Sociolgy

Feminism aims to explain the subordinated position of women in society. This approach involves the analysis of gender differences through the concept of patriarchy. The movement of feminists began from the political movement in the enlightenment tradition. Feminists in the 19th and early 20th century addressed the problems of equal rights to poverty, voting and education. From this point on sociology soon became the forefront of developing feminist perspectives in various social problems.

The feminist review of male stream sociology argued that sociology had been mainly concerned with research on men and that it generalised from male experience to the whole population e.g. the study of factory work. Areas of concern to women were overlooked or seen as ‘unimportant’, this included things such as domestic violence and domestic labour. Women were presented in a stereotypical way and that sociology presented a view of the world based on male experiences. Feminist theorists have expanded the meaning of patriarchal society to describe an overlooked bias against women. However during the 1960s feminists observed households which were headed by women. Feminists saw that oppression of women came from the underlying bias of a patriarchal society.

Liberal feminists are concerned with the equality of men and women from a political and legal point of view, which focuses on women’s ability to show and maintain their equality through their own action. Women can achieve gender equality by campaigning for policy changes. Liberal feminists also campaign for cultural change. Traditional prejudices and stereotypes about gender differences are a barrier to equality. They reject the idea that biological differences make women less competent or rational than men, or that men are biologically less emotional or nurturing than women. Surely however, cultural changes have occurred for women over the years. It is now socially acceptable for women to be entering higher education; they now...