Gender Studies

by Hassan Gondal
 1.Liberal Feminism
Feminist 2.Radical Feminism

Theories 3.Marxist/Socialist Feminism

4.Psychoanalytical Feminism
and
5.Men’s Feminism
Practice 6.Postmodern Feminism
 Liberal Feminism

 Mother of feminism
 Women have the same mental capacity as their male counterparts and should
be given the same opportunities in the legal, political, economic and social
spheres.
 That the oppression of women is the denial of their equal rights representation,
and access to opportunities. Liberal feminism takes a gender-neutral/gender-
bling approach
 Men have more rights and power.
 Seek reforms through which legal and political equality can be established and
maintained.
 Liberal Feminism

 Mary Wollstonecraft who wrote ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Women’ in 1792.

Wollstonecraft argued for fundamental equality of men and women. She recommended
educational reforms.
 John Stuart Mill, in the 19th century, in his book, The Subjection of Women, emphasized
the essential equality of men and women to see the natural differences of both genders.
 He argued for feminism on utilitarian grounds.
 He considered sexual inequality as slavery.
 He proposed reform of the property laws; right to hold property after marriage.
 Beginning of Liberal Feminist Movement: it crystallized in 1963 with publication of Beth
Friedan's landmark book, The Feminine Mystique. Friedan identified "the problem the
has no name", by which she meant the chronic discontent that many white, middle-class
American women felt, a dispiriting boredom or emptiness in the midst of affluent lives.
 Liberal Feminism

 Friedan claimed, “ women were being duped into believe homemaking was
their natural destiny."
 Outcomes of this theory:
 President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act 1963.
 The Civil Rights Act 1964 - outlawed sexual discrimination in employment.
 Title IX was passed to end discrimination in school or college activities.
 National Organization for Women [NOW] in 1966. > "What do you want?"
protesters yelled. "FREEDOM!" "When do want it?" "NOW!"
 NOW addresses are abortion rights-reproductive issues, violence against
women, constitutional equality, promoting diversity-ending racism, lesbian
rights, and economic justice.
 Radical Feminism
 Revolutionary in nature.
 Emerged during the second wave.
 New York Radical Women, Women’s international Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell
(WITCH), aimed to eradicate sexism. They Groups such as the New York Radical
Women (NYRW), Redstockings etc. are the torchbearers of Radical Feminism.
 Radical feminism is "radical" because it is "woman-centred", envisioning a new
social order where women are no subordinated to men.
 Gynocentric: radical feminism is concerned with women's right rather than gender
equality
 Radical Feminism
 Main cause of women subordination is patriarchy.
 Radical feminists reject the view that women's subordination is linked with their
biological inferiority.
 Types of Radical Feminism:
1. Radical-libertarian feminism - woman's reproductive system as a vehicle for
oppression within society.
2. Radical-libertarian feminism - woman's reproductive system as a tool of
empowerment.
3. Radical-dominance feminism – maximum disconnection from men – women must
look at themselves for self realisation.
 Radical Feminism
Radical-libertarian Radical-libertarian
Feminism Feminism

Androgyny – combination Ultimate goal Feminist Traits are better

of best male and female than masculinity
traits.
Abolish the tradition Reproduction as a source
Reproduction system of reproduction – of empowerment and
source of women weakness uniqueness
Pornography Allowed – liberating tool Not Allowed – patriarchal
 Marxist Feminism
 Capitalism, industrialisation and rise of private property, rather than patriarchy, are the
fundamental causes of women's oppression, subordination and exploitation.
 Sexist oppression is a form of class oppression because Marxist feminists view women as a
"sex-class“
 It questions the patriarchal system of marriage that views women as male property.
 Women are Jill of All Trades – women are in isolation than factory workers.
 3 ways through which women role benefits capitalism:
1. women perform "domestic labour on an unpaid basis", and "provide care" for the currents
generation of workers.
2. women also "reproduce and socialize" the next generation of workers.
3. women "consume" the goods and services produced by capitalism.
 Socialist Feminism
 Women are oppressed because they are women and because of their low-economic
status.
 Patriarchy and capitalism are overlapping and interlocking systems of oppression.
 The sexual division of labour, through which men dominate the public sphere while
women are customarily confined to the private sphere, has served the economic
interests of capitalism in a number of ways.
 Marxist feminists argue that patriarchy serves capitalism, socialist feminists assert
that Marxism and Capitalism can work together. Socialist Feminist combines the
study of class with the analysis of gender.
 Socialist Feminism

