Structural -✔✔✔Society shapes and determines individuals. Our behaviour is controlled by our society
by its organisation and culture. We are 'puppets of society'.
Conflict -✔✔✔Society benefits one group at the expense of another, in this case, men benefit and
women lose out.
Patriarchy -✔✔✔Men have more power and status than women. Society is dominated by men.
Objective -✔✔✔Aim of feminism is to explain patriarchy and examine the ways it is transmitted from
one generation to the new by key institutions (family, mass media, school etc)
Malestream sociology -✔✔✔Sociology has traditionally had an inbuilt male bias. Patriarchy within
sociology - the mainstream way of looking at social issues has been from a male point of view and the
experiences and issues that matter to women have often been neglected within mainstream sociology.
History of feminism -✔✔✔First wave feminism - suffragettes set out to address power inequalities by
obtaining the vote for women. In 1918 rights were given to women over 30 and in 1928 this was
reduced to age 21.
Second wave - A broader campaign emerged aiming to make improvements to a whole range of areas
including women's pay, legal rights and protections under law.
1960's - equal rights in the workplace
1961 - free contraception (women could now play roles other than housewife)
1970 - Equal Pay Act
1975 - Sex Discrimination Act