Terri L. Carter

Essay on Feminist Theory

Five tenets of Feminist theory that have expanded upon the ideas promoted in Enfranchisement of Women by Harriet Taylor are as follows, 1) women should enter into the public sphere (Liberal), 2) deconstructing the structures of oppression (Radical and Marxist/Socialist), 3) changing society’s structures from within, i.e. through laws (Liberal), 4) women choosing to be in the public sphere and not accepting preset roles (Existentialist) and 5) an awareness of class bias among women that prevents reaching a gender consciousness (Marxist/Socialist). All of these theories have taken an aspect of this treatise and incorporated it into a particular ideology. Some are relatively unchanged, i.e., women in the public sphere, change by political/social means, while others (Radical and Marxist/Socialist) have gone beyond reforming the present system to deconstruction of the old and reconstituting a new society. The existentialist view takes an emphasis on choice to the extreme by asserting that women can choose not to accept the roles society ordains, as opposed to a change in the society. Acknowledging that Taylor showed a middle class bias in her writings, enables the Marxist to delineate features which can sabotage gender consciousness.

Feminist awareness of societal forces has been changed in all but one of the theories we have studied. Liberal Feminism still proposes working within the system (reformist) to change structures via political/legalistic means. It focuses on individual rights and choices. Liberals focus on a reconception of the current society rather than deconstruction. Oppression can be ended and liberation won, by legislation. Marxist/Socialist and Radical Feminism are revolutionary, as each promotes the deconstruction of the system(society) and its structures. For Radicals this means ridding humans of gender/sex roles, i.e., becoming androgynous, as these are the basis of all oppression. Everything that reinforces the oppression ideology, i.e., constructs such as love, romance, marriage and family, must be eliminated (deconstructed), in order to reconstitute a feminist culture. Marxist/Socialists also believe that the prevailing capitalist/patriarchal ideology must be removed–but first it must be escaped, by reaching class/gender consciousness, because if you are a part of the system, you cannot destroy it. Thus, they propose that economics are the basis of oppression. The first division of labor, i.e., marriage, to a Marxist, leads to the family as an economic unit. This, like the capitalist class system leading to class consciousness, can lead to gender consciousness or gender as a class. However, because class differences exist between women, it is difficult for women to reach gender consciousness. These class biases must be acknowledged, in order to avoid the divisions within the gender. Existentialist Feminism, in contrast, seems to absolve society of its role in the oppression of women. It does so by arguing that women can, if they know what they want, choose to “follow their bliss”(Joseph Campbell), and negate society’s preset social roles becoming, then, pour–soi . In fact, if the roles of women limit them (their attempt to reach self–actualization) then by choosing a role, i.e., the Other, en–soi, women are responsible for their own oppression.

Most, if not all, of the tenets of Liberal Feminism would be accepted by Taylor and Mill. Liberal Feminism can be seen as a direct out growth of the theories of the two authors. In contrast, many of the other theories of Feminism, while incorporating some of their ideas, have moved in what would be seen, by Taylor and Mill, as extreme directions. We see that Radical and Marxist/Socialist Feminists, while espousing changes in structures, as did Taylor, move further in calling for a complete deconstruction of society. Taylor and Mill believed society should be reformed, not eliminated and remade. Existentialist Feminism reflects the extreme of ‘choice’. Taylor and Mill felt that society’s structures did promote the subordination of women, by enacting laws that prevented women from achieving happiness(self-actualization). Therefore, it can be noted, society removes the right to choose from women, i.e., forces them into particular roles. Thus, the Existentialist argument that only the individual woman can prevent herself from reaching self-actualization by choosing to accept the role, instead of what she truly wants, would not be accepted by Taylor and Mill.

It is noteworthy that all of these theories of Feminism have retained some aspects of Taylor (and Mill’s) original treatise. We can see that Feminism, while sharing common roots, has taken what is relevant to each distinct branch and built upon it. This has enabled Feminism to develop distinct, coherent theories on women’s oppression and how to become liberated from it.