 Marxist feminists tend to identify themselves as Marxist's first, but Socialist feminists
identify themselves feminist first and socialists second.
 The goal of socialist feminism is to abolish the social relations that Constitute humans not
only as workers and capitalists but also as women and men.
 Against the giving of women only pink collar jobs.
 Psychoanalytical Feminism
 Sigmund Freud – founder of psychanalysis
 Anatomy is everything - biology, particularly the genitals, determines with which partner
a child will identify and, thus, how the child's psyche will develop.
 stresses the influence of unconscious mental processes, the importance of sexual and
aggressive instincts, and the enduring effects of early childhood experiences on
personality.
 conscious experience is just the tip of our psychological makeup and experience. In fact,
he thought much of our behaviour is motivated by the unconscious, a part of the
personality of which a person is not aware.
 Postmodern Feminism
 It questions the value of various theories.
 There is no objective reality. It rejects the claim that there is a single theory that can
explain the position of women in society.
 It rejects the claim that there is any single, universal essence or category of woman. Race,
class, nationality, sexual orientation, and other factors prevent such unity and universality.
no single basis for women's subordination and no single method of dealing with the
issues.
 deconstruct male language and a masculine view of the world based on language.
Demolish binary concepts e.g. male/female
 Refute meta-narratives
 Reject essentialism
GENDER BASED VIOLENCE
 Introduction
 Gender-based violence refers to physical, verbal, emotional, sexual, and visual brutality
that is inflicted disproportionately or exclusively on members of one sex.
 According to the UN: The term “violence against women" means any act of gender-based
violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or
suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of
liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.“
 It’s not instinctual rather it’s culturally learned phenomena through socialisation.
 A reflection on Domestic Violence
 Studies such as "The Marriage License as a Hitting License" and "The Family as
Cradle of Violence" highlight "intimate partner violence [IPV].
 "a man's home is his castle", and wife beating has been th prerogative of the
"master of the house".
 English jurist William Blackstone determined "a rule of thumb": A husband had the
right to physically discipline an errant wife as long as the stick used was no thicker
than his thumb.
 Newman [1979] identified the following characteristic of wife abusers: alcohol abuse,
hostility, dependence on their wives, excessive brooding over trivial events, belief in
societal approval of violence, economic problems, a sudden burst of anger and
having been a battered child.
 Types of Domestic Violence by UN
 Domestic violence is/gender-specific violence, commonly directed against women,
occurring in family.
1. Physical - any intentional behaviour that offends a woman's bodily integrity or health.
2. Emotional or psychological – any conduct or behaviour that causes emotional damage,
reduces self-worth or self-esteem or aims at degrading or controlling a woman's actions,
behaviours, beliefs and decisions by means of threat, embarrassment, humiliation,
manipulation, isolation, constant surveillance or pursuit, insult, intimidation, blackmail,
ridicule, exploitation or any other behaviour that damages a woman's psychological
health.
 Types of Domestic Violence

3. Sexual – any conduct or behaviour hat forces a woman to witness, maintain or participate
in unwanted sexual contact or behaviour by means of intimidation, threat, coercion or use of
force, including sexual assault, marital rape or forcing any type of sexual activity without
consent.
4. Financial or economical - any conduct behaviour involving the use or misuse of the
partner's consent regarding their financial resources or assets, including the deprivation,
retention or subtraction of money or property or by her means making or attempting to make
a woman financially dependent by maintaining control financial resources.
 The Cycle of Intimate Partner Violence

