Radical Feminism 5 ALREADY PASSED
Radical Feminism is -✔✔✔DISMANTLING PATRIARCHY
Where did Radical Feminism come from? -✔✔✔Started in the late 1960s
Grew out of the women's liberation movement
Sees women's oppression as the root of all oppression (radical = 'of the roots')
Not allied to pre-existing political/ philosophical systems - the first such system to be overtly woman-
centred (by women, for women)
Key concept: "the personal is political"
How does radical feminism explain gender inequalities? -✔✔✔As a product of male domination of
women, or patriarchy (see Millett, 1970, Sexual Politics) - women seen as an oppressed political class
And patriarchy's 'sex/gender' system, an ideology that constructs masculinity and femininity as
opposites in ways that systematically favour men
How do radical feminisms believe that gender inequalities are maintained? -✔✔✔Women's oppression
is maintained by socialisation, the structures of institutions (including marriage, compulsory
heterosexuality, schooling, the labour market), and some coercion/force (including rape)
Key aims of radical feminism -✔✔✔To eliminate male control
To do this, gender, as constructed under patriarchy, must be eliminated
Some (e.g. Millett) look to androgyny - integrating best 'masculine' & 'feminine' traits
Others (e.g. Daly) see the solution in rejecting patriarchy's version of femininity (it's good to be a 'wild
female' or 'hag', to reject a 'slave morality', which values self-sacrifice and self-deprivation)
Seek to create an entirely new social system - liberal reforms won't touch the deeper oppression of
patriarchy
Radical Feminism is -✔✔✔DISMANTLING PATRIARCHY
Where did Radical Feminism come from? -✔✔✔Started in the late 1960s
Grew out of the women's liberation movement
Sees women's oppression as the root of all oppression (radical = 'of the roots')
Not allied to pre-existing political/ philosophical systems - the first such system to be overtly woman-
centred (by women, for women)
Key concept: "the personal is political"
How does radical feminism explain gender inequalities? -✔✔✔As a product of male domination of
women, or patriarchy (see Millett, 1970, Sexual Politics) - women seen as an oppressed political class
And patriarchy's 'sex/gender' system, an ideology that constructs masculinity and femininity as
opposites in ways that systematically favour men
How do radical feminisms believe that gender inequalities are maintained? -✔✔✔Women's oppression
is maintained by socialisation, the structures of institutions (including marriage, compulsory
heterosexuality, schooling, the labour market), and some coercion/force (including rape)
Key aims of radical feminism -✔✔✔To eliminate male control
To do this, gender, as constructed under patriarchy, must be eliminated
Some (e.g. Millett) look to androgyny - integrating best 'masculine' & 'feminine' traits
Others (e.g. Daly) see the solution in rejecting patriarchy's version of femininity (it's good to be a 'wild
female' or 'hag', to reject a 'slave morality', which values self-sacrifice and self-deprivation)
Seek to create an entirely new social system - liberal reforms won't touch the deeper oppression of
patriarchy
