Feminism and the family
In recent decades, feminism has probably had more influence on the study of the family than any other approach to understanding society. Like Marxists, Feminists are conflicted theorists and have been highly critical of the family. However, unlike other critics, they have tended to emphasise the harmful effects of family life upon women. Feminists see the family as a negative environment for women and introduced the study areas of family life such as housework and domestic violence into Sociology. Feminists have also highlighted the economic contribution to society made by women’s domestic labour within the family. It has challenged the idea that family life is based upon cooperation, shared interests and love and has tried to show that men obtain greater benefits from families than others. Generally, Feminists studying the family are concerned about:
Domestic labour – Unpaid work in the house and cleaning is done by women. Women make the contribution to the family and men receive the main benefits, which are invaluable to capitalism.
Emotional labour - Radical feminists suggest that women provide their husbands with emotional support –
listening, agreeing understanding and flattering their husbands (Delphy and Leonard).
Male domination - Feminists see the family as male dominated (patriarchy). Men control the key areas of decision making including moving house and important financial decisions. Sometimes, men use violence to maintain control - usually it is women who are on the receiving end of domestic violence (see Dobash and Dobash).
Economic dependency - married women are often economically dependent on their husbands.
Feminist theorists hold many differing opinions concerning the family and they are often split into the categories of Liberal Feminism, Radical Feminism and Marxist Feminism, although there are other types
including Black Feminism and Post Modern Feminists (Difference Feminists).
Liberal Feminism
Liberal Feminism focuses on the social change (as evident through changes in legislation) that has benefited women in the twentieth Century.
Sometimes called Reformist Feminism, Liberal Feminism does not have such clearly developed theories of gender inequality as Radical and Marxist feminism. However, Liberal Feminism does enjoy greater popular support than the other perspectives. This is largely because its aims are more moderate and it poses less of a challenge to existing values. Liberal feminists aim for gradual change in the political, economic and social systems of Western Society in the hope of achieving equal rights for women. They do not seek revolutionary change but want reforms that take place within the
existing social structure and work through the democratic system.
Liberal Feminists believe in the creation of equal opportunities and gaining rights through legislation e.g. The Sex Discrimination Act (1975), Equal Opportunities Act (1970, in force by 1975). Liberal Feminists support legislation which outlaws discrimination against women and those giving rights to women, particularly in the workplace.
Liberal feminists do suggest however, that neither sex benefits from current gender inequality e.g. men in the workforce do not get to develop a close bond with their children as paternity leave is not mandatory. Women on the other hand are not able to develop their full potential in the workplace. Therefore, the battle has been against laws and practices that give rights to men and not women.
The explanation of gender inequality according to liberal feminists lies not so much in the structures and institutions of society but in its culture and the attitudes of individuals. They are concerned that socialisation into gender roles has the consequences of producing rigid, inflexible expectations of men and women.
Liberal Feminists want very gradual change in society. Liberal Feminists see that because of the CULTURE and ATTITUDES in society, women do not always get the chance to excel in the workplace. If they want to stay and be successful at work they must sacrifice time with their children. Liberal Feminists try to look at the bigger picture and work ‘behind the scenes’ to bring about change. This can be in the form of legislation like increasing maternity pay or allowing a longer period of maternity leave whilst allowing women to come back to the same jobs. These changes are crucial in allowing society to rethink male and female roles.
Glenys Lobban (1974) & Lesley Best (1992) believe that school reading schemes portray males and females in their ‘traditional’ roles. Despite their research being rather dated one can still how this seems to still be the case in the 21st century.
Thus there still seems to be a long way to go before there will be significant changes to the patriarchal landscapes that have dominated much of society.
Liberal Feminists try to get rid of sexism and stereotypical views of females in children’s books and the mass media.
Ethnicity & Identity
When considering feminism in the Western world, one cannot ignore the effects that immigration has had in the United Kingdom. Women from certain societies are also negotiating other forms of patriarchal control that vary from their British experiences.
