Feminism

• Definition:
“An awareness of women’s oppression and
exploitation in society, at work and within the
family, and conscious action by women and
men to change the situation”

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• Feminist:
– Anyone who recognizes sexism (discrimination on
the basis of gender) and male domination
– And takes action against it
• Feminists are not man-haters
• Feminists can be housewives

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Earlier Feminists
• Struggle for democratic
rights
• Right to education and
employment
• Right to own property
• Legal rights for divorce and
birth control
• Main struggle outside the
home
Present day feminists
• Struggle for women
emancipation
• Against women’s
subordination to male within
home
• Against double burden in
production and reproduction
• Low status at work, in society,
in culture, in religion
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• Struggle for achievement of women’s equality,
dignity and freedom of choice to control their
lives and bodies within and outside the homes
• Removal of inequality, domination and
integration of women perspective in all
spheres

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 Is Feminism a Western Idea?
• The term “feminism” may be foreign, but the
concept started in South Asia in 19th century

• Voices against women subordination

– Widow remarriage
– Practice of Sati
– Ban on polygamy

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• Present day feminists in South Asia are very
indigenous
– Issues of dowry
– Female infanticide/Foeticide
– Violence against women
– Rape
– Discriminatory laws

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 Types of Feminism
• Liberal Feminism
• Radical Feminism
• Socialist Feminism
• Psychoanalytic Feminism
• Postmodern Feminism
• Men’s Feminism

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 Liberal Feminism
• Can be traced back to 18th century (Age of
Enlightenment) (Ideals of liberty and equality)
• Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill, Rebecca Walker
• Dominant form of feminism till 1960s
• Individualistic form of feminist theory, focusing on
women’s ability to maintain their equality through their
own actions and choices
• Argues that society has a false belief that women are
less intellectual and less capable than men, and
therefore it tends to discriminate against women
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• “Public sphere” and “Private Sphere”
• The liberal conception of liberty meant that
people were governed only with their consent
and only within certain limits , generally
defined in terms of the public and private
spheres (the former the government can
regulate; the latter it cannot).

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 Liberal Feminists argued:
a. Women's capacity to reason was equal to that
of men
b. Biological sex differences were irrelevant to the
granting of political rights (Wollstonecraft 1792).
c. Female intellectually inferiority was due to their
inferior education and, therefore, was a result of
inequality, rather than a justification for it – a
concept used by later feminists in their
distinction between sex and gender
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 Liberal Feminists argued:
a. women's subordination as resulting from gendered norms ,
rather than from biological sex, and aim to change these norms.
b. focus on equal opportunities for women and men in education
and employment, and equality in laws and policies, and other
aspects of life
c. concerned that job opportunities be equally open to women so
that women can achieve positions of power in government –
policy making – and business .
d. that women should have the right to choose on issues such as
abortion, pornography, and prostitution – The general liberal
idea of individual liberty

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 Demands/Goal
• Strive for equality through political and legal reform
• Major themes:
– Equal Pay for similar work
– Equal distribution of household work
– Equal reproductive rights
– Getting women into positions of authority in professions
and government
• Women’s suffrage(right to vote) to gain individual
liberty

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 Achievements
• In 1920, (after 50 yrs of activism), granted
right to vote and right to hold public office
• Entry in many male dominated jobs and
professions
• Got abortion and other reproductive rights
legalised

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 Radical/Revolutionary Feminism
• Radical reordering of society in which male
supremacy is eliminated in all social and
economical contexts
• Main focus
– Traditional gender roles
– Sexual objectification of women
– Raising awareness about issues such as rape and
domestic violence against women

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 Patriarchy
• Male Chauvinism/Sexism
• Rule of the father or the patriarch
• It refers to a social system where father controls
all members of family, all property and other
economic resources, and makes all major
decisions
• Ideology: man is superior to women, women are,
and should be controlled by men, and are part of
man’s property
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• A social system in which males hold primary
power and dominate in roles of political
leadership, social privilege, moral authority,
and control of property
• The system that oppresses and subordinates
women, in both private and public spheres
• Patrilineal societies: property and title are
inherited by male lineage

