Feminist Social Theory - Femininity and Masculinity - Lecture Slides, Slides of Sociology

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Feminist social theory: overview of key approaches lecture 4 docsity.com lecture outline • historical overview – first and second wave feminism • critique of ‘malestream’ sociology • overview of (modernist) feminist theoretical perspectives • ‘cultural turn’ – shift from ‘things to words’ • postmodern feminism • Black and post-colonial feminisms • final thoughts docsity.com ‘second wave’ feminism • ‘second wave’ feminism 1960s-1970s: - grass-roots activism - women’s liberation movement – radical? consciousness raising groups - ‘personal is political’ - ‘sisterhood’ • moved into the academy - women’s studies (now gender studies - debate) - feminism is both theory and activism (praxis) – importance of experience docsity.com feminist critique of ‘malestream sociology’ • sociology has a history of conducting research on men e.g. use male only samples – findings derived from studies are unquestioningly generalised and assumed to be equally relevant to women – men taken as norm? • issues and experiences of concern to women were at best neglected and at worst considered sociologically irrelevant e.g. domestic violence and labour • if women incorporated into studies - tended to be quite simply misrepresented and/or represented in a stereotypical manner • sex and gender tended to be naively and uncritically tagged on and stirred into research designs – little (if any) appreciation that the theoretical frameworks themselves were part of the problem docsity.com e.g. sociological research on class (Acker 1973) • Nuffield Mobility Study (1980) • Register General’s Scale (1911- 2001) • based on all male sample • women classified indirectly – male head of household – women hidden from the figures • Joan Acker – seminal paper – feminist critique of stratification literature docsity.com liberal feminism • equal rights and opportunities – challenge long held beliefs and ideas about women’s (in)abilities e.g. Wollstonecraft (1792) – ‘the feathered race’ • humanism; emancipation; meritocracy • sameness – ability to reason • are human values equated with male values? • reform - simply add women – perpetuate malestream bias? • explain women’s inequality? docsity.com radical feminism • ‘feminism in its “purest” form’ (Abbott et al 2005: 33) • woman-centred and celebrates the differences between women and men • patriarchy is central - ‘structural domination’ – ‘universal sisterhood’ • ‘the personal is political’ – e.g. family; domestic violence; body politics docsity.com radical feminism • separatist – women only organisations and critique of heterosexuality • rediscover and promote knowledge from the experience and standpoint of women • oversimplified understanding of patriarchy? • claims to a universal and homogenous sisterhood – problematic? docsity.com Marxist/socialist feminisms (see e.g. Jackson in Jackson & Jones 1998) • serve interests of capitalism and men? • what about non-capitalist societies? • capitalism and/or patriarchy debates – disputes over the location and explanation of women’s subordination? e.g. dual systems theory – e.g. Walby – shift from private to public patriarchy? exclusion/segregation convergence/polarisation - but what about other factors and inequalities – e.g. globalisation and ethnicity? docsity.com ‘cultural turn’ and feminist theory (1) • social science perspectives informed and shaped feminist theory but some argue that literary and cultural theoretical perspectives are now more influential • since the 1980’s witnessed a cultural or linguistic turn: a shift from ‘things to words’ (Barrett in Kemp & Squires 1997) • for example the focus moved away from materialist issues related to domestic labour, gender inequities in the workplace and domestic violence to issues related to symbolic - language, representation and discourse docsity.com ‘cultural turn’ and feminist theory (2) • ‘gender is understood to be shaped not just by social structures but by dominant discourses – forms of language that construct what it means to be a man or a woman’ (Abbott et al 2005: 358; my emphasis) • misrecognise and take as ‘real’ what is actually linguistically constructed? (e.g. Butler) • how has this shift impacted on feminist theory? docsity.com postmodern feminism (see e.g. Weedon 1997; Zalewski 2000) • contest and resist categorisation – what ‘woman’ ought to be - the point is to deconstruct all attempts to fix identity – this in itself is a political act • focus on differences between women not commonalities • but what are the political implications for feminism if no basis for a collective identity? docsity.com Black and post-colonialist feminisms • critical of ‘white elitism’ – prioritises and represents the experiences of white, middle class, heterosexual, affluent Western women • diversity of women’s experiences – e.g. family • how does gender intersect with other factors? e.g. class, ethnicity, disability • should gender be given primacy over other aspects – hierarchy of oppression? docsity.com Black and post-colonialist feminisms • can women oppress other groups of women and/or men? • all women have ‘racialised identities’? • notion of solidarity as opposed to sisterhood? (hooks 1984) docsity.com