Brief Overview of the Feminist Perspective and the Family

1. The Role of women in Afghanistan:

1.1. The goal for women in Afghanistan is to get married and have many sons. Being born a girl in Afghanistan can be hard because some parents even raise their daughters as boys and then when they reach puberty, they switch back to their original gender role. Women's nurturing roles are crucial but they are not confined to domestic roles.

2. Marxist

2.1. Definition: marxist feminists see the oppression of women as something that is normal in family life and supports capitalism

2.2. #1 Benston: Capitalism benefits from the unpaid labor performed by women while men are at work. It benefits them because women are the ones who take care of the house and kids as the men do not have that much time in their day to do so because they are at work all day. This means that they won't have to pay women for the work they do.

2.3. #2 Ansley: Men go out to work and are then stressed out by their day. Women come in and comfort hem and take the stress and anger away so that the man can keep performing to the expectations of his boss and therefore benefiting the capitalist system.

3. Black

3.1. Definition: they focus on the idea that being a black women is different than being a white woman because the experiences they have are very different.

3.2. #1 Amos and Parmar: they believe that your ethnicity has a effect on family life. this means that there experiences will be different as well.

3.3. #2 Patricia Collins: In her book, Black Feminist Thought, she describes the experiences that black women go through that cannot be compared to white women's experiences.

4. How Black Feminist criticize Liberal Feminist

4.1. Black feminists could criticize Liberal feminists because although liberal feminists support gender equality between men and women, black women go through different experiences than white women, so their experiences as black women isn't included in the liberal feminist viewpoint.

5. Criticize Marxist and Radical feminism with the changing roles and relationships between men + women

5.1. Roles in the family are different than they were before. Marxist feminists believes the exploitation of women benefits capitalism because men used to be the ones who would be out at work all day but now, even more women are the ones who go out and work. Radical feminism sees women as wives and that seems to be their only role. Now, men stay at home now to take care of the kids and house instead of the women.

6. Radical

6.1. Definition: they focus on the problem of the patriarchy, the main cause of women's oppresion.

6.2. #1 Deply & Leonard: They believe women are oppressed by the family because they are the ones who perform household activities for the head of the household, the man. The man is the head of the household because he is the one who provides for his family, therefore allowing him to make most of the decisions on money and/or property despite not actually doing a lot or even any domestic labor.

6.3. #2 Greer: She believes that there is an ideology that being a wife is in a way, a perk for women. She believes these women's roles are to serve their men. The women make it their job to keep him happy. Women are expected to quickly jump right back into working after having a child, and society does not realize that the childbirth and everything they just went through for the few months prior to that is very exhausting and affects women in many different ways, even negatively.

7. Liberal

7.1. Definition: liberal feminists strive for equality between men and women. they focus on trying to get rid of obstacles that prevent women from doing the same thing men can do

7.2. #1 Cady Elizabeth Stanton: She believes that because there were limitations put on women concerning education, it hurt women by making them unable to function independent decision makers. This is something men did not have to go through since they were encouraged to have a good education, therefore making them the head of the house who makes the decisions. She also believed that the weaknesses that women and men had were not natural to each gender but instead nurtured by social norms and values.

7.3. #2 Somerville: Women have more power now than they have ever had. The inequality in marriages causes some women to divorce but it is shown that women go back to their husbands but mainly for physical reasons. She also believes equality between women and men is hard to maintain.

8. The Role of women in India

8.1. Girls are taught to be obedient and grow up believing they need to be a good mother and wife. She is expected to stay quiet and obey. Their education and growth isn't encouraged. They teach girls to stick to jobs like a teacher or nurse. Women are also expected to grow up, have an arranged marriage with a man her parents approve of, and move in with her in-laws.