CRJ 305 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Marxist Feminism, Human Reproduction, Reproductive Rights
Chapter 1:
Feminist Scholarship
- Represents a number of perspectives that place women and their concerns of women at
their center
- Works from the premise that the legal system and the crj system operate under class,
race and gender biases
- There are many feminist perspectives; each is linked to different assumptions about
causes of gender inequality and women’s oppression
Three Myths of Feminism
- Feminism lacks objectivity
- Feminist analysis narrowly focuses on women
- Doesn’t only look at women, looks at men and masculinity
- There is only one feminist perspective
- Some feminists don’t agree with each other and there are differences
Feminism to the Study of Crime and the CRJ System
- Addresses changing roles in society (crime as the domain of men)
- Develops different methodology (asks different questions)
- Redefines legal concepts/policies (spousal battery, rape)
Types of Feminism:
- Liberal Feminism
- Seen as mainstream for two reasons:
- Adheres to basic democratic principles of liberalism
- Chooses to work within established political and legal structure
- 3 general roots of oppression:
- Lack of equal civil rights and educational opportunities
- Government intrusion in the private lives of women (reproductive rights)
- Sex roles make women subservient to men
- Marxist Feminism (focuses on classism)
- Adopts a conflict perspective;
- Argues that society is not structured so that everyone has equal rights
and opportunities
- Critical view of structure of capitalist society
- Root cause of oppression of women is class society
- Socialist Feminist (Class & Patriarchy)
- Like Marxist, also takes on conflict perspective
- Instead of central problem being class oppression, central problem is female
oppression
- Power relations grow out of human reproduction; the natural reproductive
difference between the sexes has led directly to the first division of labor based
on sex
- Women are oppressed in the domestic arena as well as in the economic arena
Document Summary
Represents a number of perspectives that place women and their concerns of women at their center. Works from the premise that the legal system and the crj system operate under class, race and gender biases. There are many feminist perspectives; each is linked to different assumptions about causes of gender inequality and women"s oppression. Doesn"t only look at women, looks at men and masculinity. Some feminists don"t agree with each other and there are differences. Feminism to the study of crime and the crj system. Addresses changing roles in society (crime as the domain of men) Adheres to basic democratic principles of liberalism. Chooses to work within established political and legal structure. Lack of equal civil rights and educational opportunities. Government intrusion in the private lives of women (reproductive rights) Sex roles make women subservient to men. Argues that society is not structured so that everyone has equal rights and opportunities. Critical view of structure of capitalist society.
