Key Ideas
- Many types of feminism (listed by Trimble)
- Key concepts: “sex”, “gender”, “masculine” and “feminine”
- Sex: biological, physiological,
- Gender: social construction of roles humans sexed male and female
- “Determine a person’s social, economic, cultural, and political status”
- Constructed discursively & materially
- One gender is valued or superior
- More than 2 genders (more than 2 sexes, also)
- Masculine: characteristics or traits associated with, appropriate for, and considered naturally belonging to males/men
- Feminine: characteristics or traits associated with, appropriate for, and considered naturally belonging to females/women
- Creates political institutions and systems
- Affect behaviour and decisions made by people, especially leaders
- Provide a “logic” or rationale for certain institutions
- Issue: valuing male/men/masculinity over female/women/femininity
- Key issue = oppression > “power over”
- Power assumed to be ‘power over’ (the problem)
- Other ideologies: kings, nobles, citizens, aristocrats, workers
- Men have exercised power over women (few women have also exercised power over men and women)
- Power can be ‘power to’ — empowerment = feminist
- Society can be based on power relations which do not involve domination but empowerment
- Power assumed to be ‘power over’ (the problem)
- Goals:
- “Equality” among men & women
- Opportunities and choice for women & men
- Deconstruction and reconstruction of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ — gender
- Arguments about “human nature” have reflected men’s understanding and claims about men’s human nature
- Established men as the ‘normal’ or ‘standard’ to which women are measured against
- Women’s “human nature” has been ignored, misunderstood, or degraded
- Human nature is not essentially this or that
- Society constructed on or constructed with women’s lived experiences may be different
- Many thinkers due to diversity of paths of feminism, but also due to many influences on feminism
Liberal Feminism
- Key idea: equality of rights
- Men and women should have equal rights
- Men and women should not be treated differently under the law
- Legal barriers against women’s full participation in politics
- Women have rights within the family as well
- Key thinkers:
- Mary Wollstonecraft:
- A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
- “First” European feminist
- Argued against Burke’s conservative view of the French Revolution incorrect
- Supported the French Revolution’s egalitarian principles & wanted to extend them to women
- Rights denied to women included voting, jobs, property, education
- John Stuart Mill (Harriet Taylor Mill):
- Subjection Women (1869)
- Men and women should receive equal opportunity to develop their potential
- Women’s participation in politics will be temporary
- Natural division of labour: men = income-earners, women = take care of family
- Betty Friedan:
- Women should have the choice to have a fulfilling life outside of family and domesticity
- Women need to have opportunities for full participation in politics
- Family structures and society should make changes to ensure and assist women’s full participation in politics
- Mary Wollstonecraft:
Socialist & Marxist Feminism
- Key thinkers:
- Moral socialists
- Fourier = social progress linked to progress of women; collective housekeeping and child-rearing arrangements
- Owen = easier divorces
- Marx:
- State and community look after children
- Roles and duties related to domesticity become activities for the whole community to perform
- Engels:
- Family is a microcosm of class struggle: husband = capitalist, wife = worker
- Women need to be brought into public industry, and family unit as the basis of economy will be eliminated
- Equality rights of liberals is essential but not sufficient
- Many female thinkers also! > Maria Mies, Alison Jaggar, Iris Young, and Juliet Mitchell
- Moral socialists
- Key ideas:
- Capitalism produces family structures which perpetuate capitalism
- Family is a functional economic unit of capitalism
- Double burden/double day carried by women
- Women’s work:
- ‘pink-collar’ jobs
- ‘feminization of labour’ (Guy Standing)
- Unpaid labour necessary for society’s & economy’s functioning (Marilyn Waring)
Radical Feminism
- Grew from Marxist/Socialist feminism
- Socialist societies did not end subjugation of women nor the domestic work that women were required to do
- Capitalism, socialism, etc., have all failed to liberate women from various forms of oppression
- First set of feminist ideas deriving from women’s experiences and knowledge
- Breaks with Marxist and Liberal theories and their derivative feminist approaches
- Focussed on women as the key agents and center of analysi
- Emerges in the 1960s
- Key thinkers:
- Kate Millet Sexual Politics
- Germaine Greer The Female Eunuch
- Shulamith Firestone The Dialectic of Sex
- Adrienne Rich “Compulsory Heterosexuality”
- Key ideas:
- Patriarchy = men dominate social, political, and economic relationships
- Normalized: male domination/supremacy as the natural order of society — women’s subordination is natural and functional
- Institutionalized : the state & institutions, political systems, economic system, etc.
