62 Political Theory
Feminism
Feminism is characterised primarily by its political stance: the attempt to
advance the social role of women. Feminists have highlighted what they see as
a political relationship between the sexes, the supremacy of men and the
subjection of women in most, if not all, societies. The ‘first wave’ of feminism
was closely associated with the women’s suffrage movement, which emerged
in the 1840s and 1850s. The achievement of female suffrage in most Western
countries in the early twentieth century meant that the campaign for legal and
civil rights assumed a lower profile and deprived the women’s movement of a
unifying cause. The ‘second wave’ of feminism arose during the 1960s and
expressed, in addition to the established concern with equal rights, the more
radical and sometimes revolutionary demands of the growing Women’s
Liberation Movement. Although feminist politics has fragmented and
undergone a process of de-radicalisation since the early 1970s, feminism has
nevertheless gained growing respectability as a distinctive school of political
theory.
Feminist political thought has primarily been concerned with two issues.
First, it analyses the institutions, processes and practices through which
women have been subordinated to men; and second, it explores the most
appropriate and effective ways in which this subordination can be challenged.
Feminist thought has rejected the conventional view that politics is confined
to narrowly public activities and institutions, the most famous slogan of
second-wave feminism being ‘The personal is the political.’ The central
concept in the feminist theory of sexual politics is patriarchy, a term that
draws attention to the totality of oppression and exploitation to which
women are subject. This, in turn, highlights the political importance of
gender, understood to refer to socially imposed rather than biological
differences between men and women. Most feminists view gender as a
political construct, usually based upon stereotypes of ‘feminine’ and
‘masculine’ behaviour and social roles.
Nevertheless, feminist theory and practice is highly diverse. The earliest
feminist ideas derived largely from liberalism (see p. 29), and reflected a
commitment to individualism and formal equality. In contrast, socialist
feminism, largely derived from Marxism (see p. 82), has highlighted links
between female subordination and the capitalist mode of production, drawing
attention to the economic significance of women being confined to the family
or domestic life. On the other hand, radical feminists moved beyond the
perspectives of existing political traditions. They portray gender divisions as
the most fundamental and politically significant cleavages in society, and call
for the radical restructuring of personal, domestic and family life. However,
the breakdown of feminism into three traditions – liberal, socialist and radical
feminism – has become increasingly redundant since the 1970s as feminist
thought has become yet more sophisticated and diverse. Among its more
recent forms have been black feminism, psychoanalytic feminism, ecofeminism
(see p. 193) and postmodern feminism (see p. 7).