Liberal Feminists:
- First wave feminism was largely liberal in its nature.
- Liberty: They wanted women to be free to choose the nature of their own lives.
- Equal opportunity with men in education, the same civil rights, enjoy private rights, same democratic rights.
- Influences included Mary Wollstonecraft and the suffrage movement.
- When these objectives were noticed, it was evident that it was far from enough and women remained an inferior gender suffering from discrimination.
- By the 1960s, it became evident that women were still suffering and Friedan said the problem was cultural in nature and it became known as the “problem with no name” implying that it was largely undiscovered. She said that women did not recognise the nature of their oppression. Men themselves are the victims of patriarchy because they have been socially conditioned to think of themselves as superior.
- Otherness: In feminist theory, otherness refers to the position of women in patriarchal society, treated as separate to society, an inferior minority, subordinate to men
- After the true nature of patriarchy was revealed by writers, women took up the cause by themselves. Liberals believe that women should be able to choose what role they take, it could be traditional domestic.
- 3 ways to combat patriarchy: End discrimination described as gender equality. Cultural attitudes had to be demeaned as a women’s sense of inferiority had to combatted achieved through education. They want political and legal equality.
Does Liberal Feminism Fail To Understand The True Nature Of
The Patriarchy:
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Yes:
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No:
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They do not understand the nature of the working class or ethnic
minorities
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They claim that the cultural nature such as sexism plays a bigger
role
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In a capitalist society, they do not understand how it oppresses
them |
By achieving legal equality, the patriarchy will decline as men
will no longer hold dominant positions in society
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They underestimate the “personal is political” and how
relationships are power in nature
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Women now have more knowledge and are slowly combating the
patriarchy.
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