Feminist Theory in Sociology

Feminist theory is a major branch of theory within sociology that is distinctive for how its creators shift their
analytic lens, assumptions, and topical focus away from the male viewpoint and experience. In doing so,
feminist theory shines light on social problems, trends, and issues that are otherwise overlooked or
misidentified by the historically dominant male perspective within social theory. Key areas of focus within
feminist theory include discrimination and exclusion on the basis of sex and gender, objectification, structural
and economic inequality, power and oppression, and gender roles and stereotypes, among others.

Overview

Many people incorrectly believe that feminist theory focuses exclusively on girls and women and that it has an
inherent goal of promoting the superiority of women over men. In reality, feminist theory has always been about
viewing the social world in a way that illuminates the forces that create and support inequality, oppression, and
injustice, and in doing so, promotes the pursuit of equality and justice.

That said, since the experiences and perspectives of women and girls were historically excluded from social
theory and social science, much feminist theory has focused on their interactions and experiences within
society in order to ensure that half the world's population is not left out of how we see and understand social
forces, relations, and problems. Most feminist theorists throughout history have been women, however, today
feminist theory is created by people of all genders.

By shifting the focus of social theory away from the perspectives and experiences of men, feminist theorists
have created social theories that are more inclusive and creative than those which assumes the social actor to
always be a man. Part of what makes feminist theory creative and inclusive is that it often considers how
systems of power and oppression interact, which is to say it does not just focus on gendered power and
oppression, but on how it might interact with systemic racism, a hierarchical class system, sexuality, nationality,
and (dis)ability, among other things.

Key areas of focus include the following.

Gender Differences

Some feminist theory provides an analytic framework for understanding how women's location in, and
experience of, social situations differ from men's. For example, cultural feminists look to the different values
associated with womanhood and femininity as a reason why men and women experience the social world
differently. Other feminist theorists believe that the different roles assigned to women and men within
institutions better explain gender difference, including the sexual division of labor in the household. Existential
and phenomenological feminists focus on how women have been marginalized and defined as other in

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patriarchal societies. Some feminist theorists focus specifically on how masculinity is developed through
socialization, and how its development interacts with the process of developing feminity in girls.

Gender Inequality

Feminist theories that focus on gender inequality recognize that women's location in, and experience of, social
situations are not only different but also unequal to men's. Liberal feminists argue that women have the same
capacity as men for moral reasoning and agency, but that patriarchy, particularly the sexist division of labor,
has historically denied women the opportunity to express and practice this reasoning. These dynamics serve to
shove women into the private sphere of the household and to exclude them from full participation in public life.
Liberal feminists point out that heterosexual marriage is a site of gender inequality and that women do not
benefit from being married as men do. Indeed, married women have higher levels of stress than unmarried
women and married men. According to liberal feminists, the sexual division of labor in both the public and
private spheres needs to be altered in order for women to achieve equality.

Gender Oppression

Theories of gender oppression go further than theories of gender difference and gender inequality by arguing
that not only are women different from or unequal to men, but that they are actively oppressed,
subordinated, and even abused by men. Power is the key variable in the two main theories of gender
oppression: psychoanalytic feminism and radical feminism. Psychoanalytic feminists attempt to explain power
relations between men and women by reformulating Freud's theories of the subconscious and unconscious,
human emotions, and childhood development. They believe that conscious calculation cannot fully explain the
production and reproduction of patriarchy. Radical feminists argue that being a woman is a positive thing in and
of itself, but that this is not acknowledged in patriarchal societies where women are oppressed. They
identify physical violence as being at the base of patriarchy, but they think that patriarchy can be defeated if
women recognize their own value and strength, establish a sisterhood of trust with other women, confront
oppression critically, and form female separatist networks in the private and public spheres.

Structural Oppression

Structural oppression theories posit that women's oppression and inequality are a result of capitalism,
patriarchy, and racism. Socialist feminists agree with Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels that the working class is
exploited as a consequence of capitalism, but they seek to extend this exploitation not just to class but also to
gender. Intersectionality theorists seek to explain oppression and inequality across a variety of variables,
including class, gender, race, ethnicity, and age. They offer the important insight that not all women experience
oppression in the same way, and that the same forces that work to oppress women and girls also oppress
people of color and other marginalized groups. One way in which structural oppression of women, specifically

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the economic kind, manifests in society is in the gender wage gap, which sees men routinely earn more for the
same work as women. An intersectional view of this situation shows us that women of color, and men of color
too, are even further penalized relative to the earnings of white men. In the late-twentieth century, this strain of
feminist theory was extended to account for the globalization of capitalism and how its methods of production
and of accumulating wealth center on the exploitation of women workers around the world.

The Sociology of Gender

The sociology of gender is one of the largest subfields within sociology and features theory and research that
critically interrogates the social construction of gender, how gender interacts with other social forces in society,
and how gender relates to social structure overall. Sociologists within this subfield study a wide range of topics
with a variety of research methods, including things like identity, social interaction, power and oppression, and
the interaction of gender with other things like race, class, culture, religion, and sexuality, among others.