 Stage 1: Tension builds, and the abusive partner blames the other for problems or for not
being supportive. Typically, the abuser begins psychological battering with insults,
threats, taunts, and intimidation.
 Stage 2: An explosion occurs. Tension erupts into physical violence.
 Stage 3: The abuser appears contrite and remorseful. The abuser may apologize the victim
and typically promises it will never happen again. The victim sees the "good person inside
and remembers what led to marriage.
 Stage 4: In this "honeymoon phase", the abuser acts loving. The victim becomes
convinced that the abuse was an aberration that will not recur even if it has repeatedly.
And the whole cycle begins anew.
 The Power and Control Wheel Theory
 This approach suggests that perpetrators use violence to control their partners. It illustrates the
ties between "power“ used by abuser and "control“ the victim.
 “Power" techniques to "control" the victim.
 Intimidation: The abuser intimidates the woman through verbal and non-verbal actions, and
frightens her into doing things he wants her to do. Examples include the destruction of
property and displaying weapons.
 Coercion and Threats: In order to control the woman, the abuser uses threats as technique.
Examples include hurting her, threatening to leave her, taking childre away from her.
 Emotional Abuse: The abuser exploits and controls the woman emotionally. The tactics
include humiliating her making her feel guilty and using dirty language.
 The Power and Control Wheel Theory

 Isolation: This element involves controlling what a woman does, whom she se and talks to,
and where she goes.
 Minimizing, Denying, and Blaming: The abuser will make it seem that H actions are not that
serious or deny them completely.
 Children: Abusers often "use the children" to maintain power and control over the partners.
Physically harming the children or threatening to harm them is the example.
 Using male privilege: Using patriarchal values, the abuser makes all of decisions in the
household. He places the woman in a subservient position.
 Economic abuse: The abuser maintains control over the woman's finances, and controls her
more. This makes it more difficult for her to leave.
 The Psychiatric Model of Violence

