Feminism
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- Created by: RhiannonHarradine
- Created on: 02-04-17 09:14
Description
What is feminism?
- Gender equality
- Originated in the 18th & 19th centuries with m/c women seeking the vote
- Has since diversified
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First Wave Feminism
- Classical liberals consistently asserted the rights of man
- This led to the develpment of 1st wave feminism, with Mary Wollstonecraft, J.S. Mill & Harriet Taylor advocating the reduction of sexual discrimination primarily through equal suffrage
- Liberal type of feminism
- Wollstonecraft: women were essentially rational beings & therefore capable of self-determination & deserving of liberty, rights & education
Achievements of first wave liberal feminism
- Married Women's Property Act 1870, giving married women the right to own property
- 1928: Women had the vote on equal terms with men
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Second Wave Feminism 1
Liberal Feminism
- By the 1960s, it was perceived that little had been done to reduce ongoing inequalities between men & women
- After WW2, liberal feminists such as Betty Frieden (The Feminine Mystique, 1963) sought equal legal & political rights
- Underpinned by liberal values e.g. individualism & rationalism
Achievements of second wave liberal feminism
- Abortion Act 1967, Equal Pay Act 1970, Sex Discrimination Act 1976
- liberalisation of divorce, taxation & property laws
- State provision of free & legal contraception
- Women's lifestyles & health improved & the fertility rate declined
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Second Wave Feminism 2
Socialist Feminism
- Largely based on Marxist theories
- Close link between capitalism & women's oppression
- Gender equality wll come with economic revolution
- The nuclear family is an economic unit, where marriage is a contract between the male breadwinner 7 female housewife of economic maintenance in returen for sexual services
- Women are a reserve army of cheap labour, socialised to accept low wages & status
- Domestic work is essential to the conomy, releasing men for paid work & keeping them fit & healthy for work
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Second Wave Feminism 3
- Patriarchy is the most important power realtionship in the social system - "the personal is the political"
- Women excluded from work, politics & economics as they are confined to the private sphere by domestic work & childcare
- Diatinguish between sex & gender
- Reject the "public-private split" - public man & private woman
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Feminist Concepts
The concept of patriarchy
- Liberal feminists - legal & political oppression; public sphere
- Socialist feminists - capitalism = patriarchy
- Radical feminists - sexual revolution in the public & private spheres
The public-private split
- Liberal feminists - personal freedom of choice
- Socialist feminists - patriarchy originates in the public sphere & spreads to the private sphere
- Radical feminists - patriarchy originates in the private sphere & spreads to the public sphere
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Feminist Concepts
The concept of patriarchy
- Liberal feminists - legal & political oppression; public sphere
- Socialist feminists - capitalism = patriarchy
- Radical feminists - sexual revolution in the public & private spheres
The public-private split
- Liberal feminists - personal freedom of choice
- Socialist feminists - patriarchy originates in the public sphere & spreads to the private sphere
- Radical feminists - patriarchy originates in the private sphere & spreads to the public sphere
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Difference Feminism
- Do not subscribe to androgyny - argue that men & women are biologically different, making men naturally more competitive & aggressive & women more caring & empathetic
- Women should not seek full equality with men, but should insead celebrate the distinctive traits of the female sex
- Some essentialists choose to practice "political lesbianism", implying female superiority
- Rejected by other strands of feminism as another form of sexism
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Anti-feminism & "post-feminism"
Anti-feminism
- Traditional conservatives: gender hierarchy is natural, functional, inevitable & desireable
- Some feminists have rejected androyny & instead celebrate the unique nature of womanhood & the superior roles of motherhood & domesticity
Post-feminism
- Some argue that feminism has done its job & is now obsolete
- Victim of its own success
- Feminism has succeeded to the extent that women now have to search desparately for "trivial definitions of victimhood" e.g. being complimented on appearance / having doors opened for them by men
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