SCHOOLS OF FEMINIST THOUGHT

There are several different types of feminist theory.

• Liberal feminism• Liberal feminism is rooted in

the belief that women as well as men are rights bearing and autonomous human beings • Liberal feminism central core

aspects are rationality, individual choice, equal rights and equal opportunities for women

Criticisms to Liberal feminism

Radical feminists argue that to argue on the basis of women’s similarity to men merely assimilates women into an unchanged male sphere.

Its individualist assumptions make it difficult to see the ways in which they argue that underlying social structures and values disadvantage women even if women are not dependent on men they are dependent on a patriarchal state

Liberal feminism as a study allows too much of its forces to fall on a metamorphosis of women into men hence disregard the traditional role of women

By focusing on the individual it puts over emphasis on the rational instead of the emotional state whereas a human is intrinsically both, and in doing so discredits the importance of a community.

Radical feminism This type of feminists focus on

women as a class, and particularly a class that is dominated by another class, the male class

Unlike liberal feminists radical feminism builds its arguments that focus the differences between men and women, example of radical feminists include Catherine Mackinnon, Christine Littleton,

Littleton

Equality as an acceptance.

Cultural feminism This type focuses on a woman’s

difference and embraces it, a cultural feminist Carol Gilligan that women because of their different experiences spark in a different voice from the men

criticisms

Mackinnon criticizes the inner voice of the ‘woman’ as she says that this inner voice has after all been constructed in response to the patriarchy hence the voice is just another voice of the patriarchy and until women cease to be victims of insubordination then they cannot speak for themselves.

Postmodern Feminism

This type eschews around the idea of unitary truth and of objective reality, it believes in categories and especially the gender categories are social constructs, these constructs are products of the patriarchy and hence needs feminist reconstruction. it put emphasis that there is no such thing as the essential woman or a woman’s point of view

Criticisms

It is argued that it runs the risk of undercutting the basis of a politics of action based upon gender indifference through its very anti essentialism.

Simone de Beauvoir argued that male definitions of the woman shouldn’t hold on that women should define themselves outside the male dyad; she argued that women must be the subject rather than the object of analysis.

Marxist Feminism

This type focuses on the social institutions of private property and capitalism to explain and criticize gender inequality and oppression.

It states that private property gives rise to Economic inequality, dependence, political and domestic struggle between the sexes and it is the root of women’s oppression

Criticisms

Radical feminists argue that elements of modern society (law, religion and politics are all the product of males hence have a patriarchal character, thus the best solution for women’s oppression would be to treat patriarchy not as a subset of capitalism but as a problem on its own, hence eliminating women oppressions would be to eliminate all forms of male domination

Socialist feminism

This type focuses on the public and private spheres of a woman’s life, and argues that liberation can only be achieved by working to end both the economic and cultural sources of women’s oppression

Thanks for your time, it was a pleasure.