1. Feminist Theory

2. Traditional (functionalist) views of the family are oppressive to women in many ways.
Feminist Theory

3. Feminist Theory Feminism: Key Assumptions:
A struggle for the achievement of women’s equality, dignity, and freedom of choice to control their life and bodies within and outside the home
Feminism:
Feminist Theory
Key Assumptions:
The personal (e.g. the family) is political
Family comes in many forms
Gender is a social construction
The family is an institution involving power relationships
Women’s experiences are central to our understanding of families

4. Liberal feminism
Marxist feminism
Radical feminism
Feminist Theory

5. Emphasizes importance of socialization and education of females in such a way that they have equal opportunities and free choice as to whether to focus primarily on their employment careers , on motherhood or on a combination of the two.
Liberal Feminism

6. Marxist Feminism
Emphasizes how capitalism uses the family to oppress women and the harmful consequences of the family to women’s lives

7. Emphasizes the patriarchy undergirding society and the family that oppresses women
Sees families as an important tool in maintaining a patriarchal society
Radical Feminism

8. Emphasizes the idea that there is an essential “female nature” and that those attributes (e.g., nurturing, self-awareness) are positive and should be privileged alongside—and maybe, over—masculine attributes.
Cultural Feminism

9. Who benefits from the family?
Men benefit from marriage more than women do in many ways, including health
Married men tend to have much better physical and mental health than single men
Married women have worse physical and mental health than single women
Women rather than men also reported more unhappiness in their marriage and regret in marrying
Avoiding the burdens of marriage, more women are opting out to become single parents