The Elimination Of Patriarchy As Feminist Oppression Of Women

Women throughout history have always been oppressed by men, in being denied suffrage up until 1918, to be denied equal rights in education and the workplace and even today with the revelations of sexual exploitation of women in Hollywood. The elimination of patriarchy is a main goal of feminist ideology, in order to create a society where women are no longer oppressed and exploited by men. Patriarchy literally means ‘rule by the father’ (Heywood, p. and refers to the dominating role that men play in society. Eistenstein described it as ‘a political culture which favours men’ (1981, p.8) Feminists believe that these divisions run far deeper than other divisions e.g class or gender etc. Within feminist ideology the different strands each have

As Vincent says ‘women’s oppression was rooted in the impersonal logic of capitalism expropriation’(1995,p.187). As this suggests the sole purpose for women is to support the man by raising the family and maintaining the household and to be the reserve army force in periods such as war in order to maintain the capitalist ways, they are also responsible for creating and bringing up the next generation of workers. This therefore creates a system where women are more suited to the private sphere of life, leaving the public sphere to men. Socialists believe that to understand patriarchy, the social and economics factors also need to be looked at not just as the liberals see the legal

This makes the radical understanding of patriarchy focus more on the private sphere and making the personal political. Millet expresses that traditional gender roles are socialised into children through the family and then exacerbated through religion, myth and education, in all societies. (1970) This implies that the family is the ‘chief institution’ (Heywood, p.232) of patriarchy. Other radical feminists like Firestone disagree and say that patriarchy isn’t socially conditioned into children it runs deeper into biology. The male biological features such as aggression and competivenss are inherent through the biological make up of men and not reflecting the structure of society. (Find reference) This means that women should not aim to be like men and have what they have but to instead celebrate their difference. Radical feminists suggest that all areas of life have patriarchy, where women are portrayed as inferior to