Feminist Explanations of Social Inequality

Feminist perspectives on social inequality

Feminism focuses on the subordination of women in a patriarchal society.

1st and 2nd Wave Feminism:
- Materialist philosophies similar to traditional Marxism.
- Focused on economic equality (property rights), legal rights (voting), and women's bodily autonomy (contraception, abortion, protection from violence).
3rd and 4th Wave Feminism:
- Resemble Neo-Marxism and postmodernism.

Despite legal and social changes due to feminist activism, inequalities persist.
Glass Ceiling: Limits women's career advancement.
Gender Pay Gap: Women earn less than men (e.g., in the UK, women earned about 17% less than men in 2019, ONS).
Vertical Segregation: Labor market structured with men and women on different levels, with women in lower-paying and less prestigious jobs.

Socialization: Women are socialized into different expectations and behaviors.
Barron and Norris: Companies often promote based on continuous service, disadvantaging women who take time off for childbirth.
Oakley: Family structures reinforce different gender roles.
Sue Sharpe: Demonstrated a shift in attitudes of schoolgirls in London, with girls in the 1990s being more assertive than those in the 1970s.

Challenges feminist assumptions about gender inequalities.
Argues inequalities reflect different lifestyle preferences.
Work-Centred: Primarily men, commitment to long hours, sacrificing personal relationships (20% of women).
Adaptive: Combining work and family, even if it means taking part-time or lower-status jobs (60% of women).
Home-Centred: Avoiding paid work after starting a family (20% of women, very few men).
Family-friendly policies may lead to higher gender inequality.
Criticizes the Nordic Model, noting Sweden has a larger glass ceiling than the US.
Links to Functionalism, suggesting men earn more because they work harder and sacrifice family time.
Links to Weberianism, focusing on women choosing the adaptive work lifestyle for their own reasons.
Criticisms: Ignores structural factors and patriarchal ideology shaping women’s preferences.

Conflict between all men and all women.
Society is structured in the interests of patriarchy (male power).
Men control culture to normalize gender inequality.
Sexual oppression is the fundamental form of inequality.
Firestone (1970): Gender inequalities stem directly from biology and the disadvantages related to pregnancy and childbirth.
Advocates for women to control reproduction through abortion, contraception, and artificial wombs.
Strengths: Recognizes the deep-seated nature of patriarchal power and its pervasiveness.
Weaknesses: Overlooks other forms of oppression and seen as divisive.

Gender inequality is rooted in capitalism and patriarchy.
Capitalism exploits women in various ways.
Engels: Capitalism resulted in ‘the world historical defeat of the female sex’.
Women as a 'reserve army of labour'.
Exploitation of women’s unpaid housework.
Bourgeois family is patriarchal and unequal, designed to pass property from fathers to sons.
Solution to gender inequalities is the end of capitalism through socialist revolution.
Strengths: Focus on the intersection of economic and gender oppression.
Weaknesses: Neglects other forms of oppression such as race and assumes class is the most important factor determining women's oppression.

Social inequality between men and women is caused by societal attitudes and discrimination.
Advocates for legal and political means to address these issues.
Campaigning to change laws (e.g., Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Equality Act 2010).
The 2010 Equality Act replaced existing laws against discrimination in the workplace for gender, ethnicity and disability, strengthening them under a single law.
Advocates for individual solutions to end gender discrimination.
Gender Pay Gap Persists: Women were paid 87p for every £1 paid to men in April 2020.
Women in the UK live longer but spend a greater proportion of their life with a disability.
Women are more likely to be diagnosed with mental health problems.

Ethnicity is also important.
bell hooks: In Ain’t I a Woman? (1981), argues that white feminists are not enthusiastic about tackling racism and ignores the issues faced by black women.
Walby (1990): Women are oppressed in three systems: gender (patriarchy), social class (capitalism), and ethnicity (racism).
Kimberle Crenshaw: Developed the concept of Intersectionality - people have intersecting identities, some of which enjoy privileges and others are marginalised.
Black women suffer from the intersection of sexism and racism.

Gender is a social construct and a performance.
Rejects the binary view of masculine/feminine.
Sex, assigned at birth, is enforced by family and society.
Supports the interpretation of Trans individuals as fully members of the sex they identify with.
There is no ‘right’ or ‘essential’ way to be female.

Debate about the definition of ‘women’.
3rd and 4th Wave Feminists tend to be allies of Trans people ('Trans women are women').
2nd Wave Feminism often rejects this definition; critics term themselves Gender Critical Feminists or TERFs (Trans-Excluding Radical Feminists).
Inclusion of Trans identity as a protected characteristic in the Equalities Act (2010).
Media illustrates this controversy, e.g., Laurel Hubbard in the Tokyo Olympics (2021), JK Rowling's comments.

Feminist explanations argue that women's oppression results from patriarchal systems. Focuses on structural nature of oppression.
Highlights social institutions, practices, and cultural norms that marginalize women.
Addresses the intersection of oppression (race, class, sexual orientation).
Emphasizes women's agency in their own liberation.

Tendency to essentialize women's experiences and neglect intersectionality.
Some argue that feminist explanations of social inequality do not sufficiently take into account the ways in which other forms of oppression such as race and class intersect with gender oppression.
Overlooking the agency of women in their own liberation and the diversity of women's experiences.