University Sociology: Feminism Overview and Critical Reflection

This sociology essay provides a comprehensive overview of feminism, exploring its core tenets and diverse types. The essay begins by defining feminism as the belief in equality between men and women across all aspects of life and then proceeds to discuss three primary types of feminism: radical, l...Read More

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author Notes

2SOCIOLOGY
The overview of feminism and its types (radical, liberal and post modern)
The term feminism can be defined as the belief that men and women deserve equality
in all phases of life including treatment, opportunities, respect as well as social rights. In
other words, feminism can also be defined as a term that is used for describing a political,
economical as well as cultural movement that is aimed to establish equal rights a well as legal
protection of women (Groenhout, 2002). Feminists are referred to individuals who fight
against and works on acknowledging the inequality on the basis of gender as well as prevent
the mal practice from continuation. Feminism point out that in majority of the cultures, men
have received more opportunities compared to that of that of the women. The ffeminist
social work practice draws on the social justice framework focusing on gender blindness that
apparent in radical social work (Middleton, 1995). The concept of feminism can be
segregated into three types, namely, the radical feminism, the liberal feminism and the post
modern feminism.
Radical feminism
When it comes to radical feminism it can be defined as the movement that believes
sexism is so deeply rooted in the society that the only cure is to eradicate the concept of
gender completely. This type of feminism includes a unapologetic as well as militant view
that blames the patriarch society for oppression, marginalization and domination of women
(Johnson, 2018).
A radical feminist aims to dismantle patriarchy instead of making adjustments to the system
with the help of legal changes. Radical feminists also oppose reducing oppression to an
economic or class issue, as socialist or Marxist feminism sometimes did or does.
Radical feminism was rooted in the wider radical contemporary movement.
In spite of the supposed underlying values of empowerment of movements, women who parti

3SOCIOLOGY
cipated in the anti-war and new
left movements of the 1960s were excluded from equal power by the men within the moveme
nt (Wilson, 2015).
Many of these females divided into feminist organizations, yet retain many of their initial radi
cal political ideas and techniques.The word "radical feminism" has become the more radical c
oncept of feminism.
Some of the major issues that have been highlighted by the radical feminists are as follows;
1. The reproductive rights of women that includes the freedom of making choices
whether to give birth or not, have an abortion, get sterilized and use birth control
2. Evaluation and then breaking down traditional gender roles in both private
relationships as well as in public policies.
3. Considering rape as a demonstration of patriarchal power instead of seeking of sex
4. Considering prostitution as an oppression against woman (Campbell, 2017)
5. A critique of motherhood, marriage, the nuclear family, and sexuality, questioning
how much of our culture is based on patriarchal assumptions
Liberal feminism
Liberal feminism conceives the liberty of being one's self-determination — living
one's own life — and political autonomy — co-author of circumstances. Freedomalists argue
that the practice of personal autonomy relies on certain supporting circumstances that are not
enough in the life of women or that economic agreements frequently decline to honour the
self-sufficiency of women and other aspects of the development of women (Porter, 2017).
They also argue that the fundamental circumstances under which they reside reflect women's
requirements and concerns insufficiently and are not legitimized because children are
inadequately involved in the procedures of democratic self-determination.

4SOCIOLOGY
The chief aim of liberal feminists is to achieve gender equality along with ensuring
every women and girls are treated right in their social avenues like family, community, work,
schools etc. the feminist movements advocates for their freedom and rights not just from the
state but also from general public.
Post Modern Feminism
Postmodern feminists strive to achieve this objective by denying essentialism,
theology and fundamental realities in favour of taking on women's distinctions to prove that
not all children are identical. According to research postmodern feminism is a hybrid,
contemporary and sometimes conflicted set of concepts and practices about the feminine at
this socio-historical moment. Postmodernism calls into question all grand narratives in a
society informed by western metaphysics and accelerated by technological development.
Postmodern feminists reject such ideologies, because they think that if a fundamental
reality is introduced to all society's females, personal achievement is reduced to minimum
and that females are warned of concepts that are standard in humanity, because it can be
based on masculine concepts of how females are represented (Zinn & Dill, 2016). Post-
modern feminists reject these ideologies because they think that, if a fundamental reality is
introduced to all females of culture, it reduces personal knowledge to a minimum and thus
warns females to be conscious of concepts which are standard in culture as these can be
derived from male concepts of the way females are depicted.
Critical reflection on Feminism
Considering the fact that even in this era of modernization, women in a good number
of developed, under developed as well as developing countries are getting subjected to sexual
discrimination, as per my opinion, it is highly crucial to educate the society about the chief
goal of feminism along with incorporating strict action to implement feminist practices. From

5SOCIOLOGY
the above discussion. I understand
thatradical feminists want to remove positions based on gender and to encourage inclusivenes
s. Radical feminist advocates sex neutrality or sex inclusion which is essential today.
Vermont has implemented a neutral gender that considerably supports this cause. Finally,
radical feminism has produced many beneficial improvements, consciousness and social
justice. Although radical feminism gained adverse answers for its radical militancy, the
patriarchal concepts had to be breached. Unlike radical feminism that argues the universal
concept of patriarchy has been designed with aim of subjection of women through sexual
objectification and exploitation, liberal feminism seeks to challenge gender stereotyping,
aiming to bring down the glass ceiling in both professional and personal life between men
and women. As per my understanding the idealism of liberalism feminism includes, men and
women are different biologically but this difference should not lead to discrimination
(Bracewell, 2016). Postmodern feminism, on the other hand, is a special type of
postmodernism and a specific kind of feminist theory, which in recent centuries has become
prominent in feminist thinking. To comprehend this, first we need to look in particular at
postmodern epistemology and then we must associate the feminism of postmodernity with
other women (Shildrick, 2015). It offers a very helpful theoretical viewpoint while many
opponents of Postmodernism. As per my opinion, while the aspects ofg the three mentioned
feminism is different, the core concept of all three kinds of feminism is ensure equality in
gender and provide women a safer, respectful and secure life.

6SOCIOLOGY
Reference List
Bracewell, L. N. (2016). Beyond Barnard: Liberalism, Antipornography Feminism, and the
Sex Wars. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 42(1), 23-48.
Campbell, D. (2017). Afterword: feminism, liberalism and utopianism in the analysis of
contracting. In Feminist Perspectives on Contract Law (pp. 173-186). Routledge-
Cavendish.
Groenhout, R. E. (2002). Essentialist challenges to liberal feminism. Social Theory and
Practice, 28(1), 51-75.
Johnson, P. (2018). Feminism as radical humanism. Routledge.
Middleton, S. (1995). Doing feminist educational theory: a post-modernist
perspective. Gender and education, 7(1), 87-100.
Porter, J. (2017). At the limits of liberalism: Thomas Aquinas and the prospects for a Catholic
feminism. In Thomas Aquinas (pp. 389-404). Routledge.
Shildrick, M. (2015). Leaky bodies and boundaries: Feminism, postmodernism and (bio)
ethics. Routledge.
Wilson, K. (2015). Towards a radical re‐appropriation: Gender, development and neoliberal
feminism. Development and Change, 46(4), 803-832.
Zinn, M. B., & Dill, B. T. (2016). Theorizing difference from multiracial feminism. In Race,
gender and class (pp. 76-82). Routledge.

7SOCIOLOGY