Feminism

Feminism is characterised primarily by its political stance: the attempt to advance the social role of women. Feminists have highlighted what they see as a political relationship between the sexes, the supremacy of men and the subjection of women in most, if not all, societies. The ‘first wave’ of feminism was closely associated with the women’s suffrage movement, which emerged in the 1840s and 1850s. The achievement of female suffrage in most Western countries in the early twentieth century meant that the campaign for legal and civil rights assumed a lower profile and deprived the women’s movement of a unifying cause. The ‘second wave’ of feminism arose during the 1960s and expressed, in addition to the established concern with equal rights, the more radical and sometimes revolutionary demands of the growing Women’s Liberation Movement. Although feminist politics has fragmented and undergone a process of de-radicalisation since the early 1970s, feminism has nevertheless gained growing respectability as a distinctive school of political theory.

Feminist political thought has primarily been concerned with two issues. First, it analyses the institutions, processes and practices through which women have been subordinated to men; and second, it explores the most appropriate and effective ways in which this subordination can be challenged. Feminist thought has rejected the conventional view that politics is confined to narrowly public activities and institutions, the most famous slogan of second-wave feminism being ‘The personal is the political.’ The central concept in the feminist theory of sexual politics is patriarchy, a term that draws attention to the totality of oppression and exploitation to which women are subject. This, in turn, highlights the political importance of gender, understood to refer to socially imposed rather than biological differences between men and women. Most feminists view gender as a political construct, usually based upon stereotypes of ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ behaviour and social roles.

Nevertheless, feminist theory and practice is highly diverse. The earliest feminist ideas derived largely from liberalism and reflected a commitment to individualism and formal equality. In contrast, socialist feminism, largely derived from Marxism, has highlighted links between female subordination and the capitalist mode of production, drawing attention to the economic significance of women being confined to the family or domestic life. On the other hand, radical feminists moved beyond the perspectives of existing political traditions. They portray gender divisions as the most fundamental and politically significant cleavages in society, and call for the radical restructuring of personal, domestic and family life. However, the breakdown of feminism into three traditions – liberal, socialist and radical feminism – has become increasingly redundant since the 1970s as feminist thought has become yet more sophisticated and diverse. Among its more recent forms have been black feminism, psychoanalytic feminism, ecofemin-ism and postmodern feminism.

The major strength of feminist political theory is that it provides a perspective on political understanding that is uncontaminated by the gender biases that pervade conventional thought. Feminism has not merely reinterpreted the contribution of major theorists and shed new light upon established concepts such as power, domination and equality, but also introduced a new sensitivity and language into political theory related to ideas such as connection, voice and difference. Feminism has nevertheless been criticized on the grounds that its internal divisions are now so sharp that feminist theory has lost all coherence and unity. Postmodern feminists, for example, even questioned whether ‘woman’ is a meaningful category. Others suggest that feminist theory has become disengaged from a society that is increasingly post-feminist, in that, largely thanks to feminism, the domestic, professional and public roles of women, at least in developed societies, have undergone a major transformation.

Key figures

Mary Wollstonecraft Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) is usually regarded as the first text of modern feminism and was written against the backdrop of the French Revolution, many years before the emergence of the women’s suffrage movement. In arguing that women should be entitled to the same rights and privileges as men on the grounds that they are ‘human beings’, she established what was to become the core principle of liberal feminism.

Simone de Beauvoir (1906–86) A French novelist, playwright and social critic, Beauvoir helped to reopen the issue of gender politics and foreshadowed some of the themes later developed in radical feminism. She highlighted the extent to which the masculine is represented as the positive or the norm, while the feminine is portrayed as ‘other’. Such ‘otherness’ fundamentally limits women’s freedom and prevents them from expressing their full humanity. Beauvoir placed her faith in rationality and critical analysis as the means of exposing this process and giving women responsibility for their own lives. Her key feminist work is The Second Sex (1949).

Kate Millett (1934– ) A US writer and sculptor, Millett developed radical feminism into a systematic theory that clearly stood apart from established liberal and socialist traditions. She portrays patriarchy as a ‘social constant’ running through all political, social and economic structures, and grounded in a process of conditioning that operates largely through the family, ‘patriarchy’s chief institution’. She supports consciousness-raising as a means of challenging patriarchal oppression, and has advocated the abolition and replacement of the conventional family. Millett’s major work is Sexual Politics (1970).

Juliet Mitchell (1940– ) A New Zealand-born British writer, Mitchell is one of the most influential theorists of socialist feminism. She has adopted a modern Marxist perspective that allows for the interplay of economic, social, political and cultural forces in society, and has warned that, since patriarchy has cultural and ideological roots, it cannot be overthrown simply by replacing capitalism with socialism. Mitchell was also one of the first feminists to use psychoanalytical theory as a means of explaining sexual difference. Her major works included Women’s Estate (1971), Psychoanalysis and Feminism (1974) and Feminine Sexuality (1985).

Shulamith Firestone (1945– ) A Canadian author and political activist, Firestone developed a theory of radical feminism that adapted Marxism to the analysis to the role of women. She argues that sexual differences stem not from conditioning but from a ‘natural division of labour’ within the ‘biological family’. Society is thus structured not through the process of production, but through the process of reproduction. Women can, then, achieve emancipation only if they transcend their biological natures and escape from the ‘curse of Eve’ by the use of modern technology such as test-tube babies and artificial wombs. Firestone’s best known work is The Dialectic of Sex (1970).

Catherine A. MacKinnon (1946– ) A US academic and political activist, MacKinnon has made a major contribution to feminist legal theory. In her view, law in a liberal state is one of the principal devices through which women’s silence and subordination is maintained. In the absence of gender equality, the ‘normal’ status of women is inevitably defined through the application of male values and practices. She has also argued that female oppression is based in sexuality and that pornography is the root cause of that oppression. MacKinnon’s major works include Sexual Harassment and Working Women (1979), Towards a Feminist Theory of the State (1989) and Only Words (1993).

Further reading

Bryson, V. Feminist Political Theory: An Introduction, 2nd edn. Basingstoke:

Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Freedman, J. Feminism. Buckingham: Open University Press, 2001.

Landes, J. B. (ed.) Feminism, the Public and the Private. Oxford University Press, 1998.

Squires, J. Gender in Political Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999.