Anwar (1981) discusses Asian Households and makes reference to family conflicts with regards to young females who may wish to continue into further and higher education and pursue professional careers. The older generation might believe that these wishes are too ambitious and attempt to restrict females to a more traditional domestic role. Asian Families are often very patriarchal in structure. Girls and women often play out roles that are restrictive and traditionally female for example being solely responsible for the housework or looking after the children.
So their ethnicity and their gender can have a significant impact on a young Asian Females’ life.
Activity
- 1. How do liberal feminists want to achieve equality for women?
Marxist Feminism and the Family
Marxist feminists see the family and the roles within the family as beneficial, not only to men (serving patriarchy), but to capitalism as a whole.
Marxist Feminists suggest that the sexual division of labour means that women are expected to be responsible for domestic work and child care. This means that women become economically dependent on men and have no access to money that they see as their own. Economic and physical differences in power between husbands and wives means that women can experience a lack of control over financial resources and an inability to engage in social activities.
In Britain married women generally take their husbands name and often become seen as an appendage of their husbands and children, being ‘John Smiths wife’ and Jean and Billy Smith’s mother – having no separate social identity of their own. This identification with the family often carries over into paid employment. In employment, women’s position within the family makes women a target for capitalist exploitation. Women are given poorly paid, part time, low status jobs because they are regarded as being financially dependent on their husbands.
Examples of Marxist theorists:
Anne Oakley argues that the sexual division of labour means that women are expected to be responsible for domestic work and childcare. This means that women become economically dependent on men and have no access to money that they see as their own.
Conflict arises over the different emotional needs of men and women. Women are expected to deal with the frustrations and anger of husbands and children but have no one to whom they can turn to themselves. Economic differences in power between husbands and wives mean that women can experience a lack of control over financial resources, an inability to engage in social activities and even physical violence from their husbands. Male control of sexuality and fertility means that men’s needs are assumed to be more important. Women are expected to “please” their husbands and give in to his sexual demands. Oakley argues that women lose their own identity as they are often seen as “Mrs Smith” or asked what their husband does for a living,
This all suggests that women’s economic positions are crucial to their oppression. Their position within the family makes women a target for capitalist exploitation- women are given poorly paid, part-time; low status jobs because they are regarded as being financially dependent on their husbands.
Veronica Beechey argues that women are largely regarded as dependent on men. Employers are able to pay wages to women which by themselves would not be enough for women to live on. This keeps women dependent on men.
Click on the link below. This will take you to some further (extension) reading on these very issues.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.626.1823&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Irene Breugal supports this view. She suggests that women are easy to hire and fire, so form a reserve
army of labour. She maintains that women’s unemployment is more easily disguised – it is not real
unemployment because their primary work is as a housewife.
Margaret Benston suggests that capitalism gets two workers for the price of one. Women cook and clean for men. If they didn’t do this, then employers would have to pay higher wages so men could pay for these services. This would reduce profit for Capitalists.
Ansley translates Parsons view, that the family functions to stabilise adult personalities, into a Marxist framework. She sees the emotional support provided by the wife as a ‘safety valve’ for the frustration produced in the husband by working in a capitalist system (alienation). Rather than turning against the system which produced it, this frustration is absorbed by the comforting wife. In this way, the system is not threatened. As Ansley put its ‘when wives play their traditional role as takers of shit, they often absorb their husbands legitimate anger and frustration at their own powerlessness and oppression’.
Activity
- 1. What do Marxist Feminists see as the cause of women’s oppression?
- 2. In what ways do Marxist feminists see the family as beneficial to men and the capitalist system?
- 3. According to Ann Oakley, why does the sexual division of labour lead to oppression?
- Who talks about a “reserve army of Labour” and what does it mean?
- Why do bosses get a good deal from their male employees according to Benston?
- What does Ansley describe the emotional support given by the wife as?
Radical Feminists and the Family
This approach, developed in the 1970s, focuses attention on Patriarchy and the role of men oppressing women. Radical feminists argue that there is a conflict between all men and women. The conflict results from patriarchy (male domination), which is a combination of social, economic and cultural systems, which maintain male’s supremacy. For Radical feminists “the personal is political”. This means that women are not just dominated in the public sphere; they are also oppressed in their private lives and relationships.
