Feminism
Feminism
Charlotte Perkins-Gilman (Socialist Feminist)
Key ideas:
For Gilman, sex and the capitalist economy were interlinked. Women were reliant on their sexual assets to gratify their husbands, who in turn would support them financially. Gilman viewed marriage as comparable with prostitution, ‘the transient trade we think evil. The bargain for life we think good.’
Gender roles are socially constructed from a young age. Gilman berated the misery of women's private lives and the exploitative nature of domestic roles. Societal pressure forced young girls to conform to motherhood with gender specific clothes and toys so she argued in favour of gender neutral clothes and toys. She was also a proponent of communal living, which would undermine the capitalist patriarchal family structure and more evenly distribute child-care responsibilities.
She wished to reverse false consciousness so women could no longer see themselves as naturally frailer and weaker than men.
She sought economic independence for women and advocated centralised nurseries and co-operative kitchens to give women freedom and autonomy.
Gilman's ideas were co- opted by socialist feminism and she believed that capitalism's exploitative qualities reinforced patriarchy and that socialism would gradually succeed, allowing women and men to coexist in egalitarian society and economy
Her views on:
Human nature
Women are equal to men and biological differences are largely irrelevant; however she did accept that there were innate female qualities whilst also believing in the societal conditioning of gender roles
Society
Women have historically been assigned inferior roles in society
Economy
Men dominate the economy because societal norms obligate women to a domestic role
Argued that economic independence was a fundamental part of female emancipation and that there must be equality of opportunity within the workplace
Simone De Beauvoir (Liberal Feminist)
Key ideas:
Femininity is an artificial societal construct. The biological differences between men and women have been used by a male-dominated state and society as a justification for predetermining the gender roles of women.
‘Otherness’ is imposed on women by men. Male domination means that men are the ‘first sex’ whereas women are the ‘second sex’, leaving women subordinate to men.
“One is not born but rather becomes a woman”
She argued that women had been dominated in part because of their bodies: 'her ovaries condemn her to live forever on her knees'. She argued that contraceptives, abortion, rejection of the family and monogamy would allow women to compete with men in society.
She argued that the consumptive materialism (the idea that society has become addicted to purchasing consumer goods) inherent within capitalism had weakened women's position in society.
Her views on:
Human nature
Gender differences are not natural but the creation of men
State
The state reinforces a male-dominated culture that limits women's authority and freedom
Society
Societal norms restrain both men and women from achieving self- realisation and true freedom of expression
Economy
Men dominate economic life which limits the life choices open to women
Sheila Rowbotham (Socialist Feminist)
Key ideas:
She was influenced by Marx and Engels. Capitalism worsened the oppression of women, forcing them to sell their labour to survive in the workplace and to cede their labour to the family home
She stressed that the family performs a dual function: to subject and discipline women to the demands of capitalism and to offer a place of refuge for men from the alienation of capitalism
Rowbotham concluded that women have always been oppressed and that a revolution was needed to destroy both capitalism and patriarchy
She argued that marriage was like feudalism with women akin to serfs paying feudal dues to their husbands.
Her views on:
Human nature
Female consciousness is socially constructed by men
State
The state facilitates capitalism which in turn oppresses women
Society
Capitalist society reinforced the dominance of establishment males to the detriment of women
Economy
Women's main role in the economy is to provide a reserve army of labour
Kate Millet (Radical Feminist)
Key ideas:
She saw the family unit as the foundation of patriarchal thought, as children were socialised into gender roles that they grew up perceiving as normal. Marriage also saw women lose their identity by taking their husbands surnames. Underpinning Millett’s proposed solutions to patriarchy was the dismantling of the family unit for communal living and child rearing. Patriarchy granted men ownership over their wife and children, entrenching sexism with the idea of male superiority.
The family socialised the young into recognising masculine authority and female marginalisation within society.
Patriarchy reinforced heterosexualism as superior to bisexual or same-sex relationships.
Women’s gender roles were stereotyped in art and literature.
Millett is credited with the first analysis of patriarchy and popularising it within radical feminism. She defined it as the 'rule of men' in both the private and public spheres of society.
She perceived social construction as beginning in childhood within the family unit, meaning that gender roles are neither natural or inevitable
Focused on patriarchy in culture, specifically on family art and literature. She argued for a change in social consciousness, a revolution in the head, whereby patriarchy would eliminated from people's minds so that there was gender equality in the home, the workplace and within culture
Her ideas on:
Human nature
Women are oppressed by men and should free themselves by engaging in lesbian relationships
State
The state facilitates patriarchy
Society
Society is patriarchal in both the public and private spheres
Economy
Loosely resembles socialism but is peripheral to her feminism
bell hooks (Intersectionalist / Postmodern Feminist)
Key ideas:
hooks broadened the feminist debate because she felt it was too focused on middle and upper class, college-educated white women. She focused on women of colour and all social classes.
Her ideas greatly influenced the ideas of ‘intersectionality’ - a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw - which challenged the feminist assumption that gender was the most important factor in determining a woman’s life experiences and women have multiple, overlapping identities that affect their experiences as well as experiences of discrimination
hooks uses the term “imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” to represent the intersectionality of these systems
She perceived social construction as beginning in childhood within the family unit, meaning that gender roles are neither natural or inevitable
Describes patriarchy as 'single-most life threatening social disease' that blights society
“No other group in America has so had their identity socialised out of existence as have black women…when black people are talked about, the focus tends to be on black men; and when women are talked about, the focus tends to be on white women”
Her views on:
Human nature
Women have multiple identities and therefore experience multiple forms of oppression
State
White men dominate the state at the expense of women
Society
Society is a multifaceted arrangement between multiple minority groups.
Women who are of lower class and of a racial minority are oppressed on several levels eg Black working- class women
Love is “the basic desire to make our survival a shared effort” and should be placed at the forefront of progressive circles because, through viewing love as the foundation of political thought, community and the collective good is emphasised
Economy
Women face different levels of oppression.
For example, white middle- class, college-educated women face oppression but are more liberated than Black working- class women
Capitalism and the patriarchy are ‘structures of domination’ which undermine the “larger unit of extended kin”