Sociology Feminism Essay Example

an education. The Suffragette Movement in the UK played an important part in this first wave of feminism as it took part throughout the war.

Women in the UK were volunteered by their Suffragette leaders to take the places of the men in work places, the Government met their offers of labour with patronising remarks but by 1915 more and more men were being sent to war and the Government could no longer ignore the volunteers willingness to work, this saw thousands of women employed in industries such as munitions factory's, weapon manufacturers, conductors on buses and trams and working on farms.This was a great achievement for women as never before had they been seen as worthy for anything more than being a wife and mother. The second wave of the Women's Movement happened between the late 1960s and the 1970s this was more about personal issues ie the roles they play at home, having an equal say about the running of their homes, not being ruled by their husbands, the choice of abortion, the choice of becoming a mother / housewife or having a career.5) A liberal feminist is a feminist who wanted political and legal change through law. They wanted to change society into a more gender equitable place, they wanted to be noticed as equal to men, they wanted their rights and decisions heard and taken seriously and they wanted to change things important to them such as sexual harassment, abortion rights, the right to a divorce, education, equal pay rights, childcare, domestic violence and sexual violence.

Back before 1857 women had no right to divorce their husband except by an act of

parliament, their husbands had the right by law to beat them, determine their education have sexual access to their bodies whenever they wanted. Throughout time liberal feminists have helped changed all these rights by law, it is no longer against the law to have an abortion, sexual harassment, domestic and sexual violence is seen as breaking the law, divorce is legal and we all have the right to an education had it not been for the liberal feminists would this be the case?.6) A radical feminist is a feminist who doesn't fully agree with a liberal feminist they want to see more of a change in society rather than just in law. They tend to have more of a militant approach to doing things; they want to get right to the root of the problem, they also feel sceptical of political change as they see such systems as being patriarchal to men it is men who are deemed as important in settings of government, law etc. It is said that radical feminist go to the extent of even hating men which encourages a degree of 'separatism' from men and recognises lesbianism as a challenge.

7) Marxist feminism is a feminist who wants equal rights in the work force they want to see the infrastructure ran by women as well as men, they want to see women in high up positions like management, owning businesses, to learn new skills and be more knowledgeable and they want equal pay in the work place. Marxist feminist base their arguments on the moral rights and wrong and want to bring patriarchy to nothing.8) The three theorists we looked at are

Ann Oakley her feminism is Social Science. Ann holds honorary appointments as a Professor in Social Sciences at the Institute of Child Health in London and as a Fellow at Somerville College in Oxford. Barbara Ehrenreich she is a Marxist feminist Barbara is also a great writer she has written some great books such as Blood Rites, Women in the Global Factory, Re-Making Love: The Feminization of Sex plus many more. She also taught essay writing at the Graduate School of Journalism between 1998 and 2000.

Dale Spender is a radical feminist; she spent most of her childhood convincing her mother not to do the house work unless her father pitched in. Nowadays she is designing purple credit cards to help homeless women, and encouraging people to make money from their thoughts and ideas.9) Feminist theories developed because of a need to raise gender issues, they were raised to make people aware that women were just as important and capable of things as men were, to get rid of Patriarchy in society and see women as equals to give them a recognised voice.