The link between the public and private sphere can be demonstrated by the following examples:
1) The laws on abortion are controlled by medicine and the judiciary, -women are not deemed responsible enough to have control over their own bodies
2) The status of wife- losing her name on marriage
Radical Feminists believe society is patriarchal and it is dominated and ruled by men – suggesting that men are the ruling class. They believe that the family is the main institutions for oppression of women in modern society. Women have always been exploited and only revolution will achieve change and the possibility of the liberation of women. Men are seen as the enemy of women’s liberation
Radical feminists don’t want to introduce equal rights but want to free women from patriarchal control. Radical Feminists offer various solutions for women’s disadvantage within the family. The most extreme of these is separatism which is that men and women should live separately to put an end to female
oppression. Lesbianism is advocated as a political choice for women.
Examples of Radical Feminists:
Kate Millet suggests that men benefit directly from the exploitation of women in the family in society.
Adrienne Rich refers to the idea of “Compulsory sexuality” – women are forced into heterosexuality because this is the only socially accepted form of sexuality. Lesbianism is regarded as a deviant or abnormal alternative. Some feminists have argued that lesbianism is the only means through which women can experience sexual pleasure in a way which is not oppressive. Sexual intercourse with men involves women colluding with their main enemy.
Firestone believes that childbearing is a burden which has put women at a disadvantage in the past. She believes that the new reproductive technology (test tube, fertilisation) will free women from dependence
on and contact with, men.
Delphy and Leonard suggest that women contribute much more work to family life than their husbands. Despite this they get fewer material benefits of family life than men. Men retain ultimate responsibility for family finances and women consume less than male family members.
Furthermore it is usually the male head of household has the ‘decision making power’ to determine what goods or bought or produced for the family and who uses them.
Delphy and Leonard believe that the family is a patriarchal and hierarchical institution through which men dominate and exploit women. Men are usually the head of the household and it is the head that benefits from the work that gets done. Women provide ‘57
varieties of unpaid service’ for men including them providing them with a ‘pliant sexual partner’. Wives do
sometimes resist their husbands dominance – they are not always passive victims, but ‘economic and social constraints’ make it difficult for women to escape from the patriarchal family.
Black feminists / Difference feminists
Most of the feminist approaches we have looked at so far tend to assume that most women live in conventional nuclear families and that they share a similar experience of family life. However, difference feminists argue that we cannot generalise about women’s experiences in the way. For example, a woman’s experience may differ depending on her social class, ethnicity and sexuality.
Black Feminists such has Amos & Parmar, argue that black women may have different experiences to other women as they not only have to deal with sexism, but racism too. In this instance, a black woman’s family may be a great source of comfort and support.
Criticisms of the Feminist perspective
- Like Marxism and Functionalism, Feminists are criticised for assuming the traditional nuclear family is the dominant family type,
- They are criticised their structural view of society. They assume that families are passive
puppets manipulated to perform certain functions, whereas Social Action theorists suggest this ignores the choice we have in creating family relationships (family diversity is evidence of this)
Activity – Radical Feminism
1) When was the Radical Feminist approach developed?
2) How are women controlled in the private sphere?
3) What does Adrienne Rich mean by “compulsory heterosexuality?
4) What is Radical Feminists main goal?
5) According to Firestone, how could new reproductive technology free women?
6) Delphy & Leonard argue that women provide men with “57 varieties of unpaid services”. What types of services do you think they are referring to?
7) How can you criticise Delphy and Leonard?
8) How can you criticise Radical Feminists in general?
Complete the table:
| Strand of Feminism | What is seen as the main cause of
oppression? |
What needs to happen to remove this
oppression? |
| Liberal Feminism | ||
| Marxist Feminism | ||
| Radical Feminism | ||
| Difference Feminism |
| Types of Feminism/ Sociologists | What do they say? |
| Marxist feminists | |
| • Ann Oakley | |
| • Beechey | |
| • Benston | |
|
• Ansley |
|
|
• Breugal |
|
|
Radical Feminism |
|
|
• Adrienne Rich |
|
|
• Firestone |
|
|
• Delphy & Leonard |
|
|
Black/Difference |
|
|
• Amos & Parmar |
|
|
Liberal |
