“Feminism”

Training Session 12 Mar 2014

Intro

• The opp to feminism is NEVER ‘feminism is silly’

• Finding different ways to achieve equality of the sexes (Also whether or not different things are feminist or not ie free market)

• Addressing the different ways in which gender roles make us less free

1st Wave Feminism (1800s)

• 19th and early 20th Century: mainly suffrage based

• About formal rights– Voting and owning stuff.

2nd Wave Feminism (1960s)

• More legal stuff, and some ‘stuff that affects women’• More about sexuality, family, reproductive rights etc

Addresses:• 1. The societal disadvantages to women: influenced

legislation regarding equal pay, marital rape, pornography

• 2. Gender roles – forming female identity separate from the historical one.

• The sisterhood...

3rd Wave Feminism

• Greater emphasis on race, social class and sexuality.

• Prominent issues:– Gender violence– Reproductive rights– Reclaiming derogatory terms• Slutwalks

• Intersectionality

Difference vs Equality

• You can choose to set your premises up as being essentialist (women and men are different and as such have different needs) or based on equality (women and men should be treated the same).

• Be aware of what you base your assumptions on if you choose to follow the essentialist path.– Some things such as only women can get pregnant are probably

fair but be weary of other generalisations.

• Difference between equality of opportunities and outcomes– Formal equality does not necessarily mean having meaningful

ways to exercise that equality (e.g. working hours)

Employment

• Problems– Pay Gap, Vertical Segregation (management), Horizontal

Segregation (types of careers), Perception of colleagues

• Why these problems exist– Maternity (genuine costs + excuse), Role models, ‘Old

Boys Club’, Similarity Bias, Gender roles – socialised behaviour

• Possible solutions– Quotas, Incentives to work, Education

The Care Perspective

• Traditionally the caring professions have been considered as 'women's work', and culturally there is still a kind of expectation that women do most of it. Women are largely overrepresented amongst nurses, stay at home carers, etc.

• (i) Welfare - the more welfare there is (e.g. childcare) the more women are free to do other things rather than caring.

• (ii) Valuation of care work – Push for the work of housewives to be more valued etc.

Objectification

• Pornography• Advertising• Individual interactions• Sexualisation of girls and women• Value of women

Gender Roles

• What form do they take?– Personality, Career, Parenting– Component of:

• Employment problems• Objectification• Basically everything

• Problems– Self actualisation– Different groups effected in different ways/varying degrees

• Possible solutions– Education, up-bringing, positive discrimination

Perceived Post-feminism• The obvious line of attack is that women's rights have gone too far.

This is the line from those opposed to affirmative action that makes the presence of women seem tokenistic and undeserved, or from men who feel women are unfairly privileged over them.

• Some women don't feel there is any reason why being a woman is enough reason to unite with other women, especially when the troubles in their lives come from race and class. They don't see feminism as the primary organizing factor, and they don't see why feminism should be privileged over their race or their class.– 2nd wave feminism in particular is often seen as benefitting middle and

upper class white women at the expense of others.

• It may be important that the Feminist movement is seen as legitimate, seen to be doing good things, has support in order to be effective