SH1703

Feminist Theory

I. Key Concepts

Sex refers to the biological differences between males and females; while gender, on the
other hand, refers to the sociocultural attributes associated with being a man and a woman
and the different roles that society assigns to men and women.

Much of women’s subordination is based on the cultural assumption that sex and gender are
interchangeable. For example, giving birth is a sex role, which can only be performed by
women; but because of the gender ideology, this role has traditionally been assigned to
women. Much of our knowledge about gender ideology is primarily based on certain
institutions we have been exposed to in the process of growing up like family, school,
church, mass media, and peers. These institutions provide us with the basis for our gender
ideology, which refers to attitudes regarding the suitable roles, rights, and responsibilities of
men and women in society.

Traditional gender ideologies emphasize the value of men for being the breadwinners and
women for being homemakers. Gender ideology legitimized gender inequality, the unequal
treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender, Gender inequality leads to
gender oppression, the manner in which certain groups are privileged or disadvantaged
because of gender. For example, because of the gender ideology that men should be
breadwinners and women should be housewives, married women who work outside the home
usually earn much lower than their male counterparts and they usually land jobs seen as an
extension of their work at home. Working women who are married are often criticized in
society for neglecting their duties in the family by working outside the home, a perception
which is never experienced by men, On the other hand, men who decide to stay at home are
often portrayed as weaklings because of the gender ideology what men should be the
breadwinner.

All of these examples show how gender ideology shapes our views about how men, women,
and other genders should behave in society, and more often than not this gender ideology
becomes the basis of gender discrimination and oppression.

II. Historical Context

There are three (3) waves describing the history of Feminism. As early as the 19th century,
women started fighting for their rights to achieve equal status with men. This is the start of
the so-called First Wave of Feminism, which was characterized by initiatives taken by
women to fight for women suffrage or the right to vote and be educated, as well as labor
rights and other privileges.

It the 1960s Second Wave of Feminism emerged, which was characterized by the so-called
women’s liberation. In this period, Feminists realized that the gains of First Wave of
Feminism were not enough to solve the problem of women’s oppression. It broadened the
debate to a wide range of issues such as sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights,

05 Handout 2 *Property of STI

Page 1 of 4
 SH1703

de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities. Therefore, the goal of Second Wave of
Feminists was women’s liberation and not merely political emancipation. Betty Friedan’s
“The Feminine Mystique” was considered an important work for this period because it
tackled the issue of what Friedan called the “Problem with No Name”, or the sense of not
being able to do something for themselves and not having a sense of fulfillment which kept
women from truly enjoying their womanhood because they continued to remain oppressed.

And, in the 1990s and continuing to the present, the Third Wave of Feminism emerged. It
refers to several diverse strains of Feminist activity and study, whose exact boundaries in the
history of Feminism are a subject of debate.

Women’s oppression is said to be primarily based on gender ideology or attitudes regarding

the appropriate roles, rights, and responsibilities of men and women in society. Although
feminists share the same goal of gender equality, they differ in their beliefs regarding causes
and strategies in achieving this. There are dominant Feminist Theories that emerged out of
the Feminist discourse, some of which are Liberal Feminism, Socialist Feminism, Radical
Feminism, Marxist Feminism, and Postmodern Feminism that try to explain the nature of
women subordination and strategies that can be used to elevate women’s status in society.

Liberal Feminism is the oldest of all feminist theories, dating back to the 19th century and
advocated for political and social rights for women. It argues that since women are rational
like men, they should be given equal opportunities with men like access to education, the
right to vote, and be elected to public office. Socialist Feminism was born in the 20th
century, which served as a critique of Marxist Feminism’s gender-blind approach—
inequality on gender is based on division of labor—to women’s subordination emphasizing
that other factors such as race, age, religion, ethnicity, and disability need to be considered in
analyzing women’s oppression.

While Liberal Feminism is rooted in Liberalism and Socialist Feminism (Women are inferior
because of class-based Capitalism.) another Feminist Theory which emerged in the 20th
century, Radical Feminism, is not rooted in any political ideology. Radical Feminists believe
that women’s oppression is the most basic feature of society and all other forms of
oppression are only secondary and that biology is destiny; women, by virtue of their physical
make-up, are meant to be oppressed that is why patriarchy must be abolished by liberating
women from male domination. These Feminist Theories differ in their analyses of the cause
of women’s subordination as well as the strategies for women’s emancipation. Although new
forms of Feminist tradition have emerged since the 1960s such as Postmodern Feminism
wherein women attempt to change and to criticize the dominant order or the modern thought,
perspectives used in Feminist research are generally based on any of these Feminist Theories,
hence knowledge of Feminist Theories is important in conducting Feminist research in the
Social Sciences.

