radical feminists

Radical Feminists believe women are oppressed through male domination as they see society as patriarchal. Radical Feminists argue that all societies have been founded on patriarchy, rule by men, the key division in society is between men and women.

Radical feminists state men are the enemy, arguing they are the source of women’s oppression and exploitation.

Patriarchal ideology and Biology (male physical strength and women’s reproductive capacity) are the keys to the oppression of women.

The family and marriage are the key institutions in patriarchal society. Men benefit from women’s unpaid domestic labour and from their sexual services and they dominate women through domestic and sexual violence or the threat of it.

For radical feminists, the patriarchal system needs to be overturned. In particular, the family, the root of women’s oppression, must be abolished because men benefit from women’s unpaid domestic labour and their sexual service. They argue that the only way to achieve the end of female oppression is through separatism – women must organise themselves to live independently of men.

Many radical feminists argue for ‘political lesbianism’ - the idea that heterosexual relationships are inevitably oppressive because they involve ‘sleeping with the enemy’. Men benefit from women’s unpaid domestic labour and their sexual service.

Greer argues for separatism and the creation of all-female or ‘matrifocal’ households as an alternative to the heterosexual family. She believes that single women tend to be happier than married women.

Firestone adds, female oppression and patriarchy lie in their biological capacity to bear and care for infants, she saw an artificial womb as an answer to this.

evaluation:

1. New Right Realists are critical of the view of Radical Feminists. Murray argues separatism and a rise in female headed families would be negative for both individuals and society as there would be a rise in the underclass leading to poor socialisation, welfare dependency and a rise in criminality. This shows the nuclear family is best fit for both individual and society as a whole.

2. Marxist Althusser suggests Radical Feminist ignores the fact that the family is set up to pass on capitalist ideology, arguing the family is set up to keep the working class in their lower position, not allowing social mobility to exist. This is done through the belief and acceptance of ideas such as hierarchy and power. This shows that inequality can exist is a variety of ways.