Examine the ways in which feminism has contributed Essay

Examine the offices In which femlnlsm has contrisolelyed to our understanding of families Feminists take little views of the family as they turn over it oppresses women and hence creates issues much(prenominal) as unequal divisions of internal moil and domestic military unit against women. Feminists take that there is a triple magnetic core of paid excogitate. domestic labour and emotional work. Also gender variety Is not regarded as natural or Inevitable, but something that has been created by society. Feminists in addition make out that the conquering of women is due to patriarchy.The raw(a) Right has been criticised by libbers much(prenominal) as Ann Oakley (1997) as it has a conservative and anti-feminist perspective on the family. The natural Right is firmly opposed to family diversity. The advanced Right sees the nuclear family as the natural family and Is based upon fundamental biological differences amidst men and women. In their view, the nuclear family has clear-cut divisions of labour between the breadwinner-husband and officemaker-wife. Therefore leading to criticisms from feminists. Ann Oakley signals that the New Right wrongly assumes that husbands and wives roles argon fixed by biology.She also believes that the New Right view of the family is a negative reaction against the feminist bunk for womens equality. Even much so, other feminists argue that the traditional nuclear family favoured by the New Right Is based on the patriarchal conquest of women and Is a fundamental cause of gender inequality. In this view, it prevents women working and keeps them financially dependent on me. Feminism is often referred to as feminisms as it is experience that the feminist label Is broad and a cover many types of feminist.The master(prenominal) types of feminists are Liberal, redness, Radical and Dfference. Liberal feminists such as Jenny Somerville (2000) believe that the main obstacle for women is the equality in attitudes, pr actices and law in which stool be changed without any fundamental changes to the structure of society. They also are concerned with campaigning against sex discrimination and for equal rights and opportunities. Through people favouring and gainsay the gender role soclallsatlon In childhood, attitudes can then be changed towards roles In the family.Liberal feminists argue that womens oppression is gradually being reduce hrough the changing attitudes and changes in laws such as the Sex Discrimination knead (1975) which outlaws discrimination in employment. Even much so Liberal feminists consume a similar view to theorists such as Young and Willmott, although they do not believe full gender equality has been achieved in the family, they argue It has been a gradual progress. Through the gradual progress of changing attitudes, the ways In wnlcn cn110ren are soclallsea In tne Tamlly Is now OITTerent.Daugnters are socialised more equally to sons in the red-brick day compared to the past. However, ther feminists such as Marxist and Radical, criticise Liberal feminists for bolt outing to challenge the underlying causes of womens oppression and for believing that changes in law or attitudes testament be comely to bring equality. Marxist feminists and Radical feminists believe instead that far-reaching revolutionary changes to deep- pedestal social structures are needed. other type of feminist is Marxist feminism, and they argue that the main cause of womens oppression in the family is not men, but capitalism.Several functions are performed through womens oppression for capitalism, firstly that women cat he labour force, through their unpaid domestic labour and by socialising the next generation of workers and maintain the servicing of the current generation. Another function is that women absorb anger that would otherwise be directed at capitalism. Wives are describe as takers of shit by Fran Ansley (1972) who acknowledges that women soak up the frustratio n of their husbands feelings due to the alienation and exploitation they suffer at work. This is a uncreated example for Marxists, as it explains male domestic violence against women.abbot and Wallace (1990) note that the main ause of domestic violence is the male perception that the cooperator is failing her duties. Dobash and Dobash (1979) also found that these duties tended to be about sex, money and home making. Due to the male perception of the partner failing her duties, it is often resulted in the women believing that they deserved to be beaten. Also women are a support army of cheap labour, meaning that when extra workers are needed women shall be taken on to work, but as soon as they are no longer needed the employers let them go to return to their primary role as unpaid domestic labour.However, Radical feminists have been critical based on the emphasis is being put on capitalistic forms of exploitation. They argue that patriarchy predates Capitalism which makes it a mor e significant interpretation of female exploitation and oppression. Radical feminists argue that all societies have been founded on patriarchy and for radical feminists the severalise division in society is between me and women. Radical feminists see men as the enemy as they are the source of womens oppression and exploitation. Also that the family and marriage are the key institutions in patriarchal ociety.Men benefit form womens domestic labour and from their sexual services, and they dominate women through domestic and sexual violence or the threat of it. Radical feminists argue that the family is the root of womens oppression, so therefore must be abolished. They also argue that the only way to achieve this is through separatism, where women must live independently of men. Even more so, radical feminists argue for political lesbianism, which is the idea that straight relationships are needfully oppressive because they involve sleeping with the enemy.Germaine Greer (2000) arg ues for the creation of all-female or matrilocal households as an alternate(a) to the heterosexual family. However, for liberal feminists such as Jenny Somerville (2000), radical feminists fail to recognise that womens position has improved considerably with better entree to Jobs, divorce and control over tnelr own Tertlll ty Somerville also argues tnat separatlsm Is unlikely to work as heterosexual attraction makes it unlikely that the formulaic nuclear family will disappear. On the other hand, Somerville does agree that women have yet to chieve full equality.The feminist approaches already considered tend to assume that most women live in conventional nuclear families and that they share a similar experience of family life. However, difference feminists argue that women have very different experiences of the family from one another and so therefore cannot be generalised. For example, working-class and middle-class women, non-white and albumin women and lesbian and heterosexua l women all share different experiences so therefore cannot be compared. pitch blackness feminists argue that by regarding the family solely on a source of ppression, white feminists neglect black womens experiences of racial oppression.The black family is positively viewed as a source of support and resistance against racism by black feminists. However other feminists argue that this approach neglects the fact that, despite such differences, women do in fact share many of the same experiences. For example, women vitrine a greater risk of domestic violence and sexual beset and low pay compared with men. Feminism is criticised for ignoring the increased family diversity of families in the modern day, and although the nuclear family remains important, it is by no means the only family type.