Gender and Society

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  • Gender and society
    • Patriarchy and Feminism
      • Roots of feminism
        • Mary Wollstonecraft wrote one of the best-known early feminist texts in 1792 "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman".
        • First-wave feminism (late 19th century) concerned with the right to vote.
      • Expressions of Feminism
        • Radical feminism -  Women cannot be liberated within a capitalist patriarchal society, and it advocates a total uprooting and rebuilding of society.
        • Liberal feminism - Feminism that seeks equality for women by campaigning for changes in the law, for example by staging protests against **** or for equal pay.
        • Marxist feminism - Sees women's struggle for freedom through the lens of Marxism, so women's oppression is understood as a symptom of the oppression that occurs when there is private ownership of the means of production.
    • Roman Catholic view
      • Men and women are equal in worth.
        • Certain occupations better suited to men, it is not that a specific gender is better.
        • Because of the different skills that men and women have, women should not become priests or have other positions of authority within the Church.
          • However, the last 40 years have seen some changes; the Church of England does ordain females, arguing that God calls people not gender specific.
      • Motherhood
        • Women are ‘naturally disposed to motherhood’ both physically and psychologically = gift from God.
    • Conservative Protestant views
      • Kathy Rudy – Summarises the power the “right” exercises Rooted in traditional views from Augustine and Luther and driven by a mistrust of socially “liberal ideologies”, like feminism (considered as a root cause of family break-down).
        • The right believes that homosexuality corrupts the morals of the young and undermines the “American dream” or a happy prosperous nation.
          • Rejects ideas that suggest gender is a product of culture (Foucault).
      • Men and women are equal in worth.
        • Certain occupations better suited to men, it is not that a specific gender is better.
        • Because of the different skills that men and women have, women should not become priests or have other positions of authority within the Church.
          • However, the last 40 years have seen some changes; the Church of England does ordain females, arguing that God calls people not gender specific.
      • A woman’s role is to be wife and mother and create domestic haven where her husband can escape from the external world.
        • The role of wife can be traced back to Eve.
        • A woman who works outside of the home not only removes a job from a man but diminishes a man’s role and his responsibilities to his wife.
      • Suspicious of families which aren’t heterosexual and where parents aren’t married.
        • Support evidence from Sara McLanahan and Gary Sandefur (1994) which indicates children do less well educationally and couples are less happy in blended families, single-parent families, same-sex families and non-married parents.
    • Liberal Protestant views
      • Gender isn't intrinsic in nature because the covenant is a  reflection on what it means have a relationship with god.
      • There is no imperative that parenthood is something adults should aspire to.
        • Seriously view the insights of secular feminists but also feel that some are too quick to dismiss the moral, spiritual and emotional benefits of parenthood.
      • Exercise what they call “justice love”.
        • Persuaded by optimistic evidence provided by Jessie Bernard, that children are loved, feel secure and provided for then a family might equally be a single parent, blended, same-sex ect.
        • Argue the bible itself illustrates there has never been one kind of family.
    • To what extent is motherhood liberating or restricting?
      • Simone De Beauvoir argues that motherhood forces a woman to suspend her own interests and personality in order to take care of her children.
      • Ann Oakley argues that a woman’s feeling that she needs to become a mother is not biological but entirely the result of socialisation.
      • Gives women the opportunity to develop their best characteristics and gain a new and dignified status in the family and community.
    • Is the idea of family entirely culturally determined?
      • Sociology largely determines this to be true, as we are ruled by social norms.
      • This accomodates the way society views the family which often changes.
      • The family isn't something that has been created and shaped by human society, it’s created by god.
        • Could be seen as a gift and as an ideal way of life
  • “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27
  • Ephesians 5:22   “Wives, submit to your own husbands as you do the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church…Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church.”

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