Liberation is seen to be achieved through raising women’s consciousness of subjugation. Feminists believe that women have accepted inferiority to men subconsciously, and thus need to realise this before becoming liberated. Millet argues that women are in a “power-structured relationship…whereby one group of persons is controlled by another”, thus suggesting that feminists believe that in our current society men control women. Although there is controversy between feminists as to the extent of advancing a woman’s role within society, as first-wave feminists demand that women should enjoy the same legal and political rights as men, whilst second-wave feminists have greater focus on the personal side of society and call for complete social revolution. Whilst this presents a clear divide within the doctrine, it
The women’s movement and the consequent development of feminist ideas in the 1960s and 1970s influenced the question of gender and began emphasise the importance of gender as a concept of its own. (Howson, 2013, 51). To understand the differences between male and female, it is important to formulate a basic distinction between gender and sex. The key distinctions to note are based around biology and social arrangements. Oakley (1972, cited in Howson, 2013) refers to gender as the ‘psychological, social and representational differences between men and women, which are socially determined and culturally variable’.
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.
Assess the contribution of feminist theorists and researchers to an understanding of society today Feminism comes in different forms such as liberal feminists, radical feminist, Marxist feminists, black feminists, dual-systems feminism, difference feminism and poststructuralism. Feminist theorists such as Sue Sharpe, Becky Francis, Judith Butler and so forth have contributed to giving us an understanding of society today. Gender inequality has become more aware in today’s society and has majorly changed over recent years such as girls overtaking boys at school and men and women still do not occupy equal positions in society. Without feminism people of society today wouldn’t have realised girl’s ambitions changing and how girls got treated differently and this wouldn’t have changed if feminists took a note and researched this further. So this has contributed to how we see society today, people notice girls doing better in school and genuinely how people see education.
Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory by Judith Butler Judith Butler argues that gender identity is a performative achievement is constrained by social sanction and taboo. She defined performative as an act by the very fact of it happening, such as the act of promising by saying “I promise”. She explained that the body is what gender is authorized from; in other words, gender is not the starting place, it is identity being repeatedly constructed through time due to the body’s construction. That gender does not come first, instead, it is created by the performance act. Gender is forced in opposition because the existence of the agency has constructed the binary gender system as definite.
122 As a process, gender creates the social differences that define “woman” and “man.” In social interaction throughout their lives, individuals learn what is expected, see what is expected, act and react in expected ways, and thus simultaneously construct and maintain the gender order pg. 123 As part of a stratification system, gender ranks men above women of the same race and class pg. 123 The dominant categories are the hegemonic ideals, taken so for granted as the way things should be that white is not ordinarily thought of as race, middle class or men as a gender. The characteristics of these categories define the Other as that which lacks the valuable qualities the dominants exhibit. Pg.
They have found that there is increasing family diversity and that women are not equally exploited in all types of family e.g. matrifocal or lesbian families. Nicholson (1997) believes women are often better off outside the traditional idea of family and Calhoun (1997) explains women cannot be exploited by men in lesbian families. This perspective is not easy to criticize because it recognizes differences in family life however it can be criticized for losing sight of continuing inequalities between men and women within the family. Radical feminists believe that the family plays a major role in maintaining the oppression of women in a male-dominated society.
Whereas the first two authors both preach for equal women’s rights and for better treatment for women this author, Catharine Beecher, is more discreet about woman’s rights. According to Beecher, women should have equal privileges as men in social and civil concerns, but in order to keep these privileges women stay stagnant and hand over the civil and political decisions to men. She suggests this because women throughout their life are taught
Jaggar closes her article by illuminating the necessary coexistence between the revolution in social reality and revolution in knowledge, stating that: as the feminist philosophers explicitly regard gender roles in society, this exploration leading to newfound knowledge. Through the study of political philosophy, philosopher’s aim is to arrive at a consensus of what shall be held as “the good society.” To commence constructing this vision, philosophers must articulate how society should or ought to be, in other words, look at the normative elements of a society. In order to legitimatize any theory, that theory must
Each of the female characters makes some link to feminism. They make certain choices that can be looked at in a feminist perspective to help us understand why they made these choices. Firstly, women were expected to marry a man with wealth, a high social status and good looks. Catherine says “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff”. Here, she unambiguously opposes the feminist view of which women were expected to marry and obey the patriarchal society.