Gender Inequality: Gender-inequality theories recognize that women's location in, and experience of, social situations are not only different but also unequal to men's. Liberal feminists argue that women have the same capacity as men for moral reasoning and agency, but that patriarchy, particularly the sexist patterning of the division of labor, has historically denied women the opportunity to express and practice this reasoning. Women have been isolated to the private sphere of the household and, thus, left without a voice in the public sphere. Even
At this stage the equality of women was not representative of or concerned with the inequality as it applied to working class women. Paramount to the emergence of feminism in Britain was the author and liberal activist Mary Woolstonecraft, who wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792. Her basic theory was that the rights of men and women should be equal. Men’s superior ability to reason was given as the basis for their having political rights and Woolstonecraft argued that: “... the apparent inferiority of the female intellect was due to women’s inferior education and should
They disregard the feminists demand for equality in conjugal roles as they believe that a division of labour where woman focus upon the home is instinctive, natural and functional. Marxists feminists, however, agree that the trad nuclear family should be dismantled as it is the corner stone of capitalism which they believe to be problematic. Firstly they see the family
For the radical it is the most deep and significant social division. The feminists have advanced an idea of ‘sex politics’ in a similar way to ‘class politics’ of socialists. However, as conventional politics has typically ignored gender division feminists have been forced to develop their own concepts to aid in their analysis – one of such crucial ‘ideas’ is that of Patriarchy. Some feminists limit the terms use to describing power relationships within the family, and use terms such as ‘male dominance’ to discuss the wider world gender relations. However, they do hold that the dominance of the father within the family is symbolic of the supremacy in all other institution.
Liberal feminists are concerned with the human and civil rights and freedoms of the individual; they believe all human beings should have equal rights. Reformism is the idea that progress towards equal rights can be achieve by gradual reforms in society without the need for a revolution. Liberal feminists believe women can achieve gender equality by arguing that laws and policies against sex discrimination in employment and education can secure equal opportunities for women. To add they campaign for cultural change, traditional prejudices and stereotypes about gender differences are a barrier to equality. They reject the idea that biological differences make women less competent than men or men are biologically less emotional or nurturing than women.
Feminism is the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men, part of the debate includes that feminism is not always a unified body; there are many different types of feminist theories for example liberal feminism, radical feminism, socialist feminism, post-modern feminism and Marxist feminism. All of these have contributed however the three types of feminists I will talk about are Marxists, liberal and radical feminism. To begin with, the main beliefs of liberal feminists are that all people are created equal therefore should be treated equal, they also believe that an equal opportunity and should be crafted with the women’s situations in mind and that oppression of women is not a structural feature of the capitalist economic system. They help understand the family because they say that life in present is an improvement on how things were in the past and they back this point up by identifying significant political and social changes. For example women gained the right to vote in the 20th century and rape in marriage was made a crime in the early 1990s.
A Vindication of the Rights of Women’ is an early example of a feminist outlook; Wollstonecraft aims to define, establish and defend equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. In this extract, Wollstonecraft “speaks of passion”; she believes that women were not given the right choices; they were not educated to the full. This affects their choices and they don’t have the full knowledge that they should have been provided with. Jill tweedy was also a feminist writer, who had a balanced view of the relationships between men and women. She believed that women should be equal to men in relationships.
To completely change tradition would result in chaos as he even foreshadows the downfall of the newly installed French government. To change the views of women in society, Wollstonecraft asserts that women should be properly educated as she states that “a little learning is required to support the character of gentleman…But in the education of women, the cultivation of the understanding is always subordinate to the acquirement of some corporeal accomplishment” (Wollstonecraft, 22). Once women are well educated, Wollstonecraft uses the word “friend” to describe the relationship between the husband and wife (Wollstonecraft, 28). The use of the word friend not only suggests social equality but, more importantly, intellectual equality. Traditionally, women have always been seen as entirely devoted to the domestic sphere of the family which over the years have
They do not believe that women should go out and have a professional job in the work force. Now, in the modern society there have been changes and men should cope and adapt to the changes of today’s society. Sexism is expressed as a separation of gender roles and differential access to privileges and opportunities. Traditional gender role stereotypes describe women as nurturers who are emotional, sensitive, and warm. They also describe women as unambitious, incompetent, weak, and conniving in their relational power (Adams, 2009; Williams & Best, 1990).
Their ideologies of social reform were more conservative and traditional in nature. They felt that because women had different needs, the law must be made to recognize these differences because they are significant and relevant to women’s lives and their futures. They fought for women’s suffrage not because they believed it was their “right” as women to vote, but more on the pretense that it was their “duty”. They believed that by having the vote, women would have more political power to improve life for themselves and their children. Their emphasis was on women’s responsibilities as mothers, “Maternalism”, Public Housekeeping, and women’s biological difference from men.