Feminist Theory
Feminism and It’s Roots
• Feminist theory is an outgrowth of the general
movement to empower women worldwide.
• Feminism is a women-centered approach to the
study of human behavior.
• Through analysis of gender roles and gender
appropriateness, feminist theory demonstrates
how women have historically been subjected to
a double standard in both treatment and in the
evaluation of their worth.
Feminism
• Feminism is: a recognition and critique of
male supremacy combined with efforts to
change it.
• Feminists fight for the equality of women
and argue that women should share
equally in society’s opportunities and
scarce resources.
First Women’s Convention
• Seneca Falls, New York, 1848 (Birthplace of
Feminism)
• More than 300 people attended
• Discussed social, civil, and religious condition of
women
• Marked the beginning of a 72 year battle to gain
right to vote in the US
• 1920, US became 17 country in the world to give voting rights to
women. New Zealand was the 1st-1893.
• Declaration of Sentiments
Declaration of Sentiments
• First draft written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• Modeled on Declaration of Independence
• Paragraph 2 states: “We hold these truths to be selfevident; that all men and women are created equal;
that they are endowed by their creator with certain
inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these
rights governments are instituted, derived their just
powers from the consent of the governed”
Feminism in Germany
• Feminism though led by Marianne Weber in
early 20th century Germany.
• Active attempt to reach economic and political
equality between men and women
• 1905, another German feminist group emerged.
• Concerned with sexual autonomy, led to what is
known as erotic movement.
• Helen Stoker became the leader of erotic movement in
1906. Issues of sexual politics and matrimonial law became
the focus-Right of women to engage in sexual relations
regardless of marital and legal considerations
Max and Marianne Weber
• Criticized these women
• Believed the promoted rights of “free love” and “illegitimate”
children.
• View the erotic movement as unethical and hedonistic
• Marianne Weber, agreed with her husband
• Ehefrau und Mutter in der Rechtesentwicklung-1907
• Believed that women’s movement should focus on equality of
women and not sexual and moral emancipation.
• Women should be financial independent
• Paid for domestic chores
• Women should be treated equally in social institutions of
marriage
• Believed in marriage between man and woman only
• Alienated many other feminists (especially lesbian feminists)
Contemporary Feminist
Movement
• Second wave of Feminism-1960s
• “Free love” helped women escape the sexual
double standard
• Divorce became easier to obtain
• Women found fulfillment outside the home.
• Focused on women having equal rights and
reaching this goal through legal reform and
legislating antidiscriminatory policies
Contemporary Feminist
Movement
• Examining the race-class-gender linkage
originated with African American feminists in the
1960s.
• Feminization of Poverty
• Women more likely then men to be poor
• Usually single women, women of color and elderly women living
alone
• Mainstream white feminists often negligent of
the reality of women of color
• More concerned with poverty than disadvantages associated with
gender
Liberal Feminism
• Most mainstream perspective
• Based on idea that all people are created equal
and should not be denied equal opportunity
based on gender
• Best exemplified by National Organization for
women (NOW)
• Formed in 1966
• Works within established socioeconomic and political systems to
advocate social change on behalf of women
Liberal Feminism
• Obstacles to equality lie in traditional laws and
behaviors
• Primary obstacle is sexism
• Sexists attitude about appropriate gender roles for men and
women continues to lead to discrimination and prejudice against
women
• Equality also hampered by women who are
reluctant to exercise their rights
• Strive for equality and civil rights for all
individuals
Liberal Feminism
• Equality is best accomplished through programs
that prohibit discrimination and education
program that teach children that society's roles
are not gender-specific
• Ex. men-doctors, women-nurses
• Educating that gender roles are learned not
innate
• Criticized for failing to explain institutionalized
social classes and racial oppression
Marxist Feminism
• Similar to thoughts of Karl Marx and conflict
theory
• Division of labor was related to gender role
expectations
• women-homemakers, men-breadwinners
• Means of production controlled by men
• Women exploited by existing social systems
• Working class women are paid less then their
male counterparts
Marxist Feminism
• Social system needs to change to the point where
women have equal access to the control of the
means of production
• Steps to equality
• First step: entering workforce
• Second step: advancing to management
• Ultimate goal: women owning the means of production
• Acknowledged class differences
• Invites all women to understand that the women’s
oppression is the product of political, social, and
economic structures associated with capitalism
Radical Feminism
• Views patriarchy as sexual system of power in which male
possesses superior power and economic privilege
• Sexism is the ultimate tool used by men, to keep women
oppressed
• Male power and privilege is the basis of social relations
• View patriarchy as having emerged from men’s attempt to
control, females sexuality
• Through patriarchal gender socialization
• Creation of norms of acceptable sexual behavior
• Men exercise sexual power in many violent forms
• Rape, incest, sexual harassment and battery
• Not always physical-ex. encouraging certain style of dress,
motherhood, unpaid housework
Radical Feminism
• Heterosexuality as a tool of male dominance
• Many ways to escape the cage of femininity
• Androgynous culture, replacing male culture with female culture,
celibacy, lesbianism
• Refusing to reproduce is the most effective way
for women to escape
• All existing structures are created by men
• Ex religion: God is male.
