The role of women in society.

1. Patriarchy: Family names get transmitted through the father's name. There is a whole system of signifiers in language that supports the dominant role of men in society. 

2. The structure of patriarchy is also written into the laws in many ways (divorce, custody, inheritance, less political rights for women, etc.)

3. Role of religion: Religious creation mythology creates the sexual difference as a hierarchy. (Adam and Eve in Judaism and Christianity, role of women in the Quran, etc. ) Religions reflect the dominance of the father (God as father), and an idealized family structure.

4. Women have value mostly as mothers, not as sexual beings. Sexual expression is very controlled in many cultures. 

5. We are currently undergoing cultural transformations in regards to family structure, and the role of women in society. Gender roles are in flux, and gender identity becomes fluid. 

6. Economic systems clash with family structures: extended family structures are not easily sustainable any more, families shrink to 3 to 4 person households, and new forms or tribalisms emerge.  Children are no longer economic assets (support for the parent's retirement and security), but they become financial liabilities. It is expensive to raise a child. 

7. Who creates value in society? Women were marginalized for centuries as cheap workers. It is still true even for the US that women get underpaid compared to men.  They work in service and caretaker jobs, as teachers, nurses, cleaners, etc. Managing a household is work-intensive, but housewives do not get salaries or government benefits like retirement.

Three waves of feminism

• • • The first wave comprised women's suffrage movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, promoting women's right to vote. 19th Amendment, 1920.

    • The second wave was associated with the ideas and actions of the women's liberation movement beginning in the 1960s. The second wave campaigned for legal and social equality for women. Focus on social justice, global womens rights

    • The third wave is a continuation of, and a reaction to, the perceived failures of second-wave feminism, beginning in the 1990s

Feminists criticize the following social practices:

• • • • Stereotyping, How do we live our gender roles/sexuality today?

      • objectification (especially sexual objectification),

      • oppression, 

      • patriarchy

Types of Feminism:

• • • • Feminism does not align with traditional political movements. It is a paradigm in itself, but there are different types and alliances with other groups. 

      • Feminism can be liberal, radical, or conservative. Ecofeminism.

      • It has spawned new disciplines, like feminist psychology. Queer theory, and a new approach to ethics: the ethics of care. 

Feminist issues and social goals:

• • • • equality for women in the job market: hiring preferences, salaries, career opportunities, education.

      • Social conflicts should be understood not just in the dimensions of race and class, but as race/class/gender conflicts.

      • Liberating sexuality: 

        • Much needs to be done to allow people to understand their sexuality as a healthy expression of being human. 

        • sexual feelings are still socially repressed or highly controlled,  

        • the fashion industry creates idealized body-images that are alienating to men and women. 

        • Sexual identities and sexual behavior still reflect hierarchies and dominance.

        • Same-sex relationships are still stigmatized in many countries. 

      • How can we theorize human sexuality?

        • What is the relationship between biological sex and gender identification?

        • Is homosexuality a function of socialization and upbringing, or biologically determined? 

        • Is sexuality an acquired quality and a function of relationships, or is it written into the human nature, so that one can only be human as a woman or as a man? 

        • "Human being" is an abstraction: there is no pre-gendered "human nature."