Feminism
- advocates at least equality of rights between sexes
- originally 18th/19th century movement of middle class women seeking the vote
- now developed into wider and far-reaching movement
Core Themes:
1. Redefining ‘the political’
2. Patriarchy
3. Sex and Gender
4. Equality and Difference
1. Redefining ‘the political’
- ‘political’ is ally associated with public life rather than private, and so family life and personal
relationships were thought of as ‘private’ / ‘private sphere’ / ‘non - political’
- However - modern feminists insist that politics is an activity that takes place within all social
groups
- politics exist wherever and whenever social conflict is found
- Kate Millett (1970) defined politics as ‘power-structured relationships, arrangements whereby
one group of persons is controlled by another’
- therefore many relationships can be classed as ‘political’ e.g. employer / employee and
parents / children
What is political?
- not merely of academic interest
- feminists argue that sexual inequality has been preserved precisely because the sexual division
of labour is ‘natural’ rather than ‘political’.
- traditionally, public - men and private - women
- if politics takes place only in public sphere, then the role of women and question of sexual
equality are issues of little or no importance
- Therefore women are excluded from politics
What are they challenging?
- challenge divide between ‘public man’ and ‘private woman’ (Elshtain, 1933)
- but there is debate how/ what this means
- Radical feminists: ‘the personal is the political’ - politics doesn't stop at the front door
- ‘the politics of everyday life’ - domestic responsibilities and the politics of personal and sexual
conduct
- therefore implied transfer responsibilities of private life to the state or public bodies
- Social feminists: viewed private sphere as political, linked women’s roles within the
conventional family to the maintenance of the capitalist economic system
- Liberal feminists: object to restrictions on women’s access to public sphere - but warn about
dangers of politicising the private sphere - which is personal choice and individual freedom
, 2. Patriarchy
- gender is seen as a politically significant cleavage - like social class
- Radical feminists - gender is the deepest and most politically important of social divisions
- theory of ‘sexual politics’
- sexism is a form of oppression
- but conventional political theory has traditionally ignored sexual oppression and failed to
recognise gender as politically significant
- therefore forcing feminist to develop new concepts to show that society is based on a system of
sexual inequality and oppression
What is patriarchy?
- ‘Patriarchy’ - describes the power relationship between men and women - literally means ‘rule
by the father’
- some feminists use to describe structure of family and dominance of husband / father
- ‘male supremacy’
- ‘male dominance’
- but can be spread to all other institutions, patriarchal family reproduces male dominance in all
other walks of life
- ‘rule by men’ - both within the family and out
- Millett (1970) - ‘patriarchal government’ - an institution that whereby ‘that half of the
populace which is female is controlled by that half which is male’ - she suggested patriarchy
contains two principles 1) ‘male shall dominate female, elder male shall dominate younger’
- patriarchy is therefore a hierarchic society, characterised by both sexual and generational
oppression
3. Sex and gender
- ‘biology is destiny’
- Women’s biological factor - can bear children, linked to social position
- biological facts should not disadvantage women nor determine their social destiny
- link between child-bearing and child-rearing is cultural, expected to stay at home
Sex?
- refers to biological differences between male and females
- natural
- unalterable
- differences linked to reproduction
Gender?
- cultural term
- refers to the different roles that society ascribes to men an women
- differences linked to contrasting stereotypes - masculinity and femininity
Simone de Beauvoir - ‘women are made, they are not born’
- advocates at least equality of rights between sexes
- originally 18th/19th century movement of middle class women seeking the vote
- now developed into wider and far-reaching movement
Core Themes:
1. Redefining ‘the political’
2. Patriarchy
3. Sex and Gender
4. Equality and Difference
1. Redefining ‘the political’
- ‘political’ is ally associated with public life rather than private, and so family life and personal
relationships were thought of as ‘private’ / ‘private sphere’ / ‘non - political’
- However - modern feminists insist that politics is an activity that takes place within all social
groups
- politics exist wherever and whenever social conflict is found
- Kate Millett (1970) defined politics as ‘power-structured relationships, arrangements whereby
one group of persons is controlled by another’
- therefore many relationships can be classed as ‘political’ e.g. employer / employee and
parents / children
What is political?
- not merely of academic interest
- feminists argue that sexual inequality has been preserved precisely because the sexual division
of labour is ‘natural’ rather than ‘political’.
- traditionally, public - men and private - women
- if politics takes place only in public sphere, then the role of women and question of sexual
equality are issues of little or no importance
- Therefore women are excluded from politics
What are they challenging?
- challenge divide between ‘public man’ and ‘private woman’ (Elshtain, 1933)
- but there is debate how/ what this means
- Radical feminists: ‘the personal is the political’ - politics doesn't stop at the front door
- ‘the politics of everyday life’ - domestic responsibilities and the politics of personal and sexual
conduct
- therefore implied transfer responsibilities of private life to the state or public bodies
- Social feminists: viewed private sphere as political, linked women’s roles within the
conventional family to the maintenance of the capitalist economic system
- Liberal feminists: object to restrictions on women’s access to public sphere - but warn about
dangers of politicising the private sphere - which is personal choice and individual freedom
, 2. Patriarchy
- gender is seen as a politically significant cleavage - like social class
- Radical feminists - gender is the deepest and most politically important of social divisions
- theory of ‘sexual politics’
- sexism is a form of oppression
- but conventional political theory has traditionally ignored sexual oppression and failed to
recognise gender as politically significant
- therefore forcing feminist to develop new concepts to show that society is based on a system of
sexual inequality and oppression
What is patriarchy?
- ‘Patriarchy’ - describes the power relationship between men and women - literally means ‘rule
by the father’
- some feminists use to describe structure of family and dominance of husband / father
- ‘male supremacy’
- ‘male dominance’
- but can be spread to all other institutions, patriarchal family reproduces male dominance in all
other walks of life
- ‘rule by men’ - both within the family and out
- Millett (1970) - ‘patriarchal government’ - an institution that whereby ‘that half of the
populace which is female is controlled by that half which is male’ - she suggested patriarchy
contains two principles 1) ‘male shall dominate female, elder male shall dominate younger’
- patriarchy is therefore a hierarchic society, characterised by both sexual and generational
oppression
3. Sex and gender
- ‘biology is destiny’
- Women’s biological factor - can bear children, linked to social position
- biological facts should not disadvantage women nor determine their social destiny
- link between child-bearing and child-rearing is cultural, expected to stay at home
Sex?
- refers to biological differences between male and females
- natural
- unalterable
- differences linked to reproduction
Gender?
- cultural term
- refers to the different roles that society ascribes to men an women
- differences linked to contrasting stereotypes - masculinity and femininity
Simone de Beauvoir - ‘women are made, they are not born’
