Feminists fight for the equality of women and argue that women should share equally in society’s opportunities and scare resources. Through the ages woman were seen as the production of children, mothers and wives, they do the cooking, cleaning, sewing and washing, they take care of their husbands and are largely excluded from high-status occupations and from position of power.
Patriarchy is a society in which the oldest male is the leader of the family, or a society controlled by men in whom they use their power to their own advantage and is the inequality the women experience within the family and background.
It is important to outline that not all feminists believe in the same concepts, that is some feminists come from different branches and they have their own ideal concept and ideologies.
The development of feminism has led to attention being focused on the subordinate position of women in many societies. Most Feminists tend to see society as divided into different social groups which are:
Marxist Feminist
Marxist feminist focus on social institutions of private property and capitalism. Marxist see the male domination as the one who provides capitalism to the family while the woman will eventually stay at home to raise the children and supply of labour. Inequality does not stand from the economic system but in the patriarchy. Some argue that there is inequality, but it’s not man who is causing it or those women are weak but we analyse inequality with a boarder social system.
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Example: Margaret Benston (1970s) argues that women’s labour power in family is unpaid and so they are seen as the secondary breadwinners of the family which result into cheap and easily exploitable labour. To pay woman for their work, even at minimum scale, would result into a massive redistribution of wealth. Men’s/ Labourer’s work must compensate for two people: their own wage and that of the wife. According to Fran Ansley she sees the emotional support given by the wife when her own husband absorbs his own frustration and anger with her.
Radical Feminist
There are many varieties of radical families, in fact this is a theory of or by woman. The patriarchal or the male domination is the most universal form of domination and society which eventually forms the widest, suffering and deepest female oppression in society, regardless of your economic background, colour, and class. Women’s oppression provides a conceptual model for understanding all other forms of oppression. E.g. the focus of Radical Feminists is largely on the violence that women suffer, and their social subjugation through violent behavior inflicted by men. They believe that this is what keeps women oppressed whether they are rich or poor, black or white, educated or illiterate. The focus of Radical feminism is therefore on fighting gender related violence. Separatist Radical Feminist state that there is no point in changing men’s behaviour or attitude, woman must be separated from men to lead non-exploitative lives.
Example: Delphy and Leonard (1992) see the family as an economic system and it revolves around labour relations in which men will benefit from. Feminists see the family as a way for men to dominate women, men are usually the head of the house hold and benefit from the work that gets done e.g. making dinner, cleaning, bringing up kids and so on.
Liberal Feminist
Liberal Feminism is based on gender equality which means that both genders should have equal pay, better working jobs condition, education, individual achievement etc. All people are created equal and should not be denied equality of opportunity because of gender. Liberal Feminists focus their efforts on social change through the construction of legislation and regulation of employment practices which should be set by society for girls and boys, and men and women. Gaining job opportunities and being paid and promoted equally in traditionally male-dominated occupations is an important goal to liberal feminist. Someone might ask ‘but what do woman want?’ Liberal feminism answers: mostly, what men want: to get an education, to make a decent living, to provide for one’s family. So, the primary obstacle to equality is sexism which means that there is a belief that the members of one sex are less intelligent, able, skilful, etc. than the members of the other sex, especially that women are less able than men.
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In the above paragraph I described liberal feminism in theory of work that focuses more on issues like equality of workplace, in education, in political rights but it is important to outline that liberal feminism looks at situations which are more private. Example liberal feminists tend to support marriage as an equal partnership, and more male involvement when it comes to child care. Another example is that of domestic violence. Ending domestic violence and sexual harassment have to do with removing obstacles to women achieving on an equal level with men. Nowadays liberal feminist see that both genders are becoming equal and that it improved.
Example: Jennifer Somerville (2000) encourages realistic policies which results into gender equality. Some modern men are voluntarily committed to sharing in those routines necessities of the family survival, even though men do not take full share of responsibilities.
Difference Feminist
Some feminist writers might disagree with the above aspects. Instead, they believe that one’s experience might be different than that of another individual. For example: they do not believe that all husbands treat there wife badly or are equally disadvantaged in all types of work, or that looking after her children is a stressful thing. They only emphasis on the experience of womanhood by taking into consideration one’s variables e.g. beliefs, employment, race, religion etc. still they do believe that woman are oppressed but they do not see it as affecting all women. Example a white rich woman lives in a more comfortable setting than that of a black poor woman.
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