What are the Main Differences Between Liberal and Radical Feminism - Article Example

What are the main differences between liberal and radical feminism' Feminism has been one of the most important social movements that have emerged in the modern times. The study behind this phenomenon has been turned into a major field as scholars from many disciplines and in many countries have sought to explore the ways in which women's oppression has been studied, analyzed, discussed, then resisted these past years. Until quite recently, feminist discussion and debate was seen as spasmodic and fragmentary, at least until the mid-nineteenth century, and then as going into abeyance after the First World War. (Caine 1997, p.1) Today, the case is different because one could now construct a more or less continuous timeline of feminism, particularly in the Western societies. This paper will explore the two variations of feminism: liberal feminism and radical feminism. Another purpose of this study is to present a comparison, particularly of the differences in their objectives, strategies and perspectives on several issues. What is Feminism' In order to fully understand the subject matter, it is imperative to define what feminism is. A classical definition of feminism states that it is a movement to achieve the social, political, and economic equality of women with men. (Lind and Brzuzy 2008, p. 512) Feminism, of course cannot be defined as the theory about gender difference because that would be the concern of biology. Feminism is a political theory of why and how the male sex exercises power over the female sex in actuality and symbolically and that it is a social movement that challenges this domination, creating a new political identity for those who engage in it. Michael Foley (1994) wrote that feminism is distinguished from doctrines of class or national liberation on two counts: As a theory of women's liberation, it cannot be universal; it does not offer men a theory of self-realization. Secondly, feminists have not sought self-realization through the establishment of an endogenous, territorial, sovereign state. (p. 80) Although feminism may have existed in the ancient times such as in Egypt and Greece, the concept as we of it today traces its roots from the struggle for female sexual autonomy as conceptualized in the nineteenth and early twentieth-century feminists in terms of emancipation of women from sex slavery. According to Margaret Jackson (1995), the progress of the feminist activism and struggle started by a series of organized campaign in the British Victorian and Edwardian periods in regard to marriage, spinsterhood, and the sexual double standard. (p. 3) From then on, it has gathered steam, propelled by women activism as seen in literature, cultural and political campaigns advancing feminist engagement. However, as mentioned elsewhere in this paper, its history is fragmented, making it difficult to pinpoint its specific history or cultural tradition. All in all, the history of feminism is contingent on other political issues and social changes. As a political ideology, it has been made by women through different campaigns and moral surges, hence, its objectives and ethos varies through time. This dimension is highlighted by the fact that contemporary feminism has found expression in two principal forms: liberal feminism and radical feminism. Liberal Feminism The liberal feminism has been largely seen as positive social movement that only seeks gender equality in social political and economic roles and opportunities. It primarily seeks to bring women into the fold - fully participating in the mainstream society, exercising full privileges and responsibilities of citizenship in genuinely equal partnership with men. Since the 1700s, the liberal feminists have been important advocates vigorously campaigning for women's education and campaigning for equality of access and provision. As years passed, this advocacy extended its focus on individual rights, education, political and religious freedom, individual choice, and self-determination. Feminism has addressed gender inequalities through their efforts and campaigns for inclusion within civil rights legislation, access to education, and equal opportunity. This feminist school's main argument is that women are as rational as men. Over the past years, liberal feminism has become a positive social movement, serving as an intellectual basis for a wide range of social and cultural norms and practices that constitute individuals as apparently free, independent, and rational species. Liberal feminism has, over the years, campaigned and achieved equal access to education and profession, property rights, suffrage, and all other rights enjoyed by men. Moreover, liberal feminism believes that it can achieve its goals by the process of re-education in which divisive gender roles are replaced by more equitable behaviour. Radical Feminism The failure of liberal feminism to tackle structural problems that impede the achievement of gender equality helped give rise in the late 1960s to new and more radical form of feminism. The sexist structure of both the traditional left polity and of the key mobilizing struggles of the 1960s such as the anti-Vietnam and civil rights movements were also the springboard for the radical feminism movement that was partially formed in answer to the prejudice and sexism experienced by women in these campaigns. (Bank, Delamont and Marshall 2007, p. 42) Radical feminists tend to be dissatisfied with the gendered division between public and private spheres that, for them, has been taken for granted by their liberal counterparts. In addition, much of the impetus, wrote Margaret Jackson, of the radical feminism since the early 1970s stemmed from a realization that the sexual revolution, with which the concept of sexual liberation has been closely identified with, was, from the point of view of women, was no revolution at all because it was perceived as an ideology which legitimized male sexual values and practices, and functioned to make women's bodies ever more accessible to make sexual demands. (Jackson, p. 2) The radical feminism's main concern is this: the very division between nature and culture, public and private, that is at the heart of gender needed to be transformed and that this was the source of women's subordination. Liberal Feminism versus Radical Feminism At least four core ideas can be identified to clarify why and how radical feminism is different from the liberal feminist movement. These are: the concept of patriarchy; the centrality of the body and sexuality to controls exerted over women; that the personal is political; and, the internal colonization. Patriarchy The liberal feminist approach generally accepts as given the major features of patriarchal societies such as capitalism, militarism, adversarial legal systems, competition, and