FEMINIST

THEORY
 Feminist theory or Feminism - is support
for equality for women and men. Although
all feminist strive to gender equality,
there are various ways to approach this
theory, including liberal feminism, social
feminism and radical feminism. Lets take
a look at the basic feminist ideas and
various approaches to achieving gender
equality. both females and males who
identify themselves as feminists disagree
on many things.
FEMINISTS AGREE ON FOUR BASIC
PRINCIPLES:
1. Working to increase equality:
feminist thought links ideas to action,
we should push for change toward gender
equality and not just talk about it.
2.Expanding human choice: feminists
believe that both men and women should
have the freedom to develop their human
interests and talents, even if those
interests and talents conflict with the
status quo.
 For example,if a woman wants to be a
mechanic, she should have the right and
opportunity to do so.

3.Eliminating gender stratification:

feminists oppose laws and cultural norms
that limit income, educational and job
opportunities for women.

4.Ending sexual violence and promoting

sexual freedom.
 Feminist theory- is one of the major
contemporary sociological theories, which
analyzes the status of women and men in
society with the purpose of using that
knowledge to a better women’s life.
Feminists theories also questions the
differences between women, including how
race, class, ethnicity, sexuality,
nationality, and age intersect with
gender.
 FOUR MAIN TYPES OF FEMINISTS THEORIES:
(Explain social differences between men
and women)
1.Gender differences: the gender
difference perspective examines how
women’s location in and experience of,
social situations differ from men’s. For
example, cultural feminists look to the
different values associated with womanhood
and femininity as a reason why men and
women experience the social world
differently other feminists theories
believed that the different roles assigned
 To women and men within institutions
better explain gender differences,
including the sexual division within labor
institution.
2.Gender inequality: gender inequality
theories recognize that women’s location
in, and experience of, social situations
are not only different but also unequal to
men’s. Liberal feminists argue that women
have the same capacity as men for moral
reasoning and agency, but that patriarchy,
particularly the sexist patterning of the
division of labor, has historically
denied.
3. Gender oppression: theories of gender
oppression go further than theories of
gender difference and gender unequality by
arguing that not only are women different
from or unequal to men. Power is the key
variable in the main theories of gender
oppression: psychoanalytic feminism and
radical feminism.
4. Structural oppression: that women’s
oppression and inequality are a result of
capitalism, patriarchy, and racism.
 TYPES OF FEMINISM
Radical feminism- promotes the basis of
the ideas of feminism. They usually clash
with the ideas of the liberal feminists,
because radical feminists believed that
society must be changed at its core in
order to dissolve patriarchy, not just
through acts of legislation. Radical
feminists emphasize their difference from
men. They form groups that excludes males
completely.
Radical feminism have divided into two groups with very
different views:

1.Radical-Libertarian Feminists- believed

that femininity and reproduction limit
women’s capacity to contribute to society.
Women should essentially be androgynous.
Radical libertarian like to violate sexual
norms and believe that women should
control every aspects of their sexuality.
 2.Radical-Cultural Feminism- are
dramatically different from radical
libertarian feminists views. Radical
cultural feminists believe that women
should encompass their femininity because
it is better than masculinity. “Wild
female within” sees sex and penetration as
male dominated. They believed that men are
jealous of women and that they try to
control reproduction through means of
technology.
history’s 10 most
famous
feminists
 1. Amelia Jenks Bloomer- was an American
women’s rights and temperance advocate. Even
though she did not create the women’s clothing
reform style known as bloomers, her name
because associated with it because of her early
and strong advocacy.
2.Mary Wollstonecraft- was an english writter and
feminist philosopher who raised her voice for
gender equality. Her 1792 work “ A vindication of
the rights of women” questions Rousseau’s ideas
of female inferiority and acquired a prominent
status in feminists literature.
 3.Simone de Beauvoir-a french writter,
intellectual , existentialist philosopher,
political activists, feminists and social
theorist.
 4.Alice Paul- was an american suffragists,
feminists and women’s rights activists and the
main leader of the strategists of the 1910s
campaign for the Nineteenth amendment of the US
constitution which prohibits sex discrimination
in the right to vote.
 5.Carrie Chapman Catt- was one of the most
important women in the early 20th century
america. She was a passionate supporter of women
suffrage and peace.
6.Betty Friedan- was one of the prominent figures
in feminist movement in America. Her best–selling
book The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963,is
believed to have brought resurgence in women’s
rights movement.
 7.Isabella Baumfree- was a crausader against
racial discrimination and gender inequality. She
travelled to various places preaching missions
and speaking for rights of women and slaves.
 8.Susan Anthony- one of the foremost leaders of
American suffragist movement and the anti-slavery
movement. She was instrumental in forming the
Women’s National League, which supported the
policies of President Abraham Lincoln.
 9.Elizabeth Cady Stanton- was one of the
prominent figures in early feminist movement in
America. She was a friend of Susa B. Anthony,
with whom she co-authored History of Woman
suffrage.
 10.Lucy Stone- was a prominent American orator,
abolitionist, and suffragists, and a vocal and
advocate and organizer promoting rights for
women. In 1847, Stone became the first woman from
Massachusetts to earn college degree.