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Feminism and the family, Fran Ansley - Coggle Diagram
Feminism and the family
Liberal Feminism
Catherine Hakim
Hakim conducted a study to find out the choices of women when asked 'what lifestyle would you prefer?'
The results concluded that 60% of women preferred an adaptive lifestyle which suggests an equal amount of house work and paid work.
20% said home centred lifestyles.
20% said work centred lifestyles.
She states that the conditions to create new scenarios within the family include:
- The contraceptive revolution.
- The equal opportunities revolution.
- The expansion of white-collar occupations.
- The creation of jobs for secondary earners.
- The increasing importance of attitudes, values and personal preferences in lifestyle choices.
Jennifer Somerville
Somerville suggests many women don't feel entirely sympathetic to feminism and still feel the sense of grievance. She believes many feminists fail to acknowledge the increasing freedom women get. Although this is occurring, 'women are angry, resentful, but above all disappointed in men' as not all of them share the responsibilities equally within the family.
She states that 'the high figures for remarriage suggest that children are not adequate substitutes for adult companionship for most women'. This doesn't mean there will be a massive decline in heterosexual families but it will lead to women getting more freedom in choosing whether to cohabit or live in non-family households.
Ann Oakley
Oakley believes that the family is essentially a conservative institution that preserves social order. She states that 'Nuclear families are composed of legally married couples, voluntarily choosing parenthood of one or more children.'
Oakley mainly focused on the gender socialisation in the family. She states that parents push 'gender-appropriate' toys onto their children (canalisation). Gender socialisation in the family is taught by the division of labour within the household e.g., girls help with housework and boys are allowed to play and mess about. This serves the interests of patriarchy and has negative impacts on women’s lives within the family and in real life.
Radical Feminism
Andrea Dworkin
Dworkin's views can be seen as the most radical views in feminism. She didn't think men should be 'redeemed' through changing norms and values, like liberal feminists.
She sees both marriage and nuclear families as deeply patriarchal and reasons her views by saying the man is the head of the household and 'natural-breadwinner' (has more power over their wives). Her whole view basically states that men used power over women to maintain control.
'Often, to keep the family together, the woman will accept repeated beatings and rapes, emotional battering and verbal degradation; she will be debased and ashamed but she will stick it out, or when she runs he will kill her.'
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Dobash and Dobash
Dobash and Dobash focused on the domestic abuse within the family and they stated domestic violence is intimately linked with the existence of patriarchy and is essentially about yje exercise of power by men over women in order to maintain that dominance.
Their studies suggest that there has been a widespread acceptance of violence by husbands against their wives throughout all of history, even today. Although public punishment is now unacceptable, the husbands dominance is seen as expected within the family.
Not only did the violence start from simple disagreements in the family, it's pushed with the gender socialisation of men that they are generally more violent. This doesn't mean it's okay, but toxic masculinity exists and it only takes one thing to upset someone and they may take it out on their family/friends.
Marxist Feminism
Margaret Benston
Benston states that the family performs functions such as:
- Family routinely replaces the labour force.
- Family provides emotional and sexual satisfaction.
- Women provide a 'reserve army of labour'.
- Women are exploited by their performance of the '3 C's'
'The unpaid labour performed by women is very large and very profitable to those who own the means of production' (straight-white males)
Although women have gained rights and small amounts of equality, Benston states that they still feel like they need to attend the needs of men.
Arlie Hochschild
From Hochschild's survey, she concluded that all the couples had professional careers and the women did most, if not all domestic work (housework and childcare). Although men supported the women in their careers, they failed to acknowledge the idea that domestic work should be split between man and woman.
Hochschild had a phrase: 'economy of gratitude'. She used this to make reference to the gifts received and given by spouses and how those gifts are valued.
From her studies she suggest that if the woman in the family made more that the man, that man's pride will suffer. In return, these women feel guilt and take up the housework so the men haven't got 'another' thing to do.
Fran Ansley
'Women are the takers of shit... they absorb their husband's legitimate anger and frustration at their own powerlessness and oppression.'
Ansley argues with the 'warm bath' functionalist view as she believes the family is more of a 'safety valve' where men can push all of their frustrations onto the women of their household.
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Ansley believes that the system causing all this frustration in men is capitalism and its unfair for the women of the family to deal with the effects of it. They didn't choose to be put in this capitalist society.