Very detailed notes on the 2022 A-Level advanced information for the non-core political idea of Feminism in Paper 2 of the course. The notes include case studies, tables of arguments that can be used in essay planning, and overall necessary knowledge that earned me an A* in the 2022 exams.
First wave feminism (19th and early 20th century)
Key thinkers = Mill and Wollstonecraft
• The women’s movement has acquired a central focus - the campaign for female su rage, the
right to vote which drew inspiration from the progressive extension of the franchise to men.
• This period was characterised by the liberal demand that women should enjoy the same legal
and political rights as men
• Legal su rage was the principle goal of rst wave (liberal) feminism because it believed that if all
women could vote, all other forms of sexual discrimination or prejudice would quickly disappear.
• The women’s movement was strongest in countries where political democracy was most
advanced - women were demanding rights that in many cases were already a given to their
husbands and sons
• In the UK - there was an organised movement 1850’s and in 1867 the HOC defeated the rst
attempt to introduce female su rage - an amendment to the Great Reform Act posed by John
Stuart Mill (liberal)
• Mill is an important liberal thinker in this wave of feminism for his opinions that women being
oppressed was a sheer waste of potential for 50% population, he believed it was not fair for
the women’s vote to be conducted through the husband - particularly if he was not a
benevolent dictator.
• First wave ended with the achievement of su rage - rst introduced in New Zealand 1893, USA
1920 and UK 1918 but equal voting rights with men not achieved until another decade.
• Ironically winning the right to vote can be argued that it undermined the movement as the ght
for su rage had united the movement giving it clear coherent structure - many also believed that
su rage rights = emancipation but this was not the case.
Second wave feminism (1960’s)
Key thinkers = Friedan and Millet
• Publication 1963 of Friedan’s “the feminine mistique” relaunched feminist though and set out to
explore what she called ‘the problem with no name’ —> the frustration and unhappiness many
women experienced as a result of being con ned to being a housewife and mother.
• Second wave = the acknowledgement that achieving legal rights had not solved the women’s
question and led to emancipation from the patriarchy
• Ideas then became radical with Kate Millets “Sexual Politics” and Germaine Greers “The Female
Eunuch” pushed back political boarders and focused on personal, psychological and sexual
aspects of female oppression
• 2nd wave - not purely legal emancipation but rather women’s liberation re ected in the ideas of
growing women liberation movement which demanded a revolutionary process of social change
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,• 2nd wave established feminism as to what we know it as today - a distinct ideology whose
ideas and values challenge the basic assumptions of conventional political thought. It
establishes gender perspectives as an important theme of political thought.
Third wave feminism (1990’s)
Key thinkers = bell hooks
• Transition into de-radicalism post 1970s movement led to post-feminism which suggests the
women’s movement has gone beyond the traditional ideology of feminism into new values;
• Intersectionality - all women
• Transfeminism - acknowledgement of trans women as women
• Post modern feminism
Fourth wave feminism (2012-)
Key thinkers = Laura Bates (Everyday Sexism, 2016), Rebecca Solnit (Men explain things to
me - Mansplaining, 2014)
• Emerged out of online activism e.g. MeToo hashtag, Sarah Everard, 97%, Harvey Weinstein
scandal, 1% rape prosecutions end in conviction
• Intersectional outlook - greater acceptance of trans-women
Sex and Gender
• Key variant in human nature is the di erence between sex vs gender
• The most common anti-feminism argument is that gender divisions in society are ‘natural’ and
women and men merely ful l the social roles which nature designed for them - traditional con
• Belief that ‘biology is destiny’ and therefore a women’s physical statical make-up suits her to a
subordinate and domestic role in society - biology usually linked to women ability to bear
children
• Feminists insist that in no way do biological di erences disadvantage women or keep them from
their social destiny
• They develop the idea that the link between child-bearing and child-rearing is cultural rather
than biological with women expected to bring up children - they wanted instead for domestic
responsibilities to be shared in ‘symmetrical families’ or even the child-rearing could be carried
out by the state, community or extended relatives.
• Feminists challenge the idea hat biology is destiny by drawing a sharp distinction between sex
and gender - sex = biological di erence, gender = cultural term that refers to the roles
prescribed by society through imposed stereotypes
• Simone de Behaviour - “one is not born, but rather becomes a woman’ - shows that male
domination blur the di erence between sex and gender assuming that social distinctions are
rooted in biology
• Feminists promote the ‘androgynous ideal’ - the idea that the distinctions between men and
women are very minor and do not justify the social di erences —> that all humans regardless of
their sex possess genetic inheritance and therefore embody a blend of male and female
attributes.
• The end goal is to achieve a genderless ‘personhood’ with the demolishment of socially
constructed identities
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, However - there is a split in the argument between - Di erence vs Equality feminists
Di erence = emphasise the di erences between men and women, and that female qualities are
signi cantly greater than male. e.g. Mary Daly
• Often essentialists (although Daly would not refer to herself as one) - the belief that things have
a core fundamental nature - biological factors are crucial in determining psychological and
behavioural traits.
• Gender di erences are highly important and deeply culturally imbedded - male gender must be
destroyed
• Sees equality feminism as fundamentally wrong because there are inevitable di erences and
biological di erences must be recognised as important
• Women should not deny their distinctiveness and instead embrace and celebrate it
• They believe sex = gender so trans-women are not women
• Often regarded as equality is a desire to ‘be like men’ which would require women to adopt the
characteristics based on men - aggressive and competitive
• Subscribe to a pro-woman position - seek liberation through di erence
Cultural feminist = Seek to validate feminine attributes that have been systematically
undervalued within a patriarchal society - o shoot of radical feminism
• Emphasises women’s crafts, art, literature and experiences unique to women that promote a
sense of sisterhood - childbirth, motherhood and mensturation
Equality = part of the liberal feminist tradition. They seek equality of the sexes and are ‘di erence
blind’ by embracing the idea of androgynous personhood. e.g. Mill, Wollstonecraft
• Biological di erences are irrelevant and women are not born with ‘nurturing instincts’
• Gender is an arti cial construct that allows for inequality and oppression
• “There is no female mind” - Charlotte Perkins Gilman - it is therefore only rational that women
are entitled to equal opportunities as men
• Post modern feminists have questioned wether ‘sex’ is as clear-cut as assumed - the features of
‘biological womenhood’ may not apply to trans-women who still class themselves as women
Patriarchy
Latin for “rule by the father”
A hierarchical society characterised by both sexual and generational oppression.
• Feminists use the concept of patriarchy to describe the power relationship between men and
women
• Some feminists use the patriarchy in a limited sense to describe the structure of the family and
the dominance of the husband/father within it and prefer to use terms such as ‘male dominance’
to describe gender relations in society
• However - feminists believe that the dominance of the man in the family stems into the
supremacy in all other institutions such as the state, society and for socialist feminists - the
economy.
• Patriarchy is therefore used to mean ‘rule by men’
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