FEMINISM

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FEMINISM

• Scott Masters
• Crestwood College

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• ? politicosocioeconomic struggle for
  gender/sexual equality
• the roots of modern fem. can be found in the IR
• the IR transformed modern society in all
  respects this inc. upsetting the gender balance
• both women and men were forced to pursue
  non-traditional forms of employment in the
  emerging IR

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• in early heavy industry, men gained the
  employment advantage this was based in part on
  the advantage of greater physical strength, but
  the reality is that medieval Europe was already
  patriarchal
• women and children were thus relegated to
  secondary tasks/ inferior forms of employment

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• this led to a fundamental in family structure
  as men gained eco. dominance in society and
  became the breadwinners, men gained increased
  status w/in the family (and since wealth meant
  pol. power, men gained a role in govt too)
• it had not always been like that in feudalism
  Europe had always been patriarchal, but women
  shared in the familial/eco./pol. responsibilities
  to a greater extent

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• by the late 19th c., women were in a better
  position to challenge that inequality, esp. in GB
  (emerging liberalism)
• the suffragette movement was on the rise, with
  women demanding pol. rights (mainly the vote),
  along w/ eco., legal, and social ones (such as
  temperance)
• this phase 1st Wave Feminism
• most of the goals were achieved in the 1920s/30s
  women gained the right to vote and were
  recognized as citizens (Cda Nellie McClung,
  Emily Murphy, Agnes Macphail), esp. after WW I

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• but the suffragettes made a key error they had
  believed that pol. equality would translate into
  other areas of society (and thus aid in the
  achievement of eco. and familial equality too)
• but sexism persisted (now de facto instead of de
  jure)
• and it persists to this day pink collar jobs,
  the glass ceiling, pay inequity

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• WW II was another watershed period, typified by
  Rosie the Riveter women made massive
  contributions, many of which were erased in the
  complacency of the Fabulous 50s
• Video Notes How do all of the following factor
  into the Sexual Revolution? Baby Boom, Social
  Hygiene Films, Betty Friedan and The Feminine
  Mystique, Gloria Steinem and Ms., Cohabitation,
  Sexual Revolution, The Pill, Sexual
  Orientation 

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• the period after WW II saw the emergence of the
  2nd Wave since pol./legal equality had been
  achieved, the focus changed to inc. an attack on
  economic/ social/psychological injustice
• in this period, Womens Lib (-eration) became the
  emphasis, and the goal was to address the issue
  of womens ongoing inferior status
• the different strains of fem. provide a of
  answers fem. can be found all over the pol.
  spectrum (conservative fem., liberal fem.,
  Marxist fem., etc)

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Marxist Feminism

• its emphasis is on the evils of capitalism and
  specifically its oppression of womyn 
• acc. to Allison Jaggar, Women are the
  proletariat in the gender division of labour.
  (Gender Proletariat)
• here, proletariat means oppression outside of
  eco. activity
• by implication, men are the gender bourgeoisie
• thus the further implications?
• What does rev. mean to Jaggar?

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• Marxist Feminists trace industrial/postindustrial
  inequality to pre-existent patriarchy, the
  physical nature of early ind. rev. workplaces,
  the obstacle of pregnancy and child-rearing,
  prejudice and stereotyping
• They also note that much of this still exists,
  even in law
• Feminist jurisprudence is a school of thought
  that seeks to remedy such injustice (as seen in
  the Stella Bliss and Lavell v. Attorney General
  cases)

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• w/ all of the above, Marxist feminists see men w/
  a def. adv., so Marxist fem. offers a 4-pronged
  critique of society
• Patriarchy that male domination must be
  attacked in all its forms
• Culture needs to be assailed as Cultural
  Conditioning (Socialization) determines gender
  behaviour/expectations
• They contend that women learn to be passive and
  accept their secondary status b/c of pervasive
  social signals
• Further, both men and women internalize
  stereotypes and a ct acc. to these beliefs,
  leading to oppression of women
• The fem. solution since culture can transmit
  both ideas of oppression and liberation, the
  process of socialization needs to be transformed
  to create empowerment

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• Epistemology the process of how knowledge is
  acquired
• Fem. states that all knowledge in
  socially-constructed since we live in a
  patriarchal society, were bound to internalize
  those values
• Whats needed new patterns of socialization,
  new sources of info, new ways of interpreting the
  world
• Womynpolitically correct language (PC)

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• History another fem. issue is that women are
  ignored and invisible in history
• Only recently did women become formal citizens
  and thus play a pol. role since much traditional
  hist. is political/military, women have thus been
  downplayed (as less documentation existed to
  portray womens role in social history)there
  are also the facts that most historians were men
  w/ male priorities and that women were denied
  education/literacy until fairly recently
• Thus herstory needs to be re-examined and
  written (examples)
• Go check out the website equalityrules.ca
• What is the 3rd Wave?