 The model tries to understand family violence by analysing the offender's personality
The and mental status. This model characterizes personality disorders, mental illness,
and substance abuse as the primary causes of family violence.
 PSYCHOPATHOLOGY THEORY: The psychopathology theory is grounded on the
concept that certain individuals suffer from mental illness, personality disorders, and
other dysfunctions that cause them to engage in aggressive acts within the This mental
disorder, or illness, causes the individual to react violently within the family.
 THE SUBSTANCE ABUSE THEORY: drugs or alcohols cause or contribute to family
violence. These substances impair judgment and lessen inhibitions.
 The Socio-psychological Model of
Violence
 It analyses external environmental factors that affect the family unit. Factors such as
stress, family structure, the intergenerational transmission of violence, and family
interactions are all considered as primary causes of family violence.
 THE SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY: The social learning theory is an integration of
differential associations with differential reinforcements so that the people with whom
one interacts are the reinforcers of behaviour that results in learning both deviant and
nondeviant behaviour.
 Two important mechanisms: modelling and reinforcement.
 Violence is not an inherent property of the individual, rather it is a learned behaviour.
 The Socio-psychological Model of
Violence
 It analyses external environmental factors that affect the family unit. Factors such
as stress, family structure, the intergenerational transmission of violence, and
family interactions are all considered as primary causes of family violence.
 THE SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY: The social learning theory is an integration
of differential associations with differential reinforcements so that the people with
whom one interacts are the reinforcers of behaviour that results in learning both
deviant and nondeviant behaviour.
 Two important mechanisms: modelling and reinforcement. Violence is not an
inherent property of the individual, rather it is a learned behaviour.
 intergenerational cycle of violence", where boys who witness violence against their
mothers
 The Socio-psychological Model of
Violence
 THEORY OF MARITAL POWER: those who lack power will be more likely to use
violence against their partners.
 power consists of power bases, power processes, and power outcomes. Power bases are
the resources that provide a partner the foundation to dominate the other: knowledge,
skill, personal assets, connections, etc. Power processes are the techniques needed by
someone to gain control in an interaction, such as negotiation and assertiveness. Power
outcome refers to which partner actually makes the decision.
 THE-EXCHANGE THEORY: People hit and abuse other family members because they
can.“ It cost-benefit analysis.
 The Socio-psychological Model of
Violence
 RESOURCE THEORY: This theory posits that the decision-making power within a
given family derives from the value of the resources (both material and organizational
like money, property, prestige and contacts).
 THE FRUSTRATION-AGGRESSION THEORY: The frustration-aggression theory is
based on the premise that human beings display aggression toward objects that impede
their achievement of certain goals. Failure to attain desired goals can lead to aggression
within the family by the frustrated party.
 ECOLOGICAL THEORY: This theory links violence with the culture. An ecological
framework for understanding gender-based violence.
 The Socio-psychological Model of
Violence
 Ontogenic: The innermost circle represents the perpetrator's personal history. This includes
exposure to violence in the family, having an absent or rejecting father, being abused as a
child.
 Microsystem: The next circle represents the family setting in which the violence takes place.
This includes male dominance, marital conflict, male control of wealth and decision making,
use of alcohol, verbal conflict.
 Exosystem: represents the formal and informal social networks in which the family
participates. Peer company that legitimizes and condones violence against women.
 Macrosystem: the culture and social environment including norms that govern gender
relations and male control over women and acceptance of violence as a way to settle
interpersonal disputes.
 The Socio-psychological Model of
Violence
 INVESTMENT THEORY: why people may choose to stay in relationships that appear to be
wholly unrewarding, as those involving domestic violence. According to Rusbult,
investment is intrinsic (the amount of time invested in that relationship, and the amount of
personal information shared) and extrinsic [shared activities, shared possessions like photos,
common friends].
 TRAUMATIC BONDING THEORY: why beaten women remain with the men who beat
them. In all such relationships, two features are common: a power imbalance between that
relationship; the intermittent nature of the abuse [that is, the violent act takes place in
intervals]. As time passes, the batterer becomes more and more dominant, while the battered
woman feels herself subjugated and dependent on the dominator. Stockhom Syndrome.
 The Socio-psychological Model of
Violence
 EVOLUTIONARY THEORY: more violence in nuclear family than joint as society
evolved.
 SOCIOBIOLOGY THEORY: fitness theory which postulates that individuals will
behave in ways to increase the probability that their genes will be transmitted to future
generations.
 The Socio-cultural Model of Family
Violence
 Focuses on the roles of men and women in our society as well as on the cultural attitudes toward women
in terms of violence.
 THE CULTURE OF VIOLENCE THEORY: Wolfgang and Ferracuti argue that certain subcultures within
the United States develop norms and values that permit the use of physical violence. Thus family violence
will occur more frequently in violent societies than in peaceful ones.
 This theory assumes that violence is a learned response and reflects socialization or acceptance of
violence as appropriate behaviour. For example: Wrestling, Video Games, Guns as Toys.
 Violence is more prevalent in the lower socioeconomic sectors of society.
 The Socio-cultural Model of Family
Violence
 THE GENERAL SYSTEMS THEORY BY STRAUS: the maintenance of violence as a
result of the social system in which families live. It assumes that violence within the
family is a result of a system rather than individual mental disturbance.
 SOCIAL CONFLICT THEORY: that bonding is the glue for communities and families;
when the bonds are threatened, people resort to protective behaviours.
 THE RESOURCE THEORY: the proposition that the one who controls resources, such
as money, property, or prestige, is in the dominant position in a relationship. . In
contrast, a person with little education, low job prestige and income, or poor
interpersonal skills may use violence to compensate.
 The Socio-cultural Model of Family
Violence
 GENDER AND MASCULINITY THEORY: Gender role socialization occurs when boys
and girls learn what it means to be masculine or feminine in their culture. During early
gender identity formation, boys reject the feminine in favour of the more powerful
masculine. Efforts to define themselves as masculine may lead to degrading and
targeting women for violence. Hegemonic Masculinity.
 FEMINIST THEORY: Feminist theories explain gender-based violence linked to the
socio-economic and male partners.
 Rape

 Though perceived as a sexually motivated act, rape is primarily entified as a violent act
in which sexual relation is merely a means of expressing violence, aggression, and
domination.
 Types of Rape:
1. The anger rape: Anger rapists tend to harm, humiliate, and degrade their victims. Their
attacks express rage, release anger, or obtain revenge.
2. The power rape: Power rapists exercise strength, authority, and control over their victims to
compensate for feelings of inadequacy and to affirm their masculinity.
3. The sadistic rape: The perpetrators are sexually aroused by the physical and psychological suffering of
his victim. These rapists use excessive force and torture the victim.
 Rape

 ELASER [1978] PROPOSES 4 CATEGORIES OF RAPISTS:

1. Naïve graspers: are sexually inexperienced youths who hold high expectations that their
crude advances will be met with affection by their victims.
2. Meaning stretchers: are the date rapists who stretch the meaning of, or misinterpret, a
woman's expression of friendliness and affection as indicating that the female desires
coitus even when she says no.
3. Sex looters: have little desire for affection and little respect for the victim’s autonomy
and callously use women as sex objects.
4. Group conformers: participate in gang rapes.
Thank You!