Lenses of Feminist Theory

Adapted from Alison Jaggar and Paula Rothenberg, Feminist Frameworks; Jane Flax,
Women Do Theory; and Estelle Freedman, No Turning Back
Feminist theory, according to Flax, can be defined as a systematic, analytic approach
to everyday life, a gender-focused approach to a 3000-year conversation in which
thinkers have responded to and enhanced each others ideas about how the world
works. According to Flax, feminist theory operates from at least three basic
assumptions: that women and men have different experiences that feminism seeks to
understand; that womens oppression must be examined as a discreet social and
philosophical problem; and that patriarchy must be analyzed and changed. What
would it mean to have a truly liberated society? asks Flax; this is a question feminist
theory can help to answer. Her framework offers three crucial realms of human
activity, all of which feminists must analyze and reconstitute if we are to challenge
successfully the oppression of women: production, reproduction, and the
psychodynamic sphere. Freedman and Jaggar/Rothenberg offer related but somewhat
different models of feminist theory that delineate lenses through which feminists can
approach the problem of womens subordination:
1. LIBERAL FEMINISM uses the lens of gender; it originated in 16th-17th C
political theories of equality for all men, and feminists extended this idea of
human liberty to include women. Emphasis:equal rights,power/powerlessness.
2. SOCIALIST FEMINISM uses the lenses of sex/gender, sexuality, and class. It
is influenced by classical Marxism but sees the class struggle as interwoven
with issues of gender and sexuality; otherwise the class struggle will be sexist
and the womens movement classist.
3. RADICAL FEMINISM explores womens subordination through the lens of
sex/gender, race, and sexuality. This view dates from the late 60s as a
response to some women activists sense of discrimination during the peace
and civil rights movements. Radical feminists see the oppression of women
as the primary form of dominance, the top priority for social activists.
4. MULTICULTURAL FEMINISM explores womens subordination through the
lenses of sex/gender, sexuality, ethnicity, class, and race. Emphasis is on the
voices of African American, Asian American, Latina, Native American,
Jewish women as central to any understanding of how systems of oppression
are connected. Another emphasis is challenging racism and low visibility of
women of color in the U.S. womens movement.
5. GLOBAL FEMINISM explores womens situation worldwide in the belief
that Western womens lives are inseparably linked to those of women in the
developing world. Postcolonial issues and diaspora are central to this lens
Among topics explored are FGM, colonization, imperialism, war and
refugees. Emphasis: economic, political, and social concerns that connect or
divide women across cultures.
6. PSYCHOANALYTIC FEMINISM is a Western academic approach to feminist
theory that re-examines Freuds (and Lacans) psychological mapping of
sexuality and psychosexual behavior. French feminist writers such as Cixous,
Irigaray, and Kristeva are sometimes linked to this perspective.