All feminists see gender as a critical issue to the inequality imposed on women and believe that there should be no differences between genders. They accept that there are fundamental biological differences between men and women but these do not make men any superior than women. They believe as John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor stressed that men and women were born equal in terms of their rationality, judgement and intellect. They believe gender difference exists because of the patriarchal nature of the society origins deep in history. Women usually learn to accept the inferiority of their gender role from the way they were brought up.
On the other hand, different traditions within feminism distinguish themselves from each other in a great extent. For liberal feminists, they are more concerned with women’s life in public, for example the legal and political aspects. Ever since Mary Wollstonecraft in 18th century, liberals have fought for equality of opportunities. They believe there is a boundary between public and private life, where private life does not concern liberals very much. It is women’s choice if they want to play the traditional role of women.
Whereas radical feminists would argue that patriarchy exists everywhere in life regardless of public or private. They believe private life is the root of exploitation. Radical feminist Kate Millett claimed that men will be dominant in all the other aspects of life once they have gained a dominant role in families. Similarly, socialist feminist see women’s domestic work serve the interests of capitalism. And male the “breadwinners” therefore enjoy higher status within the family and in the society.
Liberals have concentrated on seeking equality in different areas that affect women in general, such as education, employment and representation in political institutions, and protecting women from rape and family violence. They achieve these mainly through reforming laws and promoting attitudinal changes within the existing structure of society. Whereas radical and socialist feminist would prefer a revolutionary transform of the society such as creating a system of communal living or overthrowing capitalism
Furthermore, even within the traditions of feminism, there are divergent elements. Socialist feminists have differed on the issues over class and gender. Marxist feminists insist on the primacy of class politics over sexual politics but modern socialist feminists refuse to analyse the position of women in simple economic terms. They believe liberation cannot be brought about by merely replacing capitalist class by socialism.
Radical feminists argue between themselves over the idea that the difference between women and men is fundamental and unalterable. Some have gone far to create the idea that “men are the enemy”. Men created an “ideology of rape” by which all men keep all women in a state of fear and some suggested that “feminism is the theory; lesbianism is the practice”. However, majority of feminists have remained faithful to the goal of sexual equality and the belief that it is possible to establish harmony between men and women.
New traditions of feminism have developed since 1960s and brought about many different ideas. Black feminism has challenged the tendency within feminism to ignore racial differences. They portray sexism and racism as interlinked systems of oppression. For Islamic feminism, the return to traditional moral and religious principles is a means of enhancing the status of women. Exclusion of women from public life has been viewed as a symbol of liberation. This contradicts completely with conventional feminism.
In general, feminists have been concerned with similar core issues such as patriarchy, gender differences and the raising of consciousness. However, the ways in which the traditions have taken the problems are completely different. It seems that the rival traditions of feminism have largely emerged out of established ideologies such as liberalism and socialism. Therefore, it is difficult to say that feminism is a single doctrine.
