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Courtney Kintz
13 April 2005
Feminist Theory Presentation
What is feminism? Feminism is the organized movement which promotes equality for
men and women in political, economic and social spheres. Feminists believe that
women are oppressed simply due to their sex based on the dominant ideology of patriarchy. Ridding society of
patriarchy will result in liberation for women, men, minorities, and gays.
Patriarchy is the system which oppresses women through its social, economic and political
institutions. Throughout history men have had greater power in both the public and private
spheres. To maintain this power, men have created boundaries and obstacles for women, thus
making it harder for women to hold power. There is an unequal access to power. Patriarchy also
includes the oppression of minorities and homosexuals.
Feminist ideology can take many different forms. In the 1970s, women started developing a
theory which helped to explain their oppression. Pockets of resistance began to organize and
challenge patriarchy. By the 1980s, however, feminists started disagreeing on particular issues
linked to feminism. What was once one theory, began to branch out into many theories that
focused on different feminist issues. Today, there are as many definitions of feminism as there
are feminists. Each definition of feminism depends on a number of factors including ones own
beliefs, history and culture.
The major premise within feminist theory is that, largely, conceptions of sex and gender are
socially constructed and are interwoven into institutions and social life. Also, these theories are
trying to put women and women's gender identities back into the social structure with major
questions being:
Why do we have gender inequality and how is gender inequality intersected with other
social stations like age, race, status, and race? How do these inequalities vary by culture?
More activist approaches delve into strategies to bring women and men into full
participation in culture and society.
Major thinkers in contemporary feminist theory that talk about the systematic effects of sex and
gender include Gayle Rubin and Virginia Sapiro.
Rubin looks at the way gender operates within society. Analyzing the sets of
arrangements by which society transforms biological sexuality into products of human
activity; into which transformed sexual needs are met or satisfied. She deconstructs the
social arrangements that socialize sex into gender.
Sapiro analyzes the system or structure of roles, power relationships, and activities that
are predominant within a society that are based on the biological distinctions between
males and females further elaborated and interpreted through culturally defined gender
norms. Sapiro is interested in the social processes that produce gendered people and she
makes distinctions between performing and being, or roles and identity, looking at how
these things reproduce themselves.
Feminist theory is mainly about figuring out the sex/gender system: What should we do about it?
And why has it happened this way? What are the effects of people living in stratified sex/gender
systems?
If theory is a set of abstracted concepts formulated to explain a phenomenon, problem, or reality,
then feminist theory is as varied as society itself because the sex/gender system permeates all of
social life.
Feminist theorist Estelle Freedman chronicles the history of feminism and the future of women.
Freedman asks how and why a feminist revolution has occurred and changed the world via
feminist politics and women's movements. Thus she looks for historical patterns for structural
explanation. Freedman lists several reasons why patriarchy, or absolute rule of men over women,
has developed historically.
1. invention of private property
2. nuclear family
3. mother-infant bond
4. material surplus
5. religious changes
Most importantly she cites the rise of capitalism and how capitalist economies disrupted the
home-based economic system where individual households sustained themselves and traded
within the community. The new economic system created dependent economic roles for women.
In the old household economies, women and men had reciprocal roles, though some roles were
gender segregated, women were conceptualized as economic producers. During the rise of
capitalism men were called to perform jobs for wages outside of the home economies and they
were able to have more material input than women in the system of wage labor.
Freedman also addresses the factors necessary to the development of feminist consciousness.
She points to new liberal political theories of political rights of individual equality. John Stuart
Mill was a major influence in liberal philosophy whereas the main tenet states that all people are
created equally, all are citizens, none are excluded. It did take a while for the extension of
thought and rights to all humanity to apply to women philosophically and in practice.
Gerda Lerner further extended the idea of feminist consciousness to include the awareness of
women's status as members of a subordinate group; that this condition of suffering wrongdoing
as a group is not natural, but societally determined. Lerner like Freedman, is interested in how
women consciously recognize their subordination as a group. Consciousness raising groups
during the 2nd wave tuned women into a larger pattern of inequality that was not limited to
isolated individual problems but are systematic problems. This process requires communication
and conceptual breakthroughs and identity with a group. The recognition of women's
subordination in a social system and not as a natural part of life requires changing implicit
cultural beliefs and societal laws together.
Why do women have to keep coming up with the same types of feminist ideas over the
centuries? What systems suppress group awareness? Feminists argue that the way
communication is organized via written word, education, organization, and access has allowed
the suppression of development of feminist consciousness until recently.