hierarchy. (Johnson 2000, p. 121) Here, larger social systems are not seen as problematic and that the problem is the women's lack free access to positions within them. While liberal feminists would fight in order for women to be allowed as military commanders or corporate leaders, they would not generally regard war r corporate capitalism themselves as problems that need feminist analysis and reform. For radical feminists, as seen in the works of Kate Millett and Shulamith Firestone, patriarchal societies were ones wherein, if examined closely, men held positions of power in virtually all decision-making spheres. (cited in Chancer and Watkins 2006, p. 33) For instance, a state is patriarchal if those who head its economy - the businesses and industries - are overwhelmingly male, and if this could also be said of those who hold power in the fields of technology and science, the military and police, governmental agencies, and even as final decision-makers at home. Control Typically, radical feminism would regard the controls that men exert over women's bodies as the key to male domination in patriarchal societies and, hence, women became confined to domestic spheres coercively. In addition, radical feminists argue that women's ability to control whether or not to have children, who to have sexual relations with and under what conditions, are matters that in patriarchal societies have been strictly limited. (Chancer and Watkins, p. 34) For liberal feminists, on the one hand, the body is the site of control of women but argue that women need to work alongside men in changing this, for example, by rejecting or reshaping the beauty and fashion industries. (Stewart 2004, p. 30) The rationale behind this perspective is that while men and women are equal in potential, the differences that exist result from social expectation, including the differing ways in which boys and girls are treated from infancy onwards. Personal is Political Liberal feminists continue to hold on to a distinction between public and private spheres. The idea is that if all aspects of people's lives are up for question, then nothing is outside the political sphere. This is negative from the liberal perspective because it makes no distinction between private life and public affairs. Radical feminism places power relations that are political are enacted across a much wider spectrum of human activities and relationships. The argument here is that politics are not limited in their occurrence to traditionally masculine spheres of business, work and politics but that it happens, on a daily basis, in the usual feminine realms, particularly in the domestic sphere and within nuclear families as well. This is the reason why one of the successes of radical feminists was to clarify that the issues like domestic violence, rape (including rape within marriage) and sexual harassment are indeed instances of sexual politics. Internal Colonization Internal colonization refers to the radical feminists argument that they must organize in order to counter gender subordination. They contend that once relationships between men and women were defined in terms of dominance and subordination, the form of power and its resistance could then emerge. An underlying variable here is the sexual factor because, for radical feminists, one's ability to feel a sense of common cause with others in one's (sex) class is constantly being diluted by a sense of emotional and sexual intimacy that, as a matter of course, brings the subordinated party closer - and less likely to uncomfortably challenge - the dominated one. (Chancer and Watkins, p. 36) Radical feminists want to remove this variable in order to consolidate themselves and form a stronger pressure group that could affect real change. This aspect - internal colonization - goes against the liberal feminist goal of inclusion and equal valuation. The liberal feminist perspective seeks to understand gender differences and work with it in order to achieve equality and equal opportunity for women. Rational critique of social inequalities is seen as the best tool to dismantle oppressive and social structures. Liberal feminists remained determinedly individualistic and that while radical feminists talks about organization and social transformation, liberal feminists spoke of self-transformation. Conclusion In comparing liberal feminists and radical feminists, one understands a glaring distinction: liberal feminists, worked within existing institutional systems, operating under the assumption that the institutions themselves were not irredeemable, not simply exclusive of women and that within that framework, the objective was not to tear down nor transform existing institutions but for them to give women equal access and treatment to women and the needs within them. On the other hand, radical feminism wants to directly address root causes of the oppression of women. Their activities are mostly efforts to design alternatives to existing systems and practices. Liberal feminists and radical feminists may differ in many respects but they do share many characteristics as well. Essentially, they both want to eradicate gender discrimination as they promote equality, freedom and equal opportunities for women. They both have achieved for the feminist movement several milestones enjoyed by women today. In recent years, radical feminism is in decline but liberal feminism still lives on. This may be attributed to the fact that radical feminism is at odds with democracy while liberal feminist perspective thrives in it. Nonetheless, as previously mentioned in this paper, feminism has been constantly evolving and the changes that it experiences as years passed illustrates the dynamism of the movement, underscoring their relevance as shown in the activism of their ranks. Moreover, radical or liberal feminist perspectives would always remain with us to serve as lessons and influences to guide the feminist movement in its objectives. References Bank, B., Delamont, S., and Marshall, C., Gender and Education: Gendered theories of education. University of South Carolina Press, 2007. Caine, B., English Feminism, 1780-1980. Oxford University Press, 1997. Chancer, L. and Watkins, B., Gender, race, and class: an overview. Wiley-Blackwell, 1996 Foley, M., Ideas that Shape Politics. Manchester University Press, 1994. Jackson, m., The Real Facts of Life: Feminism and the Politics of Sexuality, C1850-1940. Taylor and Francis, 1994. Johnson, A., The Blackwell dictionary of sociology: a user's guide to sociological language. Wiley-Blackwell, 2000. Lind, A. and Brszuzy, S., Battleground: Women, Gender and Sexuality. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008. Rejai, M., Political ideologies: a comparative aproach. M.E. Sharpe, 1995. Stewart, M., Pregnancy, Birth and Maternity Care: Feminist Perspectives. Elsevier Health Sciences, 2004. Read More