Theories of Patriarchy
Assess the claim that gender inequalities in the domestic and occupational divisions of labour are best understood with reference to the concept of patriarchy. You should illustrate your answer with reference to a range of feminist perspectives.Western female thought through the centuries has identified the relationship between patriarchy and gender as crucial to the women's subordinate position. For two hundred years, patriarchy precluded women from having a legal or political identity and the legislation and attitudes supporting this provided the model for slavery. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries suffrage campaigners succeeded in securing some legal and political rights for women in the UK. By the middle of the 20th century, the emphasis had shifted from suffrage to social and economic equality in the public and private sphere and the women's movement that sprung up during the 1960s began to argue that women were oppressed by patriarchal structures. Equal status for women of all races, classes, sexualities and abilities - in the 21st century these feminist claims for equality are generally accepted as reasonable principles in western society; yet the con
Cooper D (1995). Power in Struggle: Feminism, Sexuality and the State. Open University Press: Buckingham. Regardless of the refusal of key patriarchal institutions to acknowledge the extent to which man have been and are systematically and deliberately privileged by their structures and actions, these dominant forms of power can help produce social change, even if they are only attempting to keep in touch with contemporary society (Cooper, 1995). The process of power is therefore open to change and feminist theorists have shown using their account of patriarchy that the 'by products' of power (e.g., inequality) can be mediated by the institution which represents it and moderated to be less damaging to individuals (Cooper, 1989).
Some common words found in the essay are:
Labour Feminist, Golombok Fivush, Eunuch Postmodern, Introduction Western, Lesbian Black, Firstly Walby, East Germany, Theory Patriarchy, Feminist Revolution, Church England, gender inequality, seidman 1994, division labour, sarup 1993, gender inequalities, private public, golombok fivush 1995, differential relationships, golombok fivush, segregationist strategy, women's lives, roles wife mother, private public sphere, gender inequality division, inequality division labour,
Approximate Word count = 3088
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)
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