- Historical: Precedes socialism, capitalism, feudalism, etc. — long enduring system in Western and many non-Western societies
- Superior: Ideas or actions of men/masculinity are valued over women’s/femininity
- Liberal’s public/private divide is part of the problem
- Public sphere of activity = political participation, going to work, etc. = men’s domain — masculine traits required
- Private sphere of activity = looking after family, taking care of kids, cleaning, etc = women’s work — feminine traits required
- Men rule over women
- BUT “the personal is the political” according to radical feminists
- E.g. wife-abuse, child abuse, rape in marriage, prostitution, stripping
- Political and economic institutions protect, perpetuate and promote patriarchy in the private sphere
- Reproduction & sexuality
- Marxist’s focus on production overlooks the fundamental production of people
- Sexuality and reproduction have been historically controlled by men and for their purposes or pleasure
- “Compulsory heterosexuality” — marriage as socio-political institution, criminalizing of other sexualities
- Determined the “value” of women — beauty, childbearing, etc.
- ‘Sex pays better’
- Creates unequal relationship between men and women as women are “forced” to have children, look after children, but not provided support — relegated to a “secondary” issue of politics (e.g. daycare)
- Men’s “sex right” in law and/or customs vs. women’s rights over their body
- Lesbian became deviant
- Relates to issues of abortion, sex, pornography
- Overthrow patriarchy, BUT debates over strategy:
- Lesbianism: sexual preference and political statement
- Separatism: women live separately from men
- Reproduction: scientific methods, abortion-on-demand
- Many of the older 70s-80s strategies have been discarded in favour of egalitarian strategies
- Goal: patriarchal political, economic, and social institutions need to be overthrown to create either an egalitarian or separatist society
- Patriarchy = men dominate social, political, and economic relationships
Postmodern Feminism
- Key ideas:
- No single identity of ‘woman’ or ‘man’, or ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’
- Focus = language — constructs who we are & who can be > we can change this
- Gender is not just oppressive to women, but also to men
- Need to understand how men are oppressed by gender — roles, sex, work, lack of family connections, etc.
- Control over sexuality is critical to controlling people
- Goal: androgyny = each person equally valuing and accepting their masculine and feminine characteristics
- No political project or prescriptions
Feminism and Our Criteria
- Human Nature:
- We don’t know
- Men’s and women’s experiences lead to different understandings of “human nature”
- Differences between men and women may be biological, but gender constructions override our “nature” & biology and give us particular roles & identities to which we must conform
- Nature of Society:
- Patriarchy is an element of most societies and needs to be challenged and overthrown
- Power relations between men & women embodied in gender constructions
- Naturalized & institutionalized — from the family to the Parliament
- Conception of Freedom:
- Freedom from patriarchy, oppression, and gender roles
- Men and women should be free to take on and change their gender identity
- Understanding of Justice
- Liberation from imposed gender roles
- Equal rights for men and women, but also protection/regulation in areas that are considered “non-political”: marriage, family, sexual relations, prostitution, pornography
- Provision of social services and assistance to support women’s full participation in politics, economy, etc.
- State/government:
- Perpetuates patriarchy & gender roles
- Needs to better represent women, and not solely operate on masculine ideals
- Should serve to assist society and facilitate full participation in politics
