the relations of ruling class

the tuling texts are crucial to these relations, processes by which capitalist patriarchal domination is enacted through interdependent systems of control - smith is interested n how these controls work, examines the activies and experiences of women in everyday life.

C) A Bifurcation of Consciousness:

• Is experienced by women who move between these two worlds

• The concept of a bifurcation of consciousness captures the complicated reality that women experience, the "conflicting" realities

• How do they experience this conflicting reality? Everyday lives as: workers (in the public world) and as wives and mothers (in the domestic world)

• There are contradictions that women experience in their everyday world

• Ex. If a woman is employed outside the home, she goes to work - then she comes home and she still has work to do

• Women have to negotiate those contradictory demands

D) Institutional Ethnography

• Smith is known for developing Institutional Ethnography, as a way of studying the experiences of women

• Not a theoretical concept - it's a methodological strategy

• Definition: refers to an investigation that starts with individual experiences, as a way to discover how institutions work and how they might work better for people

• Can use it to study the experiences of bettered women and rape victims in institutional settings (Dealing with the police and the courts) must understand these institutions from a woman's standpoint

• From a woman's stand point, what are the implications of the ruling texts in these institutions?

• Study the institutions from within, through the experiences of women and then we figure how to change the ruling texts so that things work better (for women)

KEY ISSUES OF THIRD WAVE FEMINISM

• Concern with structural oppression carries over into third wave feminism, but they try to understand it in a different way - the third wave feminists are engaging in a critique of the first two waves

• The critique focuses on the idea that the first two waves failed to consider the diversity of women

• "the critique of the first wave and the second wave is that they focuses on middle class, white and heterosexual women"

• All of first and second feminist theory was written by these types of women

• Third wave has tried to incorporate the experiences of other women, working class, women of colour, lesbians and other women

• Looks at a variety of issues

• Many different theorists involved with the third wave

• Look at these issues by considering the work of Patricia hill Collins

Patricia Collins

2) University Education: graduated with a BA from brandeis university (near boston) specializing in sociology in 1969, earned an MA in social science education from Harvard (1970) worked as a teacher in the boston area from 1970-1975, worked as director of the African American centre at Tufts university (1976-1980) met husband roger Collins, started a family and after they got married she earned a PhD from brandeis university (1984)

3) University Career: became a professor in the department of African-American studies at the university of Cincinnati (1982), she was the chair of the department at some point for a few years, she also helped made linkages between women's studies and sociology at that university and she became affiliated with the department of sociology, published the book: black feminist thought, ideas about the intersecting between race class and gender- started developing theoretical ideas about that. Her ideas became known as intersectionality theory, took a position as professor of sociology at the University of Maryland (2005) that is where she currently is.

Impact of slavery and community

slavery and community made the historical experience of black women in the USA quite different from the historical experience of white women in the USA.

• white women: historical experience of split between domestic world and public world

• Black women: as enslaved property of whites, historical experience (With black men) of white-controlled public world (no domestic sphere, because they were part of a public world)

• "the entire slave community/family stood in opposition to the public sphere of a capitalist political economy controlled by elite white men"

• With freedom, a split between the domestic world and public world emerged for black women

• Many theorists (second wave theorists) made the mistake of thinking that all women had the same experience, that all women experienced the same split

Black Feminist Thought

she emphasises the uniqueness of black feminist thought, reflects the particular interests and standpoints of black women (all women have experienced oppression, but we have to consider what is unique of the experiences of black women)

• Black feminist thought reflects an Afrocentric standpoint and a feminist standpoint - so forms of oppression are important and need to be considered here

Intersectionality Theory

her contribution to feminist thought, she made it up but it's been used by others and spread beyond her specific ideas, the notion has been taken up by a number of the third wave feminists

The Concept of Intersectionality

• Definition: multiple, criss-crossing bases, for the oppression experienced by women, all women potentially experience oppression based on sex/gender (notions of femininity that circulate in our society) … But

• The concept of intersectionality says that women are differentially oppressed, with intersections of various aspects of social inequality (these various aspects are, class, race, ethnicity, sexual preference, global location and age)

vectors of oppression and privilege

: "a woman who is white and middle class", she will be oppressed and enjoy privilege … "a woman who is black and working class" she experiences oppression amongst three dimensions of social inequality

• Research based on the theory: try to examine the experiences of women based on these vectors or intersections, some of them have generated more research than others

• Some ides that have been addressed: gender and race, gender and class, "race", gender and class, gender and age, gender and global location, gender and sexual preference

How does intersectionality theory offer a critique of first wave/second wave feminism??

• The earlier waves focused on the problems and experiences of particular types of women, they focused on white, middle-class, heterosexual women in North America and Europe because those theories were developed by white, middle class, heterosexual women in NA and Euro.

• This leaves out a lot of women, and their experiences and concerns need to be addressed as well

• So it is trying to correct this omission of other types of women

Experiences women have in two worlds

• The domestic world and the public world (these two worlds emerged with industrial capitalism)

• Historically women's reality has been the domestic world, and men's reality has been the public world of work

• Women have historically experienced a world different from men, must realize that how women experience that domestic world has been affected by these ruling texts women interpret their reality in the domestic world, through male constructed ruling text and a discourse of femininity that subordinates them

• Women have experiences in the public world that most men don't have (sexual harassment, discrimination) important to look at the experiences the women have had in the public world and in the domestic world, and we need to understand these experiences as women themselves see it