Feminism - Understanding Social Change (seminar 8)

Module: Understanding Social Change


Week 8 – Feminism


We are focusing on early feminism.

Mary Wollstonecraft: Statue to 'mother of feminism' unveiled -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-54886813


What is Gender?
 Gender refers to our social characteristics
 Sex refers to our biological characteristics
 Our notions of gender is socially constructed


The Goals of Feminist Sociology
 Freedom
 Experiences
 Equality among genders
 Political goals
 Rights
 Voice
 Education
 Suffrage
 Property
 Demonstrate historic subordination
 Demonstrate importance of women to society – that they have something to
contribute.
 Embody lives of women
 View life from women’s perspective in order to understand their experiences.
 Integrate female insights and findings into sociology
 Address “malestream” bias


Questions
(1) Gilman drew upon which three sociology theoretical traditions for her work?
Social Darwinism, symbolic interactionism (how women were being defined by
their gender which is a social construction e.g. their clothing, female chairs
were different to male chairs), Marxist theory. There was no feminist theory at
the time.