What Is Feminism - Literature review Example

Title: Ways in which Liberal feminism and radical feminism differ in addressing women’s subordination Name Institution What is feminism? Nardi and Schneider (2013) defines feminism as political ideologies created from women movements with an objective of ending sexist system and all practices of social oppression to women. Feminism is founded from three perspectives-Liberal feminism, Marxist feminism and Radical feminism. This essay will only discuss liberal and radical feminism. Liberal and radical feminism differ in the following ways: Liberal feminism is based on the belief that a just society is formed as a result of free choices made by educated people and those aware. Liberal feminism focuses mainly on how law could be used to remove barriers that inhibit women access to social activities such as education, employment and political power. Kameri-Mbote (2003) argued that the ignorance of individuals would lead to social problems that will result to people growing up with misleading and harmful ideas about males and females in the society. However, liberal solutions tends to come up with strategies to change cultural practices that offer misleading information to people about the issue of gender discrimination and inequality. Radical feminism is based on the idea that gender inequality in the society is as a result of collective dominance of men where they control women’s sexuality and reproductive abilities to suit their needs. Customs that allow violence against women and morals of heterosexuality are factors that ensure male dominance and encourage female subordination and dependence on men (Kameri-Mbote, 2003). The primary goal of liberal feminism is promoting gender equality in the public sphere. As mention in the definition, most of the traditional customary laws prevent women from access to education, employment, better working conditions and power. Women could only access this through legal protection and in some instances endurance in harsh situations in the name of seeking awareness of their rights in the society. When it comes to the question of what do female want, then liberal feminists gives the answers as what men want too. The aspect of equality of resources is displayed when women too wants to be treated the same way society treats men. According to Nardi and Schneider (2013), a 21st century woman is independent and do not depend on men. They have access to education and this is one of the reason they are living a decent life. It is apparent that this is what women needs for them to feel inclusive in the society. They don’t want to be ruled by men anymore but rather they want to be seen as valuable members of the society where their opinions should be part of the decision making in the public sphere. Radical feminism on the other hand considered men as oppressors and did not recognize social discrimination as impacting men and women in a similar way (Germon, 2006). Like socialist feminists, radical feminists found that society need structural changes but they were not interested in going for these incremental changes in the structural systems. Radical feminism considered putting women’s oppressions in social institutions where they could air their voices as one in demand of radical transformation of the structural systems in the society. This is more about women coming together in seeking power that would help them have ability to carry out their activities in respective social classes (Kameri-Mbote, 2003). Equal Rights Amendments in the society is always the petition of liberal feminists. For example, the original proponent of these amendments was National Organization for Women (NOW) group in United States. The group was very clear that they need equality of rights not to be denied by United States laws especially when it comes to the account of sex. Without considering the fact that there is biological-based difference between men and women, liberal feminism from would rather not consider this as a justification of denying women to access equal employment opportunities and education like men (Beran, 2012). This shows that liberal feminism fails to acknowledge the basic gender relationship as well as failing to effectively analyse ways in which women differ from men in the society. This therefore accuses liberal feminism of judging women’s success by the male standards. Unlike liberal feminism, radical feminism emphasized that women and men in the society have conflicting interests (McKee, 2005). They tend to overlook on separatism and the importance of developing women’s culture. Radical feminism identified women concerns and analysed the oppression mainly in terms of sex. Sex is a concept of gender that encompasses both the biological production and economical production such as labour and technology (Beran, 2012). The system of radical feminism also considers the element of patriarchy where male dominance was based on the perception of the role of father as the head in the family. However, not all the systems in radical feminism recognize that all forms of gender-stratification were based on patriarchy. Liberal feminists worked under state systems in order to achieve the anticipated changes (McKee, 2005). This subjected men to be potential allies who were also oppressed by some rigid sex