Feminist Theory

• A Feminist perspective means to understand and deconstruct the ‘normal appearing’

social order to unravel the hidden transcripts of patriarchy and female/ women
subordination and subjugation.

• the feminist perspective brings out the complex nature of reality; it goes beyond the
natural and attempts to debunk the reality from the vantage position of the
oppressed and marginal, in this case, women.

• Though in the recent past, there have emerged a variety of feminist perspectives like
cultural feminism, Marxist & Socialist, Radical, eco-feminism among others, yet
“what has united it since the beginning, across its disparate strands, is its focus on
power, on the asymmetry of the gender dichotomy and of gendered relationships”.
• Liberal feminism: Liberal feminism originates from the liberal
political theory and thus focuses on equality.

• It can be seen as the application of liberal principles & practices of

individual freedom and rights into the lives of women.

• “The ideals and concepts of liberalism have been used in feminist

struggles for liberation throughout recent history. From the time of the
women’s suffrage movement to the more recent battles over abortion,
women have formulated their demands in terms of equality, autonomy,
and individual rights.”
• The central themes in liberal feminism like independence, equality of
opportunity and individualism are derived from the political philosophy of
liberalism.

• liberal feminists argued that women should have similar rights as men.

• They challenged their systematic and historical exclusion from the public
space.

• Some of the key writings in liberal feminism are by Mary Wollstonecraft’s A

Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection
of Women (1869), Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963) and others.
• The late 19th and beginning of the 20th century witnessed the suffrage
movement to achieve equal voting rights like that of men.

• Thus the notion of rights is central in liberal feminism.

• “In the 18th century, they argued that women as well as men had natural
rights; in the 19th century, they employed utilitarian arguements in favour
of arguments in favour of equal rights for women under the law; and in the
20th century, with the development of the liberal theory of the welfare
state, liberal feminists demand that the state should actively pursue a
variety of social reforms in order to ensure equal opportunities for women.
 Marxist Theory

• Just as the liberal concept of human nature is present in liberal feminist

thought, the Marxist concept of human nature is present in Marxist feminist
thought.

• Marxist's claim, women are oppressed primarily because their oppression

benefits capital.

• The notion of class and class consciousness in terms of women being a

‘class’ i.e. ‘sex class’ is at the core of Marxist feminist thought.
• Marxist feminists like Kate Millett (Sexual politics, 1969), Emma Goldman
(The Traffic in Women, 1970), Lillian Robinson (Sex, class and culture,
1978), Michele Barrett (Women’s oppression today, 1980) among others
argue that it is the exploitative character of the class system that can be seen
as equal to patriarchal oppression; thus viewing capitalist patriarchy as a
cause of women’s oppression.

• Industrialization based production process fractured the domestic domain and

resulted in the ‘public’ and ‘private’ domains of lives wherein the former
mostly associated with men is responsible for paid work whereas the latter
confined to household non-paid work is confined to women.
• As and when, women join the labour market they are exploited in
terms of less wages paid by the capitalists to generate their own
surplus value. In addition, she is not paid for her domestic work (by
her male relatives) as patriarchy ordains these as ‘normal & natural’
domain of women.

• The determining factor in this relationship (between women and men)

is the specific economic form in which unpaid surplus labor is
extracted from the direct producers.
• Marxist feminists have focused on housework and its relation to
capital, some arguing that housework produces surplus value, and that
house-workers work directly for capitalists.

• Marxist feminists argue that the system of capitalism needs free and
uninterrupted flow of labour force (primarily male workers) for its
optimum performance.

• it is the need of capitalism that women stay indoors under the control
of patriarchy performing household works so that the men can work
outside.
• To oppose such an exploitative arrangement, one comes across
‘Housework for Wages Campaign’ initiated by Marxist feminists.

• class position and patriarchy are linked with each other in women’s
oppression.

• Many Marxists typically argue that feminism is at best less important

than class conflict and at worst divisive of the working class. This
political stance produces an analysis that absorbs feminism into the
class struggle.
 Socialist feminism

• Socialist feminism arose in the late 1960’s.

• It grew out of the same social ferment and the same consciousness-
raising groups that produced other forms of feminism.

• Socialist feminists attempted to produce a creative synthesis of debates

raging in the feminist community in the 1970's about the roots of the
oppression of women.
• At the crux of socialist feminist thought is the understanding that not
just one system of oppression is at the heart of women's subordination;
rather, it is a combination of systems related to race, social class,
gender, sexuality, and nation.

• From this perspective, dealing with just one of these without also and
simultaneously dealing with the others, will not lead to liberation.

