Feminist Thinkers
Liberal
Mary Astell:
Women should be educated in a spiritual environment, away from society with only other females
She felt the world was so corrupt because of being under male dominance that women should receive an education free of male influence
Harriet Taylor:
She suggests that sexual inequality is not due to a complex set of desires and differences but is maintained, instead, by the simple mechanism of physical force because it is to the advantage of men
Like many feminists writing during the 19th Century, Taylor compares women's lot in marriage to chattel slavery
Socialist
Charlotte Perkins-Gilman:
Critique of the roles of females in society, which she saw as androcentric (male-centred)
Women were dependent on their husbands to survive financially, so used sex to please their husbands and continue to be supported
From an early age, girls were encouraged to fulfil a domestic role, which is done through family structure and the culture of society (such as ‘girls toys’
Therefore, women should achieve economic independence to be free from men, which could be achieved through communal living and changes to marriage laws
Simone De Beauvoir
Class struggle was not enough by itself to improve the position of women, and that patriarchal society was the cause of oppression
She argued that women were not ‘born’, but ‘made’, meaning that femininity is a cultural construct which is taught to women through socialisation, ideas known as feminist existentialism
The roles they were socialised into turned women into slaves, as they were only able to undertake domestic duties and nothing else
Men’s views were seen as the norm, so women’s views, which may differ, are viewed with suspicion and seen as deviant or inferior (the idea of otherness)
Women have been socialised to accept this otherness, so saw themselves as inferior to men
Sheila Rowbotham:
Women’s oppression was the result of economic and cultural factors
She criticised the concept of marriage, arguing that it turned women into serfs, similar to a feudal system
In addition, the way to improve the position of women was to radically change the ‘cultural conditioning’ of humanity, for instance by overthrowing capitalism and changing views on child-rearing and the workplace
Women are disadvantaged by capitalism as they have to sell their labour, but also use labour to support the family which underpins capitalism
In addition, men are able to dominate their wives, which provides them with a relief from the alienation of working in a capitalist economy
Radical
Kate Millett:
Female oppression was political and cultural
Removing the traditional family structure would be the surest way to liberate women from patriarchy, as the family structure mirrored the patriarchal society
This is because the man dominates the family- traditionally, the wife was seen as part of the husband’s property, and the wife had no possessions of her own so was dependent on the man
Masculine authority is taught from childhood, and reinforced through culture
Millett also argued that women are degraded in art and literature (an effect of the patriarchy), never having autonomy and being used as commodities for the gratification of men
This included the portrayal of romantic love, which needed to be overthrown in a sexual revolution
Catherine MacKinnon:
MacKinnon argues that feminism had "no account of male power as an ordered yet deranged whole"; that is, a systematic account of the structural organization whereby male dominance is instantiated and enforced
Post Modern
Bell Hooks:
Hooks used a pseudonym (her grandmother) and lower-case letters to empower her to fight against oppression, without the ego associated with names
She wished to bring the concerns of black women into the mainstream feminist movement, which had previously focused on issues of interest to white, educated, middle-class women
Women of colour had been doubly disadvantaged by their race and gender, and had been torn between supporting feminism (ignoring race) and the civil rights movement (ignoring gender)
Therefore, there is a need to recognise the differences women of colour experienced in their treatment (intersectionality), and that there should be solidarity between gender, races, and classes
Audre Lorde
She dedicated her life’s work to confronting issues of racism, sexism, and homophobia
Specifically, she explored the societal tendency to create identity categories and marginalize people based on them
She was especially critical of white America’s—and particularly, white women’s—persistent blindness to their own forms of privilege
Lorde’s writing helped to raise awareness about the ways these kinds of identity prejudices play out in daily life, and she encouraged her readers to react against it
Judith Butler:
Connected with developing queer theory, an offshoot of gender studies that serves to deconstruct our very notions of this concept in lieu of something more fluid and egalitarian
Queer theory largely acknowledges the oppressiveness and toxicity of conventional gender relations
Moreover, Butler regards gender as a performance rather than as an identity