feminism - key thinkers

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935)

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935)

-first wave feminist

-humanist, socialist

-The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman on human nature

-rejected Darwin’s theory of ‘survival of the fittest’ that suggested it was biologically inevitable that men are the dominant sex - more able to compete in nature, stronger, not head back by childbearing

-the biological differences between men and women are irrelevant - women are able to compete equally with men because the nature of economic activity has changed

-women have equal brain power to men, justifying their equality

‘there is no female mind. the brain is not an organ of sex’

Charlotte Perkins Gilman on the state

no distinctive view

Charlotte Perkins Gilman on society

-society has assigned inferior roles to women, these no longer have justification; the liberation of women should occur through equality of opportunity to secure a full place in employment

-girls are socialised from a young age, at home and school, to take on the role of motherhood ; the confinement of women’s roles to the home is cultural, not biologically, determined

-to prevent this social conditioning she believed there should be no difference in the clothes that little children wear or the toys they play with - an early form of politics of sameness

-campaigned for the destruction of the traditional nuclear family and its replacement by forms of communal living, where child rearing and housework is shared among women and men - equally contribution to the domestic division of labour

-women are financially reliant on husbands, uneven power structure meant wives had to trade sexual favours for protection

Charlotte Perkins Gilman on the economy

-female contributions towards civilisation had to be halted due to an androcentric culture

-women were the underdeveloped sex, only when the economic dynamics of a relationship were altered could women escape the confines of patriarchy - this would enable a release from their domestic duties towards a more economically rewarding life outside of the home

-the key to female emancipation was economic independence

Simone De Beauvoir (1908-1986)

-second wave

-existentialist feminist; the freedom of the individual to struggle against the restrictions placed on him/ her by the moral/ religious world around them by imposing their own will upon life

Simone De Beauvoir on human nature

-’one is not born, but rather becomes a woman’

-developed the idea of women as the ‘other’ - men have characterised women as different for their own choosing, not the choice of women themselves

-men construct notion of femininity and the feminine ideal that served their own economic and physical ends

-as a result, women’s bodies are deliberately emphasised and displayed

Simone de Beauvoir on the state

the state reinforces a culture that prevents women from expressing their freedom identity

Simone de Beauvoir on society

-the dominance of existentialism; social constraints prevent individuals from attaining self-realisation and true freedom

-the Second Sex (1949) rejects the notion that girls are born with nurturing instincts, but they learn this at home and in school. in existential terms, girls freedom to choose their own way of life is removed almost from birth

-this occurs via the process of socialisation - the agents of primary socialisation encourage young girls to adopt a feminine identity through certain toys that reinforce gender stereotypes concerning the nurturing mother

-girls and boys are presented with a clear line of separation between the male breadwinner and the female caregiver

Simone de Beauvoir on the economy

men’s domination of economic life restricts the life choices available for women

Kate Millett (1934 - )

-second wave

-’Sexual Politics,’ viewed to be the movement’s manifesto

-it raised awareness of how females who experience sexual, physical and emotional abuse face a set of power dynamics but concerns went well be on feminism with consideration of human rights, anti-psychiatry and civil rights

Kate Millett on human nature

-women are all capable of freeing themselves from male oppression by engaging in lesbian relationships; all heterosexual relationships are inherently political and patriarchal in nature because they involve men exercising power over women

-necessary for women to find sexual liberation themselves by engaging in lesbian relationships

Kate Millett on the state

the state is merely an agent of the patriarchy, a part of the problem not the solution

Kate Millett on society

-society is characterised by dual patriarchy, in terms of both sexism (entrenched belief of male superiority) and heterosexualism (the idea that heterosexual relationships are superior to gay relationships) - this is pervasive and dominant in both the private and public spheres

‘patriarchy’s greatest psychological weapon is its universality and longevity’

-patriarchy has an ability to reinvent itself from one generation to the next; each wave of feminism has broken down barriers that hold women back to find that more exist

Kate Millett on the economy

-quasi-socialist but not fundamental to her feminism

-critical of aspects of the feminist movement for being largely concerned with problems relating to middle-class women

Sheila Rowbotham (1943 - )

-socialist feminist

-Marxist background, but critical of Marxists narrow view of the oppression of women solely in industrial capitalism rather than also in domestic life and wider society

Sheila Rowbotham on human nature

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

-’men will often admit other women are oppressed but not you’

-implied men have limited understanding of how they oppress women; they recognise it in theory but not in practice

Sheila Rowbotham on the state

-the state is the servant of capitalism

-capitalism systemically oppressed the working class + women; female members of proletariat forced to sell their labour to survive and forced to use it to support their husband and children

-within a capitalists system, the family unit serves as an instrument of control over women to facilitate the production and reproduction of men’s labour

-origins of sexism predate capitalism - institution of marriage closely resembles feudalist structure

Sheila Rowbotham on society

-dualist perspective required to understand structural inequality

-critical of orthodox Marxists for neglect of issues such as family history, role of housewives, sexuality, maternity - tend to downplay importance of women in society

-advocates a theory of history that accords equal importance of both sexes in its understanding of historical development

-the left need to consider the oppression of women in cultural as well as economic terms; preoccupation with economic determinism ignores the role played by cultural forces in the oppression of women

Sheila Rowbotham on the economy

-liberation of women lies with socialist future - destruction of capitalism, as greatest advances of women have occurred after socialist revolutions

-Marxist perspective of women as a reserve army of labour, therefore denied the same opportunities as men

-recognition of duality of oppression means a socialist revolution will not automatically liberate women, they must achieve this in home lives, personal relationships etc; echoes idea of ‘personal is political’

-women’s liberation requires ‘revolution within a revolution’ because sexism is just as entrenched within left-wing men as with right

bell hooks (1952 - )

-pen name for feminist author and activist Gloria Watkins

-best known for work within intersectionality

-’Ain’t I a Woman?’ considers historical impact of sexism and racism on black women and devaluation of black womanhood

-identifies role played by the media + within education in the construction of a white-supremacist-capitalist patriarchy

bell hooks on human nature

-women have multiple identities and therefore can experience multiple forms of oppression

-intersectionality focuses upon how various biological, social, religious and cultural factors interact on multiple levels, enables us to recognise multidimensional basis of injustice within society

-systems of oppression have ability to perpetuate themselves over time

-provides insight that otherwise lacking amongst liberal feminists with its white, middle class and college educated bias

-Feminism Is For Everybody (2000); ‘we all knew first hand that we had been socialised as female by patriarchal thinking to see ourselves as inferior to men’

bell hooks on the state

-dominated by white males and therefore reflects and reinforces their dominant position within society

-loving communities can overcome inequalities of race, class, gender

-Teaching to transgress; Education as the practice of freedom; depicts the classroom as a source of both constraint and potential liberation. teachers should encourage their students to transgress rather than conform

bell hooks on society

-society is full of complex relationships between different minorities

-to resolve social conflict, love between different minority cultures must be established

-solution against the patriarchy involves the creation of a more equal society so that the multiple disadvantages women face can be reduced and eliminated

-men must understand the patriarchy they are imposing, while women brake free of the pre-conceptions about themselves

-the power of love can conquer unhealthy relationships, women need to ‘unlearn self-hatred’ and ‘no longer see ourselves and our body as the property of men’

bell hooks on the economy

women living in poverty have problems that middle-class women do not face