Feminist View on Society

Feminist views on society; Feminists believe that society is male dominated (patriarchal). Feminists want women and men to have equal rights and powers as there is inequality between the two sexes. They look at society on a macro scale so the ideas are generalised to the whole of society. Feminists also believe that society is based on disagreement and conflict between the sexes as women believe they have been disadvantaged in society.

Liberal feminists believe that men and women are becoming more equal in society, and that the inequality between men and women was caused due to sexist laws and the differences in socialisation. They believe that in order abolish feminism people need to be brought up differently and all sexist laws need to be gotten rid of. Marxist feminists believe that women are still unequal in society and that women are there to benefit capitalism by being unpaid housewives. They look on the family in a negative and critical way as they feel this is what caused their oppression along with capitalism.

As they gave up work to take care of children and had housework responsibilities, thus becoming dependent on their husbands for money and everything else. Marxist feminists believe that in order for there to be equality between the sexes capitalism needs to be abolished and replaced with a communist society. Radical feminists also believe that men and women are still unequal in society and that men benefit more from family life. They believe that they are exploited by men and the patriarchal society. Some radical feminists believe that the solution is separation.

Feminism does have some criticism’s for example they tend to overlook the fact that the general position of women in society has changed over time and this can only be explained in terms of economic and political changes in society. They also fail to understand that fundamentally society is unequal in its economic and social structure, and that equal opportunity is a fairly meaningless concept as society is divided by class and economic exploitation. Women as well as working class men are at an economic disadvantage.