There are a number of distinct Feminist disciplines, in which experts in other areas apply
Feminist techniques and principles to their own fields. Some of which are the following:

05 Handout 2 *Property of STI

Page 2 of 4
 SH1703

• Feminist Philosophy – It refers to a Philosophy approach from a Feminist perspective. It

involves attempts to use methods of Philosophy to further explain the cause of the
Feminist movements. It also tries to criticize and/or re-evaluate the ideas of traditional
Philosophy from within a Feminist view.
• Epistemology – It talks about how women think. It explains that there is a difference in
the ways of how women think compared to men. A Feminist approach to Epistemology
seeks to establish knowledge production from a woman’s perspective. It theorizes that
knowledge is derived from personal experiences, which helps each individual to look at
things from a different insight.
• Feminist Psychology – It critiques the fact that historically psychological research has
been done from a male perspective with the view that males are the norm.
• Feminist History – It aims to re-analyze the re-read all parts of history using the Feminist
perspective. Its goal is to explore and illuminate the female viewpoint of history though
re-discovery of female writers, artists, philosophers, etc. in order to recover and
demonstrate the significance of women’s voices and choices in the past.
• Feminist Geography – It critiques existing geographical and social studies, arguing that
academic traditions are delineated by patriarchy and contemporary studies, which do not
confront the nature of previous work, reinforce the male bias of academic study.

Though, Feminist Theory as an approach is still considered by some as being in the

developmental stage compared to other theoretical approaches in the Social Sciences. Almost
all Feminist research is undertaken by women who espouse a Feminist perspective and use a
Feminist methodology by letting women be heard and rectify male-oriented view that has
dominated Social Science research for the longest time. It stems from the claim that most
Feminist research is sexist, favoring men over women, because of cultural beliefs and the
prevalence of male researchers. Although some Feminist researchers tend to favor
interpretive Social Science by understanding and interpreting personal experiences of the
women they study, some believe that the interpretive approach is too limited to the awareness
of those being studied and fails to reveal underlying structures, which is the goal of critical
Social Science.

The feminist works have been written much earlier dating back to Mary Wollstonecraft’s A
“Vindication on the Rights of Women” published in 1792, which is considered as the first
Feminist text wherein she argued that women should be given equal rights and privileges
with men since they are also human beings. Feminist theory as an approach in the Social
Sciences has only become visible starting in the late 1980s when works which advocate
Feminist research started to gain momentum.

Another notable Feminist is Simone de Beauvoir, a French novelist. Her book “The Second
Sex” published in 1949 intensified the issue of gender politics, foretelling the themes later
developed by Radical Feminists. She stressed that women’s subordination was caused by
social, not natural factors, thus her classic line “women are made, not born”. She also
highlighted the idea of men being “the one” and women being “the other”, meaning the
masculine was represented as the positive of the norm, while feminine is portrayed as the
exact opposite of the masculine.

05 Handout 2 *Property of STI

Page 3 of 4
 SH1703

According to a popular saying, feminism is the radical notion that women are people, which
means that in society, women have traditionally been treated as subordinate to men and that
feminism can help in granting women in rightful status in society. Basically, it promotes the
belief that women and men should be treated equally and that steps have to be taken to
realize the goal of gender equality.

Feminist Theory is an outgrowth of the general movement to empower women worldwide. It

aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. Feminists fight for the equality of women
and argue that women should share equally in society’s opportunities and scarce resources.

Strengths Weaknesses

• Feminist Theory as a Social Science • Critics claim that Feminists tend to be

approach gives equal emphasis to men too disapproving of the gender roles
and women in dealing with and solving women play in society, to the point that
issues, particularly gender inequality for they already look down on these roles
it recognizes that Social Science such as the Radical Feminists view that
research in the past was predominantly motherhood is forced labor.
conducted by men and focused on men;
hence, analyses made were not inclusive • Certain strands of Feminism cater only
of women. to the middle-class women such as
Liberal feminism, which has been
• It realizes that both the public and labeled as “Bourgeois Feminism” for it
private spheres of life are socially seemingly lack of analysis of issues on
constructed, hence a thorough re- race and class as factors in shaping
examination of these spheres is expected gender inequality.
to bring about better opportunities for
women to have equal status with men in • It is too focused on women, ignoring the
society. fact that men can also experience
discrimination and oppression in their
• It can be utilized using both macro and daily lives.
micro analysis of society. It focuses on
how institutions and structures became
patriarchal, how they result to gender
inequality, and how it can be challenged
to promote gender equality (micro). It
also sees society as being the product of
human activity (macro).

References:
Arcinas, M. (2016). Disciplines and ideas in the social sciences. Quezon City: Phoenix Publishing House, Inc.
Jose, M.D. & Ong, J. (2016). Disciplines and ideas in the social sciences. Quezon City: Vibal Group, Inc.

05 Handout 2 *Property of STI

Page 4 of 4