roles thus denying them individual choices. As a result, the system within which liberal feminists worked stressed the similarities between men and women rather than their differences. Therefore, these systems promoted a need for increasing freedom for all people irrespective of group-based and stereotypes roles in the society. For example, most of the 18th century political movements involved women who acted actively in promotion of democratic ideas in capitalists United States of America and United Kingdom. Women emerged to be aspirants in promoting women’s political equality with men in the society thus leaving the rest of the women in the society be aware of their rights (Germon, 2006). From the perspective of radical feminists, men supremacy is an appropriate term to describe the rulings in the social systems. Beran (2012) argued that whereas liberal feminist calls for equal representation in societal opportunities like education, radical feminist focused on the quality and quantity of the opportunities being offered to women. In Africa, empowering of women towards education is very essential since most communities are still strongly attached to their traditional customary beliefs. A study carried in Botswana showed that educational stereotyping contributes to marginalization of women (Nardi and Schneider, 2013). In the threshold of demanding equal opportunities, radical feminists in this case go for demanding change in curriculum. Still on education, liberal feminists consider that education remains unfair since it limits admission and retention of women in certain fields even when they are offered an opportunity (McKee, 2005). Kameri-Mbote (2003) states that country would be affected especially in production and health when girls are not educated. Therefore, liberty on health and safety oriented service to women provides supports to social welfare services which in turn focuses on child-rearing roles thus ignoring the perception of gender inequalities in the system (Nardi and Schneider, 2013). Radical feminism presents men as the controllers of production and the use of knowledge. For example, the gender biases were perpetrated in the society since men used to dominate media such as radio, television and more so in school curriculum. While liberal were fighting for equality in access of opportunities in health, radical feminists identified that health structures are responsible for empowering women. A research by McKee (2005) found that majority of radical feminists are lesbians and this has become an identifiable approach in political strategy. Women have undermined the presence of men in the society thus engaging in such activities which may not involve men in any way but they want to do what men can do in the social cycle. Since liberal feminism is based on subjection to free of choices, it thus opposes issues of prostitution and pornography. Liberal feminists argue that women who pose for pornography and prostitution are forcefully forced in to it. For instance, documentation by Gloria Steinem shows how men may compel women to engage in pornographic film production. Close to this also is the childhood sexual abuse which may lead to engagement to such activities. Drug dependency and poverty will later be endemic among sex workers in the society (Germon, 2006). Unlike liberal feminists, radical feminists defends the acts of prostitution and pornography not as subjective choices but sees it as arising from patriarchal construction of gender and sexuality for the exposed (Beran, 2012). Approach of pornography by radical feminist is also different. They regard that pornography is the deprivation of female’s bodily sovereignty. Radical feminist sees male as the proxies of pornography thus leading to further definition of pornography as sexual exploitation. However, the question of female submission comes in that entails how to distinguish manipulation free choice of women to engage in prostitution and pornography. In conclusion, if women are to be considered fully participant at the course of policy making and implementation process, then it is important to remove impediments that would compromise their participation. The two theories (liberal and radical feminism) support the demolition of discriminative aspects in the society that leads to inequality of access of opportunities for women. Liberal feminist majorly focused on different female have striven to achieve equality by connecting their private sphere to the public sphere. On the other side, radical feminism have focused on how women try to overcome social discrimination by working with state structures as a way of getting independence. References Beran, K. (2012). Revisiting the Prostitution Debate: Uniting Liberal and Radical Feminism in Pursuit of Policy Reform. Law & Ineq., 30, p.19. Germon, J. (2006). Generations of gender. 1st ed. Kameri-Mbote, P. (2003). Gender Considerations in Constitution-making: Engendering Women's Rights in the Legal Process. University of Nairobi Law Journal, 12(5), pp.15-48. McKee, A. (2005). The objectification of women in mainstream pornographic videos inn Australia. The Journal of Sex Research, 42(4), pp.270-298. Nardi, P. and Schneider, B. (2013). Social Perspectives in Lesbian and Gay Studies. 1st ed. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. Read More