Theoretical

Perspectives on
Sex and Gender
Learning Outcomes
1. Assess the various strands of
feminism.

2. Learn the relevance of feminist

perspectives on gender and
society.
In this chapter we will discuss about:
I. Patriarchy and Sexism
II. Feminism
1. Black Feminism
2. Radical Feminism
3. Liberal Feminism
4. Socialist Feminism
5. Ecofeminism
6. Intersectionality
I. Patriarchy and Sexism
• PATRIARCHY a set of institutional structures (like
property rights, access to positions of power, relationship to
sources of income) that are based on the belief
that males are dominant.
 I. Patriarchy and Sexism
SEXISM is the prejudice or
discrimination based on sex or
gender, especially against
women and girls
• Sexism can be a belief that
one sex is superior to or more
valuable than another sex.
• The concept of sexism was
originally formulated to raise
consciousness about the
oppression of girls and
women, although by the early
21st Century it had sometimes
been expanded to include the
oppression of any sex,
including men and boys,
intersexual people, and
transgender people
• Sexism in a society is most commonly
applied against women and girls.
• It functions to maintain patriarchy, or male
domination, through ideological and
material practices of individuals,
collectives, and institutions that oppress
women and girls on the basis of sex or
gender.
Sexist behaviors, conditions, and attitudes
perpetuate stereotypes of social (gender)
roles based on one’s biological sex. A common
form of socialization that is based in sexist
concepts teaches particular narratives about
traditional gender roles for males and females:
1. Women are the weaker sex and less capable
than men, especially in the realm of logic and
rational reasoning.
2. Women are relegated to the domestic realm of
nurturance and emotions and, therefore,
according to that reasoning, cannot be good
leaders in business, politics, and academia.
3. Although women are seen as naturally fit for
domestic work and are superb at being
caretakers, their roles are devalued or not
valued at all when compared with men’s work.
•The extreme form of
sexist ideology is
misogyny, the
hatred of women.
- Where they are seen as property or as
second-class citizens, women are often
mistreated at the individual as well as the
institutional level. For example, a woman
who is a victim of rape (the individual or
personal level) might be told by a judge
and jury (the institutional level) that she
was culpable because of the way she was
dressed (Masequesmay, 2009).
 II. Feminism
Feminism may broadly be defined
as a movement seeking the
reorganization of the world upon
the basis of sex equality, rejecting
all forms of differentiation among
or discrimination against
individuals upon grounds of sex.
Three waves of Feminism
• The first wave dealt with suffrage;
• the second centered on equal access; and
• the current wave is focusing on global equality.
II. Feminism
It urges a worldview that rejects male-
created ideologies. At another level, it is
also a mode of analysis and politics,
committed to freeing all women of gender-
based oppressions. Literally, then, anyone
who supports such an ideology can be a
feminist, regardless of gender (“Feminism
Overview”, 2020).
Feminist activists have campaigned for:
• women's legal rights (rights of contract, property rights,
voting rights);
• women's right to bodily integrity and autonomy, for abortion
rights, and for reproductive rights (including access to
contraception and quality prenatal care);
• protection of women and girls from domestic violence, sexual
harassment and rape; for workplace rights, including
maternity leave and equal pay;
• against misogyny; and
• against other forms of gender-specific discrimination against
women.
 • Feminist scholars are guided by four
basic questions:
1. And what about the women?
2. Why is women’s situation as it is?
3. How can we change and improve the
social world? and
4. What about differences between
women?

Answers to these questions produce the varieties of feminist theory.

Feminist theory requires us to
critically analyze what is happening
in our social world from multiple
contexts and provide strategies for
the amelioration of adverse
conditions that affect the lives of
women.
 Types of Feminism
1. Black Feminism

2. Radical Feminism

3. Liberal Feminism

4. Socialist Feminism

5. Ecofeminism

6. Intersectionality
1. Black Feminism
Black feminism focuses not only on
women, but specifically on the struggles
of black women (Kanneh, 1998).
 1. Black Feminism

• Black feminist thought insists “that

both the changed consciousness
of individuals and the social
transformation of political and
economic institutions constitute
essential ingredients for social
change”.
2. Radical Feminism
Radical feminism attributes
the oppression of women to
men. Male power must be
analyzed and understood.
2. Radical Feminism
• The radical feminist sees
structures of domination
that are bigger than any
individual. Patriarchy itself,
according to this view,
dominates women by
positioning them as
objects of men’s desire
(Welch 2015).
3. Liberal Feminism
Liberal feminism focuses on
rights for women, as in access
to education, the right to vote,
and economic independence,
citizenship, and other issues of
equality (Saulnier, 1996).
4. Socialist Feminism
Socialism distinguishes between
groups with regard to oppression
and acknowledges that it takes
different forms, depending on the
context and particulars.

Socialist feminism in the extreme

demands the end of capitalism,
property ownership, the
emancipation of workers, and the
ending of all forms of oppression
(Evans, 1995).
 5. Ecological Feminism
• According to Miles (2007), Ecofeminism, also
called Ecological Feminism, branch of
feminism that examines the connections
between women and nature.
• Its name was coined by French feminist
Françoise d’Eaubonne in 1974.

• Ecofeminism uses the basic feminist tenets

of equality between genders, a revaluing of
non-patriarchal or nonlinear structures, and a
view of the world that respects organic
processes, holistic connections, and the
merits of intuition and collaboration.
5. Ecological Feminism
Ecofeminism:
1. Adds both a commitment to the environment and an awareness of
the associations made between women and nature.
2. Emphasizes the ways both nature and women are treated by
patriarchal (or male-centred) society.
3. Examines the effect of gender categories in order to demonstrate
the ways in which social norms exert unjust dominance over
women and nature.
4. Contends that those norms lead to an incomplete view of the
world, and its practitioners advocate an alternative worldview that
values the earth as sacred, recognizes humanity’s dependency on
the natural world, and embraces all life as valuable.
6. Intersectionality Theory
The central issue for Intersectionality Theory is the understanding
that women experience oppression in varying configurations and in
varying degrees of intensity.
 6. Intersectionality Theory
• The explanation for that variation is
that while all women potentially
experience oppression on the basis of
gender, women are, nevertheless,
differentially oppressed by the varied
intersections of other arrangements of
social inequality.

• These vectors of oppression and

privilege include not only gender but
also class, race, global location, sexual
preference, and age.
Thank you!