CRM 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Double Standard, Marxist Feminism, Femicide
5 Jun 2018
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Feminist Perspectives
Feminism and Feminist Lenses:
● A varied and fluid grouping of critiques aimed at challenging male privilege and at the
formation of political, economic, and social rights for women. (Beasley 1999)
● “Feminism is anti-sexism.” (hooks 2000, 12)
● Feminism prioritizes gender and power dynamics, positioning male privilege as well as
the social, political, and legal structures and institutions that support this male
entitlement as fundamental to the subordination of women.
Feminist Views and Movements:
● First-wave feminism ended in the early 20th Century.
● The movement was broad and took on many issues including suffrage, abolition of
slavery, temperance, marital property, men’s sexual privilege, and animal rights.
● At the end of WWI, the women’s movement began to splinter.
● Second-wave feminism(1960s) expanded in its approaches, and it became
increasingly fractious and diverse.
○ “Death of the sisterhood”
● In the 1980s, increased diversification with global organizing and dialogue among
feminists from all over the world.
● In the 1990s, third-wave feminisms, multiracial, and postmodern all emerged and most
recently, transfeminism.
Feminist Criminology:
● Feminist criminology developed in the late 1960s.
● It is closely associated with the emergence of the second wave of feminism.
● The second wave highlighted the structural oppression of women as well as general
abuses and crimes against them.
● Key demands of the women’s liberation movement
○ Equal pay, education, and job opportunities
○ Free contraception and abortion on demand
○ Free 24-hour nurseries under community control
○ Legal and financial independence
○ End to discrimination against lesbians
○ Freedom from intimidation by threat or use of violence or sexual coercion,
regardless of marital status
○ An end to laws, assumptions, and institutions that perpetuate male dominance
and aggression toward women
Feminism Makes a Distinction Between Sex and Gender:
● Sex (male/female/intersex bodied) The biological apparatus. Socially constructed
categories based on culturally accepted biological attributes (chromosomes, genitalia,
reproductive organs, hormones).
● Gender (masculine/feminine/non-conforming) is a social construct, not a biological
given. Femininity and masculinity, and the meanings that are attached.
○ Concepts of masculinity and femininity are learned and indicated by dress,
gestures, language, occupation, etc.
● Feminism has much to contribute to our understanding of both biological and social
constructions of the female
Women-Centred Analysis:
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Feminist Perspectives
● Explored the specifically different characteristics of women stemming from their biology
or physiology
● Emphasis was on the fundamental, special divisions that separate men and women
● Call for greater autonomy and the advocacy of rights for women in social, political, and
economic spheres
Considering the sex/gender problematic:
● If ‘gender’ and ‘gender roles’ are so natural, and so intrinsic to biology, then why do we
need to heavily monitor, police and enforce them?
● If they are so natural, why do we need to teach boys and girls how to act like boys and
girls? Wouldn’t they ‘naturally’ already know?
● If they are so natural,why are we so afraid that women are losing femininity and men are
losing masculinity? How can genders be lost, if they are so natural?
● We need to critique discourses of “natural”.
● We need to understand how we are regulated through these discourses of natural.
● We need to examine the ramifications in law about discourses of natural.
Defining elements of feminism (Daly and Chesney-Lind):
● Gender is not a natural fact but a complex social, historical, and cultural construct.
● Gender and gendered relations order social life and social institutions in fundamental
ways.
● Constructs of masculinity and femininity are based on men’s social positions, and social
and political-economic status over women.
● Regardless of specific orientation, feminism deals with the structural position of
women in society.
● Systems of knowledge reflect men’s views of the natural world and of the social world.
○ Knowledge production is gendered.
● In intellectual enquiry, women should not be peripheral to men.
We are the sum of ALL our parts:
● We are the sum of all our parts, of which biology is only one.
● Anne Fausto-Sterling (2000) offers a Russian doll metaphor illustrating that
multidisciplinary means provide the best hope for understanding the interplay of
biology and culture.
Liberal Feminism:
● Liberal feminism considers individual rights as paramount and argues for legislative
change to provide equal opportunities (such as Canada’s Employment Equity Act of
1986).
● Targeting solutions by ‘tinkering’ with law.
● Views the individual as the most important part of society
● It is seen necessary to change legislation to provide equal opportunities in the sphere of
paid work
○ Employment Equity Act of 1986 and the revised Act of 1955 were implemented to
legislate the rights of minority groups for equal opportunity of employment
Marxist Feminism:
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Feminist Perspectives
● Analyzes the structural position of women in society in terms of paid and unpaid labour
● Key category of employment for women is seen to be that of domestic labour, which is
unpaid
○ Situation is viewed as exploitative
● Female criminality is a direct consequence of the patriarchal division of labour (paid /
unpaid).
● Advocates for transformation of society to deal with gender equality.
Radical Feminism:
● Stresses the common experiences of women; it’s basically involved in collective
consciousness-raising about the oppressions shared by all women
● Examines the historical exclusion of women from political, social, economic spheres
(Examples: law, workforce, courts).
● Attempts to raise collective consciousness regarding oppression of women.
● Issue of male violence--physical, verbal, and psychological--is of major significance
Socialist Feminism:
● Agrees that women have been and continue to be exploited and oppressed in both the
public and the private spheres, but this perspective views the exploitation and
oppression within the framework of capitalist society
● Focuses on the issue of male domination and exploitation / commodification of women’s
bodies within capitalism.
● Emphasis on examination of commodification of women’s bodies (Example:
pornography / advertising industry).
● The social and economic needs of women have been subordinated to the requirements
of profit-making institutions, a process that directly affects many men as well
Cultural Feminism:
● Adopts a women-centred analysis that is often not tied to any specific economic or
political program
● Inspired by New Age religion, magic, and mysticism, it concentrates on development of a
separate women’s culture.
● Focuses on the gender-specific traits that make women superior to men (Example:
caring and sharing attitudes)
Standpoint Feminism:
● Also known as anti-racist feminism, developed out of the concern that mainstream
feminism represented the realities of white-middle-class women’s lives
● Concern that feminism focused too narrowly on the experiences of middle-class women.
● Women are not a homogenous group; there are race, class, and cultural differences
among women that require different approaches.
● These differences mean that there are a multiplicity of goals and approaches needed to
end the discrimination faced by women and that the lives and experiences of women
need to be explored within the context of the individual or group
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Document Summary
A varied and fluid grouping of critiques aimed at challenging male privilege and at the formation of political, economic, and social rights for women. (beasley 1999) Feminism prioritizes gender and power dynamics, positioning male privilege as well as the social, political, and legal structures and institutions that support this male entitlement as fundamental to the subordination of women. First-wave feminism ended in the early 20th century. The movement was broad and took on many issues including suffrage, abolition of slavery, temperance, marital property, men"s sexual privilege, and animal rights. At the end of wwi, the women"s movement began to splinter. Second-wave feminism(1960s) expanded in its approaches, and it became increasingly fractious and diverse. In the 1980s, increased diversification with global organizing and dialogue among feminists from all over the world. In the 1990s, third-wave feminisms, multiracial, and postmodern all emerged and most recently, transfeminism. Feminist criminology developed in the late 1960s.