Socialist Feminism
• Women’s oppression as stemming from their work in the
family and economy
• Inferior positions of women in the social system is the
result of class-based capitalism (similar to Marxist
Feminism)
• Ex. Unpaid housework
• Capitalism is not the only cause
• Attempts to adapt socialist principles to both the
workplace and at the home to increase gender equity
• Social change will occur through increased consciousness
and knowledge of how society’s social structures are
designed and operate to oppress women
Socialist Feminism
• Private and public sphere
• Men-public (workplace), women-private (home)
• Private-invisible
• Argue for two things:
• 1. An increased emphasis on the private sphere and
the role of women in household
• 2. Equal opportunities for women in the public sphere
Postmodern Feminism
• Attempt to criticize the dominant order and to
valorize the feminine woman
• Utilizes postmodern theory and its assumption
that we no longer live under conditions of
modernity, but of postmodernity
• Postmodern world is a global world highlighted
by technology that controls and promotes
consumerism
Postmodern Feminism
• Believe that concepts and outlooks used to
examine the world in the past no longer apply to
the analysis of the world today
• All theory is socially constructed and resent the
claim of modernists that only rational, abstract
thought and scientific methodology can lead to
valid knowledge
Dorothy E. Smith
• Born: 1926 in Great Britain
• 1955: B.A. in sociology from
London School of Economics
• 1963: Ph.D. in sociology from U
of California at Berkeley
• Feminist thinking and
sociological approach are deeply
influenced by experiences of
being a lecturer at Berkeley in an
almost all-male staff and being a
single mother.
Bifurcation
“conceptual distinction between the world as we
experience it and the world as we come to know it
through the conceptual frameworks that science
invents”
• Attempt to expose gender-biased assumptions within the
social sciences
• Male-power-based gender construction of roles has
legitimized gender inequality in society
• Proposed reorganization of sociology
Sandra Harding
Born: 1935
• Professor of education and women’s
studies at UCLA
• Director of the Center for the Study
of Women
• Leading feminist and philosopher
who taught for two decades at
University of Delaware
• Given over 200 lectures
internationally and has served as a
consultant to UN organizations.
Feminist Theory
• Criticized all sociological theories
• Does not believe in idea of universal theory, but
specific theories should be designed for specific
categories of people
• Empirical research is biased
• Believes all males and all whites benefit from their
ascribed status (ignores empirical data like the poor,
war vets, and homeless)
Neutrality and Objectivity in
Science
• Science is male-dominated, biased, and lacking
in objectivity
• Objectivist methods are encouraged to eliminate
the social and political values and interests of
researchers
• Encouraged women to stop disagreeing among
themselves and encourage more feminists to
enter science. (For whistleblowing purposes
Patricia Hill Collins
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Born: 1948 in Philadelphia
1969: B.A. from Brandeis
1970: M.A. from Harvard
1984: Ph.D. from Brandeis
• Sociological concerns mirror
experiences as an African American
woman who broke many barriers
and who often felt marginalized.
• Outsider within: (Similar to
Simmel’s idea of the stranger) One
part of the group feels distanced
from the group.
Feminist Theory and
Methodology
• Believes that the focus of sociological theory
should be the “outsider” groups that usually lack a
“voice” in scientific framework
• Promotes using subjective analysis to study all of these
voices
• Agrees with Harding regarding white male
interests saturating traditional scholarship.
• She also rejects empirical data and statistical analysis in
favor of documentation of voices of black women in all
social settings.
Theory and Methodology Con’t
• Collins describes positivism as “Eurocentric masculinist”
• Emotional components like feelings are important in the
gathering of knowledge.
• Values SI approach
• Individual level of analysis
Black Feminism
• Ideas produced by Black women that clarify a
standpoint of and for Black women
• 1. The meaning of self-definition and self-valuation:
• Studying social reality of Black women
• Take that self image to black women learning to value themselves and
empower themselves in societal structure
• 2. The interlocking nature of oppression:
• Society has taught black women that racism, sexism, and poverty are
inevitable for them and keep them oppressed
• Awareness will empower and unite to fight system
• 3. The importance of African-American women’s culture
• Examination of family life and relationship between mother/child
(expectations and perceptions)
Carol Gilligan (1936 - )
• Psychologist and feminist thinker
• Influenced by Sigmund Freud, Jean
Piaget, and Lawrence Kohlberg.
• AB in English Literature from
Swarthmore College.
• MA in Clinical Psychology from
Radcliffe College.
• PhD from Harvard University.
• Taught at University of Chicago, and
Harvard University.
Carol Gilligan (1936 - )
Developmental Theory (Piaget)
• Masculine bias is prevalent in Piaget’s theory.
• Human moral development comes in stages.
• Sensorimotor Stage (birth to 2yrs) – physical contact,
out of sight, out of mind.
• Preoperational Stage (2 to 7) – object permanence,
egocentrism.
• Concrete Operational Stage (7-12) – intellectual
development, lacks skills of abstractness.
