Streams of thought in feminism

feminism is a philosophical framework that has application to numerous facets of

society, yet is reflective of each individual’s unique life experiences and values.
(Henderson et al., 1989: 47)
This quotation attempts to capture the essence of feminism by stressing the all-
encompassing nature of a feminist framework that coexists with personal experience
and expression. Although women such as Tong (1989) have provided outlines of
various frameworks that discuss this multifaceted subject, it is difficult to make
general statements about feminist theory or review it comprehensively as a single
body of work.
Approaches to the study of gender span liberal, socialist and Marxist
perspectives. Each is attached to particular conceptual and analytical abstractions
which are offered to explain the structure of society and relationships between the
men and women in it. Bearing this in mind, Stanley and Wise (1982) have identified
three widely accepted assumptions about women that are common to all feminist
theories:
 women are oppressed and share a common set of oppressions;
 the personal is political in that personal experience is affected by the ‘system’ in
everyday life; and
 a feminist consciousness and an understanding of what it means to be
a woman can be developed.
These assumptions suggest that, in any discussion of theory, it is essential that
women not be simply added in to what already exists in a patriarchal world.
The above assumptions can be related to common goals. Henderson et al. (1989)
recognise the different foci of feminist researchers, but suggest that, despite this,
feminism and feminist writings are united in the quest for specific goals:
 to make visible women’s power and status;
 to redefine existing societal structures and modes of existence; and
 to enable every woman to have equity, dignity and freedom of choice through
power to control her life and body, both within and outside the home.

As the feminist literature has increased, so it has also fragmented into different
schools of thought. For example, eco-feminists suggest that the male desire for
domination and oppression of women also applies to the environment and is an
important cause of its degradation (Mellor, 1992; Zimmerman, 1994). Others point
out that ideas emanate from minds that are situated in bodies and, therefore,
knowledge is embodied. It follows that greater attention should be given to the bodies
in which experiences and knowledge are situated (Veijola & Jokinen, 1994; Lewis &
Pile, 1996). Johnston (2001) has studied gay parades from both participants’ and
observers’ perspectives and, through this, has criticised the numerous.dualisms that
pervade much rational thought, including those between mind and body, and between
women and men. The next two sections will outline more specifically gender
orientations in two particular areas of study: development studies and leisure studies.