Systematic discrimination is socially constructed, not given divinely. There is a pattern of
women reinventing feminist thought for many reasons which include:
Defending thought from superiors who refuse to listen
Laws are not in favor of women
Fear of abuse
Elite men have historically controlled resources, education, money and books
Religious control
Social complacency; belief in the established categories of status quo
Restricted access to socially valued education (this is compared within class)
Why have women perpetuated their own oppression? Lerner focuses on educational
disadvantages which affect women's self-perceptions and their ability to conceptualize their own
situation and ability to conceive of societal solutions to improve it. There is an importance of
theoretical ideas in feminist thought because of the ability to use abstractions to debate
perspectives and increase multiple understandings of the same subject. Debate and discourse on
feminist subject matter enables people to consider the utility of patriarchal thought and
conceptualize how the world is ordered in a gendered way. Not only can we think about the basal
social structure and order, but we can now consider whose ideas are considered important
enough to pass onto the whole culture. Whose history do we preserve?
Therefore, we must build upon a collective experience of groups using communication as the
imperative for expression and organization into feminist consciousness. We can now question
the naturalization of women's inferiority compared to men, which has been solidified way back
in history by Aristotle. This assumption has been so pervasive that the supposed inferiority of
women has not entered much in public debate. It entered into debate about 200 years ago in the
US, 5000 years after Aristotle. This gives us a hint about who has the collective power to define
social order including the written law.
Susan Moller Okin: Justice, Gender, and the Family
Basic roots of inequality between sex and gender
a. injustice within the family structure, systems, and individual type of families
b. unequal distribution of unpaid family labor: women do more of the house work and
childcare
c. unequal division of labor and the justification why this is so
Supporting points:
a. family is the primary source of gender socialization
b. family formulates concepts of justice via adult-child interaction: is there justice and
reciprocity, domination and manipulation, or one-sided sacrifice? What is included or left
out in the domain of justice. According to justice theorists, gender differences and family
roles based on sex are not connected with values of justice.
c. During a divorce, why does women's standard of living go down while men's goes up?
Women are more vulnerable to poverty after divorce because they have usually worked
less outside of the home, they usually get child custody, they earn less money and they
obtain less labor skills than men on average
d. The legal system today treats as equals those who are unequal in social reality.
How can we address this type of injustice?
a. solution has to address equal sharing of paid and unpaid work for both men and women
1. respect rights for families including the rights of individual to choose various
lifestyles. This also includes protecting people who could be disadvantaged by
traditional gender roles
b. working form a Rawlsian or original position framework, much like standpoint feminism
c. equality in separate spheres requiring an adjustment in value systems
d. laws need to recognize that people start out in different positions (welfare liberal
perspective)
e. laws need to change, no longer assuming there is a full time homemaker supporting a full
time worker, this includes public policy at the workplace because wage work is still
organized for men who have women taking care of the domestic affairs enabling them to
be ideal workers
f. Education: explicit policy to hire women and men into non-traditional roles. And kids
should be taught about gender discrimination in a realistic way of education, which
should address unequal valuation of women's work
g. Recognizing workplace structure
1. pregnancy and birth leave for both parent and treated equally
2. flex time, flexible hours without jeopardizing seniority
3. on-site day care or government subsidized childcare for workers
h. establish paternity responsibility and require fathers to support children
i. in a spousal relationship, the splitting of wages in the name of both spouses which should
recognize work done at home
Various types of contemporary feminist theories:
Marxist Feminism:
Basis is in Marxist thought
Superstructure of society is in interlocking ideas and institutions composed of the modes of
production and the relations of production (means). Ideas are the supporting and organizing
forces of institutions. When the mode of production changes the relations of production the
superstructure is the change in tandem.
The theory goes that women's status became less autonomous and prestigious as the
industrialization structure reduced women's productive power. This is the first theory on how the
economy effects our ideas, values, institutions and human social life. It is a critique of modern
western culture, but not a call for a renaissance of the past. Marxism sees capitalism as a system
of power relations where women are the least powerful players because of economic
disenfranchisement.
a. women are excluded from the productive sphere in favor of men
b. women are excluded from the public sphere of economic production
c. women are kept poor and dependent on men
d. women create use values not exchange values
The historical culprits:
a. creation of private property
b. patrilineage and inheritance
c. monogamous marriage
solutions:
a. all women should enter public industry
b. the socialization of housework and childrearing
c. unionization to protect all workers
d. comparable worth-revaluation of pink collar and 'women's work
e. the goal of Marxism in general is to abolish private property and create communal
ownership and decision making
Socialist Feminism
Socialist feminists believe that there is a direct link between class structure and the oppression of
women. Western society rewards working men because they produce tangible, tradable goods.
On the other hand, women's work in the domestic sphere is not valued by western society
because women do not produce a tangible, tradable good. This gives men power and control over
women. Socialist feminists reject the idea that biology predetermines ones gender. Social roles
are not inherent and women's status must change in both the public and private spheres.