• Formal Operation Stage (12+) – think abstractly and
perceive analogies, uses complex language.
Carol Gilligan (1936 - )
Developmental Theory (Piaget)
• Work with Kohlberg: Noticed males were reluctant to
discuss feelings.
• Assessed as morally undeveloped
• Men and women do have differences in moral reasoning
• Justice – attention to problems of inequality and holds
equal respect.
• Care – attention to problems of detachment and holds
response to need.
• Moral injustices – do not treat others unfairly or turn
on those in need.
Carol Gilligan (1936 - )
Stages of Development for Women
• Orientation to Individual Survival (Preconventional
Morality).
• Individual survival – no feeling of should.
• Goodness as Self-Sacrifice (Conventional Morality)
• Defined by ability to care for others
• Responsibility for Consequences .of Choice
(Postconventional Morality).
• Choice and willingness to take responsibility for that choice =
moral decision.
Carol Gilligan (1936 - )
Stages of Development for Women
• Freud and Piaget’s theories treat women like men.
• Different voice needs to be heard.
• Adolescent girls’ voices.
• When quiet in relationships, depression and eating
disorders enter.
• When outspoken in relationships, others find it
difficult to remain in the relationship.
Joan Jacobs Brumberg (1944 - )
• Brumberg was born and raised in
Ithaca, New York, where she continued
to live and work as a professor at
Cornell University.
• Brumberg teaches in the areas of
history, human development, and
women’s studies.
Joan Jacobs Brumberg (1944 - )
• One of the major influences on Brumberg’s life is Margaret
Mead’s research in Somoa.
• Brumberg decided to trace female plight of self
consciousness in American and European societies, where
women have experienced a great deal of concern about
their body image and physical changes that occur during
their physical development.
Joan Jacobs Brumberg (1944 - )
• In contemporary Western society there is an obsession
with female body.
• The mass media as an agent of culture reinforces an ideal
image that girls are to strive for and attain, thereby
placing more emphasis on good looks than on good
works.
• Women today enjoy greater freedom and more
opportunities than their counterparts of the past, yet still
they are under more pressure than men to look attractive.
Joan Jacobs Brumberg (1944 - )
• Girls can suffer clinical depression from the frustration
they experience when their bodies change. Beyond
depression and thoughts of suicide, girls are more
vulnerable to eating disorders, substance abuse, and
dropping out of school.
• Body is at heart of the crisis of confidence for adolescent
girls.
• By the age thirteen, 53 percent of American girls are
unhappy with their bodies; by the age of seventeen, 78
percent are dissatisfied.
Joan Jacobs Brumberg (1944 - )
• Women find in their body image a sense of self definition
and a way to announce who they are to the world.
• Today many young girls worry about the contours of their
bodies, especially their shape, size, and muscle tone
because they believe that the body is the ultimate
expression of the self.
Joan Jacobs Brumberg (1944 - )
• Fashion and the film industry reinforce societal
expectations that women display their bodies sexually.
• The sexual revolution liberated women from the
Victorian of modesty but also demanded a commitment
to diet and beauty.
Barbara Risman (1956 - )
• Risman was born in 1956 in Lynn,
Massachusetts. She was raised in an
extended family.
• Risman attended college at
Northwestern University during the
height of the feminist movement.
• She earned her B.A. in sociology in
1976 and her Ph.D. in 1986 from the
University of Washington.
Barbara Risman (1956 - )
Single Parenthood
• Men are capable of being single parents!
• Parent-child attachment, household organization, and
child development can all occur successfully in both
single-mother and single-father homes.
Barbara Risman (1956 - )
Doing Gender
• Gender is not something that one has or something that
one is; rather, it is something that one does.
• By assigning people to one or two categories- male or
female- society has created difference between them.
• Gender’s strongest influence is found at the interactional
level, and therein lies the deepest liability for the
continuation of inequality in American family life.
Barbara Risman (1956 - )
Gender Vertigo
• Gender vertigo (Robert Connell) refers to the profound
effect the elimination of gender would have on every
persons sense of identity.
• Doing gender determines how one engages in all aspects
of everyday life, including the definition of the self.
• Risman concluded that to move fully toward justice for
women and men, we must dare a moment of gender
vertigo.
Feminism
Relevancy
• Feminism refers to a social movement to empower
women.
• Feminist believe that women should enjoy the same
rights in society as men and that should share equally in
society’s opportunities.
• Feminist sociological theory represents an attempt to
give a voice to women and the female perspective.
Feminism
Critiques
• Feminists themselves can be biased in their approach.
• Feminists can mistakenly reject positivist
methodologies.
• Claims that all sociological theories are gender-biased
are unsubstantiated.
• Gender is just one variable in human interaction. Some
feminists believe that interactions are based solely upon
gender distinctions.
• A great variety of sociological feminist theories
represents a lack of consensus among feminists as to the
best means to go about fighting sexism, discrimination,
and oppression.
Feminism
Summary
• Sexism and discrimination exist in all social institutions.
• Giving a voice to women remains as the greatest
contribution of feminist sociological theory.