A Level Revision Notes: Feminism - Origins & Human Nature

The Origins Of Feminism:

Increasingly across the world, you will find a growing female consciousness and opposition to a male-dominated world.
Some say that the African Tribes with strong women were the backbone of feminism in Ancient Greece
Others say that the French Revolution is the starting point of feminism as we saw early ideas that women would want to share equal rights with men.
The first well-known and rigorous work on women’s rights was written by an English liberal – Mary Wollstonecraft.
She does not go as far as mentioning equal rights but she advocated equality for women and, good education and a status as a good member of society.
She thought to be a good wife and mother was good enough but accepted that women had to be independent of their husbands
Wollstonecraft was not a feminist in the modern age society but she was a pioneer for it
These early signs were not substantial, feminism was regarded as a strong political and social movement in the last 19^th century such as when John Stuart Mills and his wife, Harriet Taylor campaigned for the passage of the Married Women’s Property Act which allowed women to keep property after they were married.
Votes for women was the campaign that set feminism on the path it is on today.
In 1890 the National American Women Suffrage was founded which was later followed by the National Women’s Party and by 1920 the constitutional amendment was passed which guaranteed equal voting rights for women.
In the UK, the Women Social and Political Union (WSPU) was founded in 1903 and run by the Pankhurst family.
When Emmeline led the movement to get women after the age of 30 the vote (they could also stand in Parliament) it was seen to be the first wave of feminism in the UK.
Many thought that after the vote was granted, many more rights would be given to women but nothing of the sort happened until the 1960s when second-wave feminism began.
The second wave was part of a broader cultural movement which was a general critique of post-industrial society which wanted to identify various social groups such as the black population, gay community, the poor and of course women. Feminism had well and truly arrived!

The Core Ideas Of Feminism:

Human Nature:

Sex:

The feminism movement developed the distinction between the two.
Sex: Refers to the biological differences between men and women. They are seen as inevitable natural and unalterable.
The most significant difference is that women give birth and play a decisive role in the life of a new-born whilst men do not. It could also refer to the physical strength that women have compared to men
For most feminists, sex differences are irrelevant to the way in which women are treated in society whilst other feminists see sex or biological differences as important and some go as far to say they are the explanation of the inferior status of women. This is known as essentialism.
Essentialism: This is a contested idea within feminism. The term refers to the fundamental natures of the biological differences between men and women. Some feminists say such differences are essential to an understanding of the status of women others claim it should be irrelevant.
Radical feminists agree that biology may have determined the inferior status of women but they do not think the argument is relevant today.

Gender:

Gender refers to the cultural differences between the sexes, leading to a feeling of superiority of men and inferiority of women and the assessments of inferior roles in society to women. Feminists view gender differences as the creation of patriarchal society and see them as not natural. Sex and gender stereotypes, such as typical female secretaries or male chief executives are the results of such distinctions.
There used to a dominant attitude in society that sex and gender were linked – that the distinct roles played by women were biologically determined. Women, for example, should be unable to undertake demanding jobs because of their need to give birth and care for young children. Similarly, women would naturally have a more caring and humane attitude to life because of their childrearing role and would be less suited to the competitive world of business.
There was a male-dominated cultural perspective that suggested that women were inferior to men because of the roles they play in motherhood and homemaking were seen to be less important than earning outside the home.
Lack of education and occupational opportunities open to women reinforced the general cultural belief that men were superior.
Betty Friedan, described as the founder of second-wave feminism, said that gender differences were so deep-rooted that women themselves tended to share them with men as she wrote “Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts, and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night – she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question – “is this all?”
Liberal feminists accept the significance of sex differences but regard gender differences and the superiority of men as an artificial construct created by male-dominated societies (patriarchal). There is, they say, no reason biological differences between the sexes should be converted into gender differences. The idea is reinforced by education and the media. They focus on the need to reform. They think change can come.
Radical feminists such as Juliet Mitchell see gender differences as all-pervading and more deep-rooted than the liberal feminists believe. They believe that male genders exist in all aspects of all life. It must be destroyed. Shulasmith was a very radical feminist who thought the very sex differences have led to the oppression of women. She wanted androgyny, a state where men and women would co-exist without sexual relations. People should be free to choose their sexual identity and may choose to have no sexual identity at all.
Socialist feminists, see the oppression or inferior status of women as being bound up with the whole operation of capitalism. They have become an oppressed class. They think they have become a cheap source of labour. At home, they are unpaid and outside they are paid for low-skilled jobs. They dub it as “second-class labour”

The Personal Is Political:

An important idea which helps us to distinguish between liberal and radical feminists.
Liberal feminists advocate the separation of the private sphere from the public sphere.
Private Sphere: Refers to those aspects of life which are the concern of the individual and her close family and friends only. For a liberal, the private sphere should not concern of the state or the rest of society unless harm is being done to the individual within the private sphere e.g. domestic violence.
Public Sphere: Refers to those aspects of social, political, and economic life that concern the whole community and so are not confined to the home and the private lives of women.
If thoughts and actions do not harm others, say liberals, there is no justification for interference.
We live in a public sphere because our actions do affect others because they concern the government and the laws they make e.g. equality laws, anti-discrimination laws, equal pay laws, domestic violence laws.