Feminist Perspective of the Family (AQA A Level Sociology): Revision Note

Feminist views of the family

• Feminists take a critical view of the family, arguing it reinforces patriarchy—a system of male dominance—and contributes to gender inequality

• They reject the functionalist view that the family benefits everyone equally

• Feminist approaches can be grouped into four key perspectives:

  • Liberal feminism

  • Marxist feminism

  • Radical feminism

  • Difference (or intersectional) feminism

Liberal feminism

Changes in laws and social policies

• Liberal feminists focus on legal reform to achieve gender equality in both family life and wider society

• They share similarities with the march of progress view, believing society is gradually improving, although full equality hasn't yet been achieved

• Laws help evidence progress, such as

  • Equal Pay Act (1970),

  • Sex Discrimination Act (1975)

  • Divorce Reform Act (1969/1971)

• Somerville (2000) argues that women’s increased freedom to work has led to more egalitarian families, with men sharing childcare and domestic roles

Changes in social attitudes

• Sharpe (1976) found that girls increasingly prioritise education and careers over marriage and motherhood

• Divorce is seen as preferable to staying in an unhappy marriage

• The British Social Attitudes Survey (2013) found that men now recognise a shared role in childcare

Research: Ann Oakley (1985)

• Oakley found that parents still socialise children into traditional gender roles, reinforcing ideas that men are dominant and women are subordinate

• This leads to the reproduction of patriarchy through the family across generations

Evaluation

Strengths

• Successful in driving legal and policy change

  • They have led campaigns in Western governments introducing laws and policies that have improved women's position in society, e.g., the Equal Pay Act

• Promotes more equal family roles

  • It has encouraged greater gender equality in the family, pushing for reforms like paternity leave and shared parental responsibilities

    • This has helped reduce the traditional division of labour

Criticisms

• Too optimistic about progress

  • Liberal feminism underestimates the persistence of structural patriarchy and assumes legal changes alone will bring about true equality

• Fails to explain private patriarchy

  • Liberal feminism struggles to explain why patriarchal control persists in private life despite social changes

    • Issues such as domestic violence and motherhood acting as a barrier to women’s career advancement remain widespread

Marxist feminism

• Marxist feminists argue women’s oppression is rooted in capitalism, not just patriarchy

• They reject Parsons' view that men and women play equal but different roles in the family

Link between capitalism and women's oppression

• Women perform unpaid domestic labour that benefits capitalism by:

  • reproducing the future labour force, i.e., children

  • maintaining current workers, i.e., husbands/partners

  • absorbing male frustration, e.g., through domestic violence

• Benston (1989) argues that the nuclear family promotes the ideology that women should find fulfilment in motherhood and childcare, which benefits patriarchy and capitalism

• This keeps women out of the job market, benefiting men, and turns them into a reserve army of labour: low-paid, low-skilled and easily hired or fired during times of economic need, serving capitalist interests

Research: Fran Ansley (1972)

• Capitalism strips male workers of dignity, control, and fulfilment at work, leaving many feeling bored, alienated, and powerless

• Ansley argues that men often redirect this frustration onto their families, particularly their wives, through domestic violence

• This is an attempt to regain power and control in the home, compensating for their lack of it in the workplace

• Women become the “takers of shit”, absorbing blame for problems that are ultimately caused by capitalism

Evaluation

Strengths

• Highlights the economic roots of oppression

  • Marxist feminism effectively shows how capitalism exploits women's unpaid domestic labour and low-paid work

  • This helps explain the economic dependence many women experience

• Links patriarchy and capitalism

  • It shows how both systems work together to reinforce women's subordinate position in society

Criticisms

• Ignores family diversity

  • The traditional male breadwinner/female housewife model is outdated, as many families today are dual-earner households

• Assumes all women experience oppression equally

  • Marxist feminism often overlooks differences based on class, ethnicity, and sexuality, failing to account for varied experiences of oppression

Radical feminism

• Radical feminists argue that patriarchy is the root cause of women’s oppression

• Millet (1969) sees gender role socialisation in the family as the primary source of patriarchal ideology, teaching boys to view male dominance as normal

Research: Delphy and Leonard (1992)

• They argue that the family and marriage are patriarchal institutions that:

  • reinforce male control, often through women’s economic dependence

  • exploit women through unpaid domestic and sexual labour

  • expose women to violence, such as domestic abuse

  • operate on a hierarchy, with men at the top and women in subordinate roles

• Radical feminists believe that to dismantle patriarchy, the family must be abolished

  • Some advocate separatism (living apart from men) or political lesbianism as alternatives to traditional family life

Evaluation

Strengths

• Highlights the 'dark side' of the family

  • Radical feminism draws attention to issues often ignored by other perspectives, such as domestic violence, marital rape, and women’s unpaid domestic labour

• Challenges traditional power dynamics

  • It has raised awareness of power inequalities within the family, influencing campaigns and policies addressing domestic abuse, coercive control, and reproductive rights

Criticisms

• Overlooks diversity of women's experiences

  • Radical feminism often treats patriarchy as a universal system, implying all women experience oppression in the same way

  • Critics argue that it ignores how class, ethnicity, and sexuality shape women's lives differently

• Seen as too extreme

  • The call for separatism is criticised as unrealistic, given heterosexual attraction and the emotional importance of relationships with men

Difference or intersectional feminism

• Difference feminists (also known as intersectional feminists) argue that not all women experience oppression in the same way

• Women's experiences are shaped by ethnicity, social class, and sexuality

  • E.g., a middle-class white woman may enjoy greater freedom and resources than a working-class Black woman

• They reject the view that all families are equally oppressive

• Some women may experience the family as a source of support and protection, especially in Black or Asian communities facing racism

Evaluation

Strengths

• Recognises intersectionality

  • Difference feminism offers a more inclusive, nuanced, and realistic account of women’s lives by acknowledging the influence of class, ethnicity, sexuality, and culture on their family experiences

• Challenges one-size-fits-all feminism

  • It questions the assumption that all women share the same form of oppression, enriching feminist theory by highlighting varied family structures such as matrifocal families in some Caribbean communities

Criticisms

• Downplays shared experiences under patriarchy

  • It sometimes ignores common challenges faced by most women, such as domestic violence, the gender pay gap, and under-representation in power structures

• Risk of fragmentation

  • By focusing heavily on differences, it can weaken the collective feminist movement, making it harder to address systemic issues that affect women as a group