feminism

Since I am part of the Women group I decided I would do this entry on the different types of feminists and some of the issues that they have fought for and the causes that they still are fighting for. So in this blog I will talk about 3 types of feminist starting with Liberal feminist, then going into socialist feminist then finishing off with radical Feminists.
So the first wave of feminism of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries used the language of liberalism to demand formal equality with men. (Mullaly, 2007) The first wave feminist also focused on the promotion of equal contact, marriage, parenting and property rights for women. First wave feminist were the group of feminist who made it possible for women to vote and be elected into parliament. Liberal feminist believe the way to fix gender inequality is to reform social and political institution, they do not see biological differences between men and women as a significant barrier to gender equality. Liberal feminism mostly focuses on the gender equality in the public sphere, and have brought about some changes to it in workplaces, education, wages, pensions, civil and social rights. They have developed carious strategies for social change that have been adopted by other feminist groups (Mullaly, 2007). Even with them doing all this for women rights they are still criticized by other feminist groups for only focusing on the public sphere of gender equality and mostly benefiting white highly educated middle class women and not focussing on poorer women and women of colour or structural forces such as classism and racism in society.
Now to move onto Social feminism which focuses mostly on private and public spheres of a women’s life, it is a dualist theory that broadens the Marxist feminism argument on the role of capitalism in the oppression of women, it also has taken to some Liberal feminist ideas. A major focus of the socialist feminism is the interrelationship between capitalism and patriarchy, Along with this there has been many advances made by socialist feminists such as: improved health care, housing, income, security, child and elder care, education, employment services, women equality, maternity leave, sexual harassment policies and safety in workplace to name a few. Social feminist disagree with radical feminists theory of gender and patriarchy.
Now to finish with Radical Feminists, Early Radical Feminism came with the second wave feminism in the 1960’s, they believe that neither liberal or socialist feminist approaches are radical enough, and that the fundamental form of oppression experienced by women – that women as a class or group are oppressed by men as a class or group(mullaly, 2007). Patriarchy has been defined in two ways by radical feminists, male power and control over women’s sexuality and male power and control over women’s biology. Radical feminist believe that throughout history men have constructed and controlled womens bodies to serve their own needs and interests, violence is also to show male dominance over women. They have made important contributions to feminist theory and political action. It has emphasized problems that other feminist have not such as rape, domestic violence, sexuality and reproductive technologies. Another type of radical feminism is called The Women-Centered approach where feminist have made it so that establishments were made by women for women such as clinical and health centres where women can be treated by female doctors(mullaly, 2007). Radical feminist tend to reduce the issue of women’s inequality to a simple explanation....biology, they have also been criticized for being naive in the extreme because it rest on the hope of social change through the encouragement of woman-centered values and practices to counter and overcome society’s dominance male values and practices(mullaly, 2007).
In conclusion all 3 types of feminism have had a major impact in changing the way society looks at women and their rights from liberal feminist and their quest to cure gender equality to socialism feminist fighting to get equal rights in work place and job equality to the Radical Feminist who have raised tons of awareness to the abuse of women. They are well on their way to achieving their goal of equality.

Christopher Goulet



Resources
Mullaly, B. (2007). The new structural social work. (3 ed.).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_feminism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_feminism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_feminism