Radical feminists believe that the media is another institution dominated by men. Women are portrayed in the media as being housewives and sex objects for example, adverts for washing up liquid will always have a woman washing up and adverts for baby milk and such will always have a woman holding the baby. The pornography industry is seen by radical feminists as a way of telling men how to control and hurt women. They reject what the call ‘sexual essentialism’- the notion that is a natural force based on biology that inclines women towards natural tendencies such as motherhood. Even strong sexual preferences such as heterosexuality are not biological. The spring from ideology, the ideas that reflect an individual, group, class or culture.
Radical feminists also see religion as a product of patriarchy. Women do have a part to play in many religions, but it is almost subordinate to the role of men. Simone de Beauvoir, a French feminist says,
“For Jews, Mohammedans and Christians, among others, man is master by divine right; the fear of god will therefore repress any impulse towards revolt in the downtrodden female” (Haralambos and Holborn, 2000)
Radical feminists believe to be discriminated against in the work place. The believe men are always given the better jobs and that men also get paid more than women, this is actually proven. Statistics show that for full time employees the pay gap is 10.2 per cent. This is down from 12.2 per cent in 2009 but still proves the radical feminists views.
Women were historically the first oppressed group and most widespread. It exists everywhere. It has high levels of sexist prejudices and causes the most suffering to women. Women’s oppression helps understand other types of oppression. Radical feminists want to destroy the whole concept of sex/gender as a class system and wish to end the idea of difference between men and women. They believe that the idea of heterosexuality is male domination over females and it sets the stage for a number of vices such as rape, sexual harassment, abuse and prostitution. What the radical feminist movement has done for women is they have given the issues to focus on. They have pushed for many women’s rights that we know of today, such as contraceptives, improvements to the pill, and legalisation of abortion and in-vitro fertilisation. The radical feminist movement has come a long way and is continuously growing.
Liberal feminist believe in gradual change to improve things for women. They are known as the more moderate feminists, they do not have extreme views like radical feminists. They think that things have already improved but there is still progress to be made.
Liberal feminists say that men can also suffer because of gender stereotyping, for example, men might lose out on spending time with their children due to being at work instead of at home, or men might find it difficult going into certain jobs such as childcare or hairdressing.
The gender inequality theories of liberal feminists are not as developed as radical and Marxist feminism though they seem to have great support mostly due to their moderate view and the fact that they pose less of a challenge to existing values. They believe nobody benefits from existing gender equalities and the blame for those inequalities is placed upon social upbringing, culture and the attitudes of individuals. Socialisation into gender roles produces expectations of men and women. It is discrimination that prevents women from having equal opportunities in education and work, liberal feminism aims to challenge this. They aim to change legislation, educate people and change attitudes. They seek reforms rather than revolution, supporting the Equal Pay Act (1970) and the Sex Discrimination Act (1975) to help end discrimination. Working through the democratic system they want to make changes to the existing social structure.
Liberal feminists agree with radical feminists that women are discriminated against but liberal feminists also say that men are to, though not as much. They have different views on why there is inequality. Radical feminists blame it all on men whereas liberal feminists blame are attitudes and culture, as they also believe men suffer inequalities. By changing legislation and educating people liberal feminists believe equality can be achieved. They think men should be educated not to be sexist and women should organise themselves together to fight against male power (separatism), for example, by joining women’s groups. Both feminists believe the cause of inequality is due to culture and socialisation but radical feminists also believe that biological differences are a cause. The major criticism against liberal feminism is that it assumes change can happen in the existing male-dominated social structure. This would mean that women would have to surrender to patriarchy’s values, norms and ways of being. In other words women must be like men. Radical feminists blame men for their oppression so would not agree with their views.
Marxist feminists do not entirely blame men for the exploitation of women. They blame capitalism rather than patriarchy. They agree with liberal feminists that the unpaid work women do such as housework and childcare, due to stereotyping gender roles, is the main way that women are oppressed. Unlike both radical and liberal feminists they do not focus on gender being the reason for their position but class and economic conditions of women. Women’s domestic work is an unpaid job but Marxists feminists argue that it is done for capitalism, not for the working class husband. Instead of paying for childcare capitalism places the burden on working class women as rich women have nannies and cleaners. Capitalism also doubly exploits women when the have to take low-paid part-time jobs to fit around their domestic duties.
To achieve equality for women capitalism must be overthrown by the working class so that the burden of domestic labour is removed from women. Work places providing crèches would mean women could work equally as men do. Marxist feminists believe that getting rid of capitalism will get rid of both class and gender inequalities. They believe that rich women are also oppressed but a lot less than working class women. Working class men and women should join together and through this the sexism of working class men can be overcome.
Radical feminists agree with Marxist feminists that the family is oppressive to women and that a revolutionary change would create equality. But Marxist feminists do not blame men like radical feminists do. As they both have different view of what causes inequalities, the revolutionary change they both seek is different. Radical feminists think all women should unite and Marxist feminists think all working class men and women should unite.
Marxist feminists tend to be criticised for placing too much emphasis on class relations with women rather than women’s experience within the domestic area. Their solution to rid women’s exploitation is also criticised as overthrowing capitalism does not seem very likely. Radical feminists are critical of Marxist feminists emphasising capitalism as all societies include parochial forms of exploitation, not just capitalist ones.
“In terms of Marxist theory, women appear insignificant: they sit on the side-lines of the grand struggle between capital and labour. Marxism may explain capitalism but does not explain patriarchy” (Haralambos and Holborn 2000)
In conclusion to my assignment and regarding the title both liberal and Marxist feminists would react differently to the quote, both disagreeing but to different extents. Neither of the two feminists I have compared would agree that women’s oppressions are caused by men alone. Liberal feminists believe to be engaged in a power struggle with the social upbringing of all individuals, whereas Marxist feminists believe to be in a power struggle with capitalism. Therefore men are included in these ‘power struggles’. It seems to me that there is more evidence to support liberal feminism. Children are taught stereotypes from a young age with the toys they are given. The media is also constantly portraying stereotypes, for example, women’s magazines have cooking recipes in them and there is a very large industry that produces pornographic magazines for men. Through this stereotyping there is always going to be sexism in society. Radical feminist believe only women are oppressed by men, but men are discriminated against if they want to go into certain jobs like hairdressing. As mentioned in the criticisms against Marxist feminists they concentrate too much on capitalism. If there was no class difference there would still be sexism against women due to stereotypes created by society.
Bibliography
Politics of the Ego: A Manifesto, New York Radical Feminists (1969)
Haralambos and Holborn. (2000) Sociology: Themes and perspectives, 5th edition, London Harper Collins
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