Socialist feminists like to challenge the ideologies of capitalism and patriarchy. Much like the
views of radical feminists, socialist feminists believe that although women are divided by class,
race, ethnicity and religion, they all experience the same oppression simply for being a woman.
Socialist feminist believe that the way to end this oppression is to put an end to class and gender.
Women must work side by side men in the political sphere. In order to get anything
accomplished, women must work with men, as opposed to ostracizing them. There must be a
coalition between the two and they must see each other as equals in all spheres of life. In contrast
to ideals of liberal feminism, which tend to focus on the individual woman, the socialist feminist
theory focuses on the broader context of social relations in the community and includes aspects
of race, ethnicity and other differences.
Thinkers:
Alison Jaggar: Feminist Politics and Human Nature
Alison Jaggar believes that women hold a special standpoint in society and that it is because of
the historical subordination of class and sex that women are oppressed. Jaggar rejects the
ideology that biology predetermines ones destiny. She also rejects Liberal Feminism because of
its emphasis on the individual. Jaggar believe that to gain equality, society must focus on social
organizations. She does not believe that equality can be gained simply through acts of legislation.
Jaggar also rejects the ideals of Radical Feminism because it focuses on men as the enemy.
Instead, Jaggar says that women must form coalitions with men.
Ecofeminism
Ecofeminists believe that patriarchy and male domination is harmful to women, as well as the
environment. There is a link between a male's desire to dominate unruly women and wilderness.
Men feel as though they must tame and conquer both in order to have complete power.
Ecofeminists say that it is this desire that destroys both women and the Earth.
Ecofeminists believe that women have a central role in preserving nature because woman
understand and are one with nature. There is a deep connection that men cannot understand
between the Earth and women, hence the terms Mother Nature or Mother Earth. Women need to
use their superior insight to reveal how humans can live in harmony with each other and with
nature.
Thinker: Vandana Shiva: Ecofeminism
Vandana Shiva is a physicist, born in India and is the leading advocate of Ecofeminism. Shiva
frequently critiques the connection between western science/ capitalism and the exploitation of
women/nature. Shiva believes that patriarchy reduces women and nature to passive objects that
should be acted upon and examined. Shiva won the Right Livelihood Award, which is
considered the alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize.
Cultural Feminsm:
Cultural feminists believe that there are fundamental, biological differences between men and
women, and that women should celebrate these differences. Women are inherently more kind
and gentle. Cultural feminists believe that because of these differences, if women ruled the world
there would be no more war and it would be a better place. Essentially, a women's way is the
right and better way for everyone. Western society values male thought and the ideas of
independence, hierarchy, competition and domination. Females values ideas such as
interdependence, cooperation, relationships, community, sharing, joy, trust and peace.
Unfortunately, says the cultural feminist, these ideas are not valued in contemporary western
societies.
Cultural feminists are usually non-political, instead focusing on individual change and
influencing or transforming society through this individual change. They usually advocate
separate female counter-cultures as a way to change society but not completely disconnect.
Thinker: Carol Gilligan: In a Different Voice
Carol Gilligan believes that socialization is to blame for the oppression of women in western
society. Gilligan conceived the idea of Ethic of Care. Ethic of Care is the moral development that
women go through, including women's responsiveness in relationships and concern with care.
Gilligan emphasizes attachments and relationships, stressing that these may be the key to
transforming patriarchal society.
Psychoanalytic Feminism
This theory of gender oppression includes the psychological as well as sociological factors that
operate on a unconscious level. Our participation in systems of inequality are not fully conscious
or under waking control. Both men and women develop psyches that put them into the gender
hierarchy.
This theory analyzes both essentialism and social constructionism. Essentialism is the ideas that
there is an innate pre-social identity to someone. Gender is based on sex for natural reasons. Why
is essentialism a problem? Because biological determinism and divine plan ideologies justify
categorical inequalities between people as natural. If human nature and social arrangements are
essential, then how can we explain changes in culture over time and vast differences by culture?
Social constructionism posits that human qualities and institutions are created by society and
culture.
Psychoanalytic feminists are concerned with the development of gender, sexuality, personality,
and authority in individuals. Individuals develop identities in relationships with others in a
cultural system which affect all of us even on a subconscious level. Thus, how do people become
supporters or resisters of sex stratification?