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 Commercial side of Patriarchy
• Women depicted as sex objects in media
• Global exploitation of women in prostitution

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• Argues that patriarchy is very hard to
eliminate, but it can be resisted
• “Breathing Space”:
– By forming supportive, woman only spaces where
women can think and act and create free of the
threats of harassment and threat of violence and
rape
– Develop women’s studies programs in colleges
and universities

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– Interpreting knowledge, culture, religion and
health care from women’s point of view

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 “Mothering”
• Women – feed and nurture, cooperate, caring
• Men can ‘mother’ too
• Radical feminists blame men for wars, poverty,
rape, child abuse
• Result of characteristics of male dominated
society – control, aggressiveness,
competitiveness
• Men have potential to use physical violence
against women
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 Socialist Feminism
• Started in 1960s
• Rejects radical feminists claim that patriarchy
is the only/primary form of oppression
• Focuses on connectivity of Patriarchy and
Social Class
• Patriarchy is not the only primary source of
oppression; women are unable to be free due
to their financial dependence on males

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• class and women's subordination were of equal
importance and had to be challenged
simultaneously.
• Liberation can be achieved by working to end
both economic and cultural sources of women’s
oppression
• State can substitute public patriarchy for private
patriarchy
• Male dominated govt policies harm women
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• Economic activity had to be expanded to
include both productive and reproductive
work .
• Promoting policies to eliminate gender
segregation in domestic and wage labor
• Eliminate sexual harassment in the workplace,
achieve equal pay for work of equal value

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 4. Psychoanalytic Feminism
• 1970s and 1980s
• Based on Sigmund Freud's theory of
Psychoanalysis
• Freud’s theory of personality development is
based on
– “Oedipus Complex” – the detachment from the
mother
– Study of the “unconscious mind”

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• Because women are the primary parents,
infants bond with them
• Boys however have to separate from their
mother and identify with their fathers in order
to establish their masculinity
• They develop strong ego boundaries and a
capacity for the independent action,
objectivity, and rational thinking

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• Girls continue to identify with their mothers,
and so they grow up with fluid ego boundaries
that make them sensitive, empathic,
emotional
• A child's identification with the same-sex
parent is the successful resolution of the
complex

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 Psychoanalytic Feminism
• Psychoanalytic feminism claims that the
source of men's domination of women is
men's unconscious two-sided need for
women's emotionality and rejection of them.
• Women submit to men because of their
unconscious desires for emotional
connectedness

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• But because the men in their lives have
developed personalities that make them
emotionally guarded, women want to have
children to bond with.
• Thus, psychological gendering of children is
continually reproduced

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 Shared Parenting
• To develop nurturing capabilities in men, and
to break the cycle of the reproduction of
gendered personality structures,
psychoanalytic feminism recommends shared
parenting

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 Men’s Feminism
• Field of study that applies feminist theories to the
study of men and masculinity. It’s an amalgam of
social construction, psychoanalytic, and gay studies
• A prime goal has been to develop a theory, not of
masculinity, but of masculinities, because of the
diversity among men
• Differences between and within groups of middle-
class and working class men of different ethnic
groups and sexual orientations

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 Hegemonic Masculinity
• Hegemonic or dominant men are those who
are economically successful, ethnically
superior, and heterosexual
• Men's feminism argues that gender inequality
includes men's denigration of other men as
well as their exploitation of women

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• E.g:
– Low-level men workers around the world are
oppressed by the inequalities of the global
economy
– homosexual men are men, not a third gender, but
they are considered not-quite-men

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 Post Modern Feminism
• The most notable proponent: Judith Butler
• Butler criticizes the distinction drawn by previous
feminisms between biological sex and socially
constructed gender
• She says that "woman" is a debatable category,
complicated by class, ethnicity, sexuality, and other
facets of identity
• There is no single cause for women's subordination
and no single approach towards dealing with the issue

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• A major critique of Postmodern Feminism is its
seeming identification of women with the
feminine and the biological body
• Modern feminist theory has been extensively
criticized as being predominantly, associated
with Western middle class academia

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