Introduction to Sociology: Gender

 

We shall examine four main approaches to gendered relations, exploitation and oppression.

 

Some basic points

a) Distinction between gender and sex.

- sex differences refer to biological differences (e.g., body shape and size)

- gender refers to differences that are socially constructed and constituted (e.g., feelings and skills)

b) Gender interrelates with other social divisions such as class, ethnicity and age.

c) Gender points to constrains on women, but also what assumptions are made about men, and how these assumptions impair men’s relationships with women, and their own development, such as caring and nurturing responsibilities.

 

Does gender matter?

a) Yes, because of income pay differentials; types of work (paid and unpaid); and differences between ethnic groups.

b) No, because transformation of women’s lives in education, marriage, paid work and leisure; greater equality in the private sphere; and post-feminists refuse to see women as victims, rather they celebrate sexual differences, and use sex as for their own advantage – e.g., female internet porn stars.

 

Feminism

There are four key approaches to understanding gender, reflecting different versions of feminism.

a) Radical Feminism

- Catharine MacKinnon and Christine Delphy & Diana Leonard

i) This blames the exploitation of women on men. It is primarily men who have benefited from the subordination of women. Radical feminists see society as patriarchal (dominated and ruled by men); men are the ruling class.

ii) Some radical feminists consider the family as a key institution which oppresses women. Women’s oppression originates in their biology, particularly in the fact that they give birth. Some feminists stress rape and male violence towards women as methods through which men secure and maintain their power.

iii) Radical feminists believe that women have always been exploited, and that only a revolutionary change can offer a possibility of their liberation. However, there are disagreements about their aims and strategies: how far to eliminate gender differences and to cooperation with men. For instance, can only lesbians be the true campaigners?

 

b) Socialist Feminism

- Sylvia Walby and Anne Witz

i) They see capitalism rather than patriarchy as being the principal source of women’s oppression, and the capitalists are the main beneficiaries. Capitalists gain from women’s unpaid domestic work since existing and new generations of workers are reproduced at no cost to the capitalists.

i.e., workers’ labour power is reproduced at home through cooking and cleaning, and new labour power is nursed and nurtured.

Also, women’s dependence and work at home are exploited by capitalists through low wages and poor working conditions; e.g., part-time female employees fit into work life – they are not in a position to resist and hold out for better options.

ii) Nevertheless, there are patriarchal attitudes working alongside capitalism. In particular, employers and trade unions segregate women for economic and patriarchal reasons. This ensures a cheap supply of labour and excludes women from professions and tradecrafts.

Furthermore, the state ensures that women remain as carers through state welfare benefits. This also reduces the state welfare costs since caring is done for almost for free by women in nursing and caring for family members and elderly parents and relatives.

iii) At the political level, socialist feminists campaign for nurseries, non-harassment at work, reproductive rights and extra resources for women to take up training and education to allow them to participate in waged work on a more equal basis.

Part-time work is not often a matter of choice, but a forced option as a result of lack of adequate day care centres.

 

c) Liberal Feminism

- Betty Friedan and Mary Wollstonecraft

i) This is less radical than the previous approaches, and points to inequalities facing men and women in society, rather than any patriarchal domination at work. Early liberal feminists (including the Suffragettes) addressed the issue of inequality between men and women.

Liberalism gives each citizen equal rights and legal protection in the public sphere of politics and employment in return for personal self-responsibility and loyalty to the state.

Liberal feminists campaign for the removal of social, economic, political and legal obstacles which fail to give women the same freedom of choice as men.

e.g., equal voting rights, sex discrimination legislation and equal pay acts.

ii) For liberal feminists, intervention by the state is restricted to the public sphere, and sees the private sphere of the family and the home as sacrosanct and off-limits.

However, formal equality (in terms of equal opportunities legislation) is not enough to ensure equal participation and outcomes. Women require more resources to participate as equals in the public sphere, since they are economically dependent on men or the state for income and benefits – e.g., women require child-care facilities.

 

d) Black feminism

- bell hooks and Angela Davis

i) Mainstream feminists stress the importance of ‘sisterhood’, yet they neglect how other social divisions (class and ethnicity) separate one woman from another.