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Feminism and the
Family - Coggle Diagram
Feminism and the
Family
Marxist feminism
See capitalism as the cause of gender inequality - women are disadvantaged because they don’t own the means of production - women have a lack of power
- women are exploited in marriage and family life but they emphasise the relationship between capitalism and the family
Margaret Benston, 1972 - argued that the family performs 4 main functions
- replaces the labour force
- provides emotional and sexual satisfaction - women attend to the needs of men
- women provide a ‘reserve of labour’
- women are exploited by their performance of the three ‘C’s’ - cooking, cleaning and childcare
“The amount of unpaid labour performed by women is very large and very profitable to those who own the means of production. To pay women for their work, even at minimum wage scales, would involve a massive redistribution of wealth. At present, the support of the family is a hidden tax on the wage earner - his weave buys the labour power of the two people.” Benston,1972
Fran Ansley, 1972 - suggests that’s women provide a ‘safety valve’ to help in the ‘stabilisation of adult personalities’.
- the wives give the workers comfort and a way to reduce the feelings of exploitation that working in a capitalist system may bring about
“When wives play their role as takers of shit, they often absorb their husbands legitimate anger and frustration at their own powerlessness and oppression. With every worker provided with a sponge to soak up his possible revolutionary ire, the bosses rest more secure.” Ansley, 1976
Translates Parson’s view that the family functions to stabilise adult personalities into a Marxist framework
- rather than being turned against the system which produced it, this frustration is absorbed by the comforting wife
David Cooper, 1972 - argues that the family is an ‘ideological conditioning device in an exploitative society.’
- within the family, children learn to conform and to submit to authority
- the foundation is laid for the obedient and submissive workforce required by capitalism
Criticisms
- tendency to talk about the family in capitalist society without regard to different variations of family life - social classes, ethnic groups, heterosexual and gay and lesbian families, lone-parent families and over time
- Morgan (1975) - notes that it assumes that families are based on nuclear families in which the husband is the main breadwinner and nearly all housework is done by wives - this pattern is becoming less common
- may exaggerate the harm caused to women by families and they say little abiut how the experience of racism might influence families
- tend to portray female family members as the passive victims of capitalism and patriarchal exploitation
- ignores the possibility that women may have fought back against such exploitation and succeeded in making family relationships less unequal
Liberal feminism
Believe that lack of inequality within the laws and gender role socialisation causes gender inequality
Oakley - gender role socialisation
- transmits stereotypical gender roles in the family that restrict both men and women
- legal and political reforms will help women to break free from these roles but some women choose them
- there has been a ‘march of progress’ due to legal reforms :
- introduction of the pill and the abortion act
- the divorce reform act
- sex discrimination act
- equality act
Jennifer Somerville (2000) - proposals involve relatively modest reform rather than revolutionary change
- argues that many young women don’t feel entirely sympathetic to feminism, yet still feel some sense of grievance
- many feminists have failed to acknowledge the progress that has been made for women - women now have much greater freedom to take paid work even if they are married and have young children and they have more choice about when or whether they marry or cohabit, become single mothers, enter lesbian relationships or live on their own
- argues that ‘women are angry, resentful, but above all disappointed in men.’
- raises the possibility that women might do without male partners, especially as so many prove inadequate, and instead get their fulfilment from their children
Principled pragmatism is needed - feminists devise policies to encourage greater equality within relationships and to help women cope with the practicalities of family life
- Somerville thinks that the introduction of new policies to help working parents so they can balance work and family life, so both parents can play a full role in childcare is very important
- many jobs lack the flexibility needed to combine work with effective parenting
- Somerville believes that family life is in crisis because feminist ideals have only been partly achieved and society’s institutions still make it difficult to attain genuine equality between heterosexual partners
- if institutional framework can be changed, the liberal feminist dream will become a closer reality
Evaluation
- somerville’s work recognises that significant changes have taken place in family life, and it offers the realistic possibility of gradual progress towards greater equality within the family
- to radical feminists, such an approach will fail to deal with the persistence of patriarchal structures within society and a patriarchal culture in family life
- according to Linda Mckie and Samantha Callan (2012) when women become mothers, this can be a turning point which leads to women adopting traditional gender roles.
- mothers and daughters still end up doing a disproportionate share of housework, caring work and emotion work
Radical feminism
they believe that the main cause of inequality is the patriarchy and men in general - men deliberately dominating and exploiting women
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women have a 'false consciousness' - their values are not their own but are imposed on them by patriarchal ideas and control
see the family as a site of oppression and exploitation for women ( men benefit instead of the bourgeoisie )
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Emotional Labour - claim that it's wives rather than husbands who provide emotional support for their partners.
- wives are more likely to listen, agree, sympathise, understand, excuse and flatter
Delphy and Leonard, 1992 - from a young age, girls are socialised to become 'emotionally skilled' to perform this role
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Economic Dependency - married women are often economically dependent on their husbands
- most cases, it's the wife who gives up work in order to care for the children
- mothers often return to part-time rather than full-time employment in order to meet their childcare and domestic responsibilities
Male Domination - me often control key areas of decision making such as moving house and important financial decisions
- sometimes use force to maintain this control - domestic violence is widespread and the majority of those on the receiving end are women
- Around 570,000 cases are reported each year in the UK and there may be a large number that go unreported (Hopkins, 2000)
Delphy and Leonard, 1992 - main role of the family is to maintain male dominance
Andrea Dworkin - "Often to keep the family together, the woman will accept repeated beatings and rapes, emotional beatings and verbal degradation: she will be debased and ashamed but she will stick it out, or when she runs he will kill her."
- doesn't think men can be 'redeemed' as liberal feminists do
- saw marriage and the nuclear family as deeply patriarchal as the man is the head of the household and breadwinner
- argued marriage was an institution developed from rape and that intercourse was an act whereby men exerted power over women
- men used physical power and intimidation to oppress women into a lower status in the family to maintain control
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