• socialist feminists focus on a full range of oppressions, not simply the

sex/gender system.
• Socialist feminists agree that liberal feminism does not appreciate the
depth of the oppression of women and basically only addresses the
situation of women of the upper and upper middle classes.

• They also agree that women have been oppressed in virtually all known
societies, but the nature of this oppression has differed because of the
different economic realities.

• Socialist feminists do not think that the oppression of women is based

solely on the economic system, and they suggest that patriarchy and
capitalism are combined into one system.
• They believe that we must understand the continuing effects that
colonization, imperialism, and racism have on the women of the
world.
 Psychoanalytical theory

• Psychoanalytic feminists believe that women's psyche is deeply

affected by past experiences, thus shaping their future lives.

• Kate Millet attacked Freud in her influential second wave text Sexual
Politics, and described psychoanalysis as irredeemably patriarchal.

• Yet with the 1976 publication of Juliet Mitchell's Psychoanalysis and

Feminism, some feminists began to reevaluate this position.
• According to Alfred Adler, men and women are equal because both
sexes are born helpless. Biology, in Adler's opinion, is not absolute
destiny to one's life, but rather a way to shape oneself.

• While Freud believed that women were neurotic because of

inadequacies caused by the lack of a penis, Adler believed patriarchy
has suppressed women's attempts to overcome infantile helplessness.
 Postcolonialism feminism

• Postcolonialism overall is the practice of studying cultural impacts and

legacies of colonialism which have manifested themselves in human and
political consequences.

• Postcolonial feminism, therefore, aims to understand and undo the legacies of

colonialism within feminist activism.

• In other words, postcolonial feminism wants to decolonize feminist activism

— reclaim it as more than just a pursuit of the western world and its people.
• Postcolonial feminist academic writing seeks to understand and
interpret everyday lived experiences through a postcolonial
perspective, de-centring the white, western, Eurocentric experience.
 Postmodern Feminism

• Post-modern feminism is distinct to the three main strands of feminist

thought. Post-modern feminists begin with the assumption that the
modernist conception of feminism places overt emphasis upon gender
differences between women and men whilst ignoring the differences
within each gender.

• Post-modern feminists also claim that gender is largely developed from a

discourse that we learn to adopt over time.
• Another key element of post-modern feminism is the claim that
patriarchy operates differently due to the social characteristics of
women. The nature and extent of patriarchy is therefore different for a
middle-class white woman than a poor black-woman. This view is
framed within the concept of intersectionality which seeks to
examine how biological, social and cultural categorisations interact on
multiple and often simultaneous levels. It is a framework which
enables us to identify how systemic injustice and inequality exists on a
multitude of levels.
 Eco-feminism

• Bringing together feminism and environmentalism, ecofeminism

argues that the domination of women and the degradation of the
environment are consequences of patriarchy and capitalism.
 Waves of Feminism
• The history of the feminist movements is divided into three "waves".

• The first wave refers to the movement of the 19th through early 20th centuries, which
dealt mainly with suffrage, working conditions and educational rights for women and
girls.

• The second wave (1960s-1980s) dealt with the inequality of laws, as well as cultural
inequalities and the role of women in society.

• The third wave of feminism (1990s-2000s?) is seen as both a continuation of the second
wave and a response to the perceived failures.
 First-Wave Feminism
• First-wave feminism involved a period of feminist activity during the 19th and early 20th
centuries, especially in Europe and in the United States.

• Key concerns:

- women's suffrage (the right to vote)

- the right to education

- better working conditions

- marriage and property laws

- reproductive rights
 Second-Wave Feminism

• Second-wave feminism is a period of feminist activity and thought

that first began in the early 1960s in USA and spread all over the
western world and beyond.

• Key concerns:

- raising consciousness about sexism and patriarchy

- raising consciousness about gender based violence, domestic abuse
and marital rape
- inequalities in the workplace

- legalizing abortion and birth control

- sexual liberation of women

 Radical Feminism

• The objective of the early radical feminists like Betty Friedan was to
reclaim their disparaged identity which was methodically oppressed
by the cultural construction of society.

• The radicals of the late 60s and early 70s were seen as raging
materialists, stressing the material basis of patriarchy.
• They viewed ‘gender’ as a socially contrived absolute category, where
masculinity was construed in a complete opposition to the ‘other’ – i.e.
the feminine.
 Third-Wave Feminism
• The third wave of feminism (1990s-2000s) arose partially as a response to the
perceived failures of second-wave feminism Key concerns:

- Intersectionality

- The diversity of "women" is recognized and emphasis is placed on identity,

gender, race, nation, social order and sexual preference

- Changes on stereotypes, media portrayals and language used to define women.

- Sexual identities