SOCA01H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Marxist Feminism, Radical Feminism, Liberal Feminism
Document Summary
Power structures and values, not biology, determine social position of males and females. Patterns of gender inequality should be changed, barriers addressed, opportunities equalized. Disagreement about relative importance of patriarchy and other forms of inequality (class, ethnicity, race): Maternal feminism (women are superior to men), radical feminism (women should be separate from men), marxist feminism (gender inequality is class-based), liberal feminism (importance of legal equality). Modernism (thomson: enlightenment) has not fulfilled its promise of rational, free and equal society. Therefore, all assumptions (rationality, universality, belief in progress) and results of modern thought should either be deconstructed or rejected. Stresses the validity of subjective meaning: there is no truth about society (cf. positivism) and all perceptions/interpretations of it are equally valid. Extreme post-modernism: society does not exist only people"s perceptions and interpretations of it exits. Socialization is a lifelong, interactive process whereby human beings become members of society.