Solutions offered:
a. co-parenting
b. acception of diverse family types
c. challenging the ideology that the true women is primarily a mother and that fathers do not
have to parent
Thinker: Nancy Chodorow
Chodorow was active during the second wave of feminism. Chodorow's most influential book is
thought to be, Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender. In this book, she challenges the
traditional view that females are biologically predisposed toward nurturing infants. She argues
that mothering, fulfills a woman's psychological need for reciprocal intimacy. Chodorow also
describes the difference in the mother's relationships with their sons as apposed to their
daughters. She states that mothers are close with their infant sons, but they view their male
children as different and do not share with them the same sense of "oneness" that they experience
with their daughters. She claims that mature males that are unaccustomed to a psychologically
intimate relationship are, therefore, content to leave mothering to women. Chodorow's thinks that
object-relations theory is a gender identity formation and is largely a result of the dynamics of
family relationships. She has different views on the oedipal stage of childhood. She argues that a
girl's pre-oedipal bond with her mother can continue after she develops a fascination with her
father. Chodorow also believe that in the preoedipal stage, the infant experiences a primary
identification with the mother and forms a primary love for the mother that makes no
differentiation between the child's needs and the ability of the mother to fulfill them. Gradually
the child establishes a sense of self through an expanded awareness of its own physical self. The
child begins to differentiate from the mother as it becomes less dependent upon her. She
emphasizes the impact of same-gender mothering on the psychosocial development of girls as
well as boys
Post-modern feminism
This theory changes the emphasis or foci of feminism challenging not just what we think but
how we think about feminism. This feminism challenges all of the assumptions of modern
philosophy:
a. They challenge the primacy of the self and individualism, that the self is a non-
contradictory, stable, coherent entity
b. That truth is a part of social reality, the existence is independent of the knower and that
the individual can discover this truth of existence. That truth is universal and immutable
c. The rational empiricism is THE valid mode for discovering the truth
d. The knowledge can be neutral thus beneficial conflicts between truth and power can be
solved by grounding claims in the authority in reason
e. That language is transparent and reveals the world to us from a realist point of view; we
see reality through language
f. That history is progress and human history has flowed towards the development of higher
and better forms of society
g. Phenomenon are not random; the world is fundamentally structured, organized, and
meaningful. Just need the right methods for finding the underlining patterns
h. The optimistic view that humans are intrinsically good and rational and through
education and organization, people can express their rational selves
i. Science is the paradigm for the proper use of reason and the way to produce true
knowledge
Post-modernism challenges all these modern tenets. POMO feminists challenge established
fields of discourse that seem to make truth statements to the population, like the North American
Medical discourse that has mainly studied health in men and then generalized their studies to
women. They define discourse as a structure of categories, beliefs, statements in a particular time
and place that has a purpose to it. POMO feminists ask questions like these:
a. if there is a truth or an objective reality, we will not be able to see it without our own
biases
b. do we have control over our own lives? How much agency do we really have?
c. Can we have original thoughts or ideas or only permutations and combinations of
existing ideas and actions?
d. Does free will exist?
e. The belief in relativism, if there is no foundation of knowledge how can you make a
claim to the contrary or a truth statement?
f. There is no fundamental truth or god
Joan Scott is interested in the gender equality and the gender difference debate. Should the
genders be seen in the eyes of the laws as legally neutral or should they address differences? She
analyzes the binary arguments, if one wants equality, can one focus on the differences?
Semantics and semiotics. Should we deny or suppress those differences among men or among
women, variance. Why are equality and difference opposites?
Uses of the word 'bitch http://www.gendergappers.org/2002-031.htm
We have always been against using words that defame and disrespect women even though there
are those who argue that by using them we limit their power to hurt.
Recent events have caused us to change our minds, but only conditionally. It's really not the
word that rankles but its selectivity. In a democracy, that is discriminatory and should be
forbidden.
The word bitch is thought to start out some many years ago as a name for animal mothers such as
the female dog (biccha) and from there was applied to females of other species. When applied to
women, it was derogatory, indicating a lewd woman.
It also meant "to botch, bungle or spoil and to grumble or find fault." These uses have stayed
fairly constant over time. What has been lost or just ignored is that "bitch" was also applied to
men. Bitch is a word that is used to demoralize and intimidate many women. They are called this
when they try to assert themselves in the workplace or in the home. Overall, it has been a
controlling word.
None the less, some women have internalized the appellation and redefined it to show their
strength and power:
The solution to the pejorative nature of the word, "bitch," is for women to quit making it gender
specific and REINTRODUCE the use of the word to describe men too. As the saying goes,
"What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander."
There are different kinds and degree of bitches and bitchery. We use the pairing of female and
male bitches to demonstrate that the appellation is not gender specific and illustrate how men, as
well as women, are bitches.
We present some well known, and should be known, bitches. You will think of many more and
hopefully will incorporate the word, where it applies, into your own descriptions of males, as
well as females. James Traficant and Ann Coulter: loud mouthed, foul-mouthed bitches. Both lie
consistently and what they can't prove, they make up without a care for any harm they may
inflict on others. They are consumed with hatred.
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