FEMINISM AND THE FAMILY
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They focus on how women are exploited through gender roles through traditional
gender roles enforced & reinforced for the benefit of men.
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From this perspective, the family is an oppressive structure, imprisoning women in a
range of service roles and responsibilities, such as domestic labour and childcare.
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The feminists have challenged the image of family life as being based upon
cooperation, shared interests and love, and they have tried to show that some family
members, in particular men, obtain greater benefits from families than others.
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From the 1950s onwards, feminists were very critical of the nuclear family, which
was the dominant family type at that time. They argued the nuclear family performed
two key functions which oppressed women;
1. The family socialised girls to accept subservient roles within the family, whilst
socialising boys to believe they were superior – this happens through children
witnessing then recreating the parental relationship
2. The family also socialised women into accepting the “housewife” role as the only
possible/acceptable role for a woman. Indeed, it was the only way to be
feminine/to be a woman. Essentially, feminists viewed the function of the family
as a breeding ground where patriarchal values were learned by an individual, which
in turn created a patriarchal society.
Branches of feminists
1. Liberal Feminists
2. Marxist Feminists
3. Radical Feminists.
Marxist Feminism
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Marxist feminists see capitalism rather than man patriarchy as being the principal
source of women`s oppression, and capitalists as the main beneficiaries. They argue
that women’s oppression performs several functions for Capitalism
1. Women reproduce the labour force – through their unpaid domestic labour, by
socialising the next generation of workers and servicing the current workers
(their husbands!)
2. Women are a ‘reserve army of cheap labour’ – Bruegal (1979) argues that women
are called into the workforce when there is a shortage of (male) labour and forced
back into the family when there is surplus.
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Women are therefore a marginalized workforce, forced into low-pay, lowstatus employment on the basis of sexual discrimination
Criticism to Marxist feminism
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Women today are just as likely to be in paid work as men, and so they no longer
act as a ‘reserve army of labour’ for example.
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They seem to exaggerate the harm caused to women by families and may neglect the
effects of non-family relationships (apart from class) on exploitation within family
marriage. For instance, they say little about how the experience of racism influence
families. In other words, they emphasize on class inequality & economic factors to
the extent that they neglect other sources of exploitation, including ethnicity,
culture, violence & sexuality.
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A further limitation is that women’s oppression was clearly in evidence before
capitalism – if anything, women are probably more oppressed in pre-capitalist,
tribal societies compared to within capitalist societies.
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They also portray female family members as the passive victims of capitalist
and patriarchal exploitation. They ignore the possibility that women may have
fought back against such exploitation and had some success in changing the
nature of family relationships.
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They do not consider the fact that there may be positive elements to family
life.
Radical Feminism
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Radical feminists argue that all relationships between men and women are based on
patriarchy – essentially men are the cause of women’s exploitation and oppression.
Society is seen as male dominated rather than capitalist.
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Against Liberal Feminism, they argue that paid work has not been ‘liberating’. Instead
women have acquired the ‘dual burden’ or double shift of paid work and unpaid
housework. Double shift is the idea that women perform ‘two shifts’, one inside the
home as domestic labourers & outside the home as paid employees. They argue that
women are doubly exploited in the public sphere (workplace), as paid employees
whose labour contributes to ruling-class profits, and in the private sphere (the
home) as unpaid workers whose labour mainly benefits men.
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Some Radical Feminists such as Duncombe & Marsden (1993) go further arguing that
women suffer from the ‘triple shift’ where they have to do paid work, domestic work
and ‘emotion work’ – being expected to take on the emotional burden of caring for
children. This is the time & effort women spend in the psychological well-being of
family members.
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Radical Feminists also argue that, for many women, there is a ‘dark side of family
life’ - According to the British Crime Survey domestic violence accounts for a sixth
of all violent crime and nearly 1 in 4 women will experience Domestic Violence at some
point in their lifetime and women are much more likely to experience this than men
Criticisms of Radical Feminism
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Ignores the progress that women have made in many areas e.g. work, controlling
fertility, divorce.
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Too unrealistic - due to heterosexual attraction separatism is unlikely.
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Ignores domestic/emotional abuse suffered by men who often don't report it.
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They ignore the variations of oppression
Liberal Feminism
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Liberal Feminists believe in a “March of Progress” view of the family. This means that
they believe that the family is gradually changing for the better over time by
becoming more democratic and more equal.
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They argue that evidence shows men are doing a greater share of domestic labour
(housework, childcare), decision making is becoming more equal and that male and
female children are socialised in a much more similar manner with similar aspirations.
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Liberal feminists believe this trend has been facilitated by legal reforms, such as
the sex discrimination act and by changes in social attitudes.
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Essentially, Liberal Feminists believe adult relationships are far less patriarchal than
those in the 1950 and therefore children are less likely to learn patriarchal value.
They also believe this trend will continue with men and women becoming more equal.
Criticisms of the Liberal Feminist View
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Marxist Feminists point out that women still do the majority of housework.
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Marxist Feminists point out that Women are still the primary child carers.
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Radical Feminists point out that it is still women who are most likely to be the victims
of domestic violence