The Difference Between Sex and Gender

To understand the sociology of gender one must first understand how sociologists define gender and sex.
Though male/female and man/woman are often conflated in the English language, they actually refer to two
very different things: sex and gender. The former, sex, is understood by sociologists to be a biological
categorization based on reproductive organs.

Most people fall into the categories of male and female, however, some people are born with sex organs that
do not clearly fit either category, and they are known as intersex. Either way, sex is a biological classification
based on body parts.

Gender, on the other hand, is a social classification based on one's identity, presentation of self, behavior, and
interaction with others. Sociologists view gender as learned behavior and a culturally produced identity, and as
such, it is a social category.

The Social Construction of Gender

That gender is a social construct becomes especially apparent when one compares how men and women
behave across different cultures, and how in some cultures and societies, other genders exist too. In Western
industrialized nations like the U.S., people tend to think of masculinity and femininity in dichotomous terms,

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viewing men and women as distinctly different and opposites. Other cultures, however, challenge this
assumption and have less distinct views of masculinity and femininity. For example, historically there was a
category of people in the Navajo culture called berdaches, who were anatomically normal men but who were
defined as a third gender considered to fall between male and female. Berdaches married other ordinary men
(not Berdaches), although neither was considered homosexual, as they would be in todays Western culture.

What this suggests is that we learn gender through the process of socialization. For many people, this process
begins before they are even born, with parents selecting gendered names on the basis of the sex of a fetus,
and by decorating the incoming baby's room and selecting its toys and clothes in color-coded and gendered
ways that reflect cultural expectations and stereotypes. Then, from infancy on, we are socialized by family,
educators, religious leaders, peer groups, and the wider community, who teach us what is expected from us in
terms of appearance and behavior based on whether they code us as a boy or a girl. Most will recognize
that media and popular culture play important roles in teaching us gender too.

One result of gender socialization is the formation of gender identity, which is ones definition of oneself as a
man or woman. Gender identity shapes how we think about others and ourselves and also influences our
behaviors. For example, gender differences exist in the likelihood of drug and alcohol abuse, violent behavior,
depression, and aggressive driving. Gender identity also has an especially strong effect on how we dress and
present ourselves, and what we want our bodies to look like, as measured by normative standards.

Major Sociological Theories of Gender

Each major sociological framework has its own views and theories regarding gender and how it relates to other
aspects of society.

During the mid-twentieth century, functionalist theorists argued that men fill instrumental roles in society while
women fill expressive roles, which works to the benefit of society. They viewed a gendered division of labor as
important and necessary for the smooth functioning of a modern society. Further, this perspective suggests that
our socialization into prescribed roles drives gender inequality by encouraging men and women to make
different choices about family and work. For example, these theorists see wage inequalities as the result of
choices women make, assuming they choose family roles that compete with their work roles, which renders
them less valuable employees from the managerial standpoint.

However, most sociologists now view this functionalist approach as outdated and sexist itself, and there is now
plenty of scientific evidence to suggest that the wage gap is influenced by deeply ingrained gender
biases rather than by choices men and women make about family-work balance.

A popular and contemporary approach within the sociology of gender is influenced by symbolic
interactionist theory, which focuses on the micro-level everyday interactions that produce and challenge gender
as we know it. Sociologists West and Zimmerman popularized this approach with their 1987 article on "doing

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gender," which illustrated how gender is something that is produced through interaction between people, and
as such is an interactional accomplishment. This approach highlights the instability and fluidity of gender and
recognizes that since it is produced by people through interaction, it is fundamentally changeable.

Within the sociology of gender, those inspired by conflict theory focus on how gender and assumptions and
biases about gender differences lead to the empowerment of men, oppression of women, and the structural
inequality of women relative to men. These sociologists see gendered power dynamics as built into the social
structure, and thus manifested throughout all aspects of a patriarchal society. For example, from this viewpoint,
wage inequalities that exist between men and women result from mens historic power to devalue womens
work and benefit as a group from the services that womens labor provides.

Feminist theorists, building on aspects of the three areas of theory described above, focus on the structural
forces, values, worldviews, and norms, and everyday behaviors that create inequality and injustice on the basis
of gender. Importantly, they also focus on how these social forces can be changed to create a just and equal
society in which no one is penalized for their gender.

What is Feminism Really All About?

What feminism means is a hotly contested debate in the twenty-first century. Often, efforts to define feminism
are hatched in response to critiques or dismissals of it as angry, irrational, and man-hating. The term itself is so
widely contested and derided that many people adamantly state that they are "not feminists," despite
espousing what many consider feminist values and views.

So what is feminism really all about? Equality. Not just for women, but for all people, regardless of gender,
sexuality, race, culture, religion, ability, class, nationality, or age.

Studying feminism from a sociological perspective brings all of this to light. Viewed this way, one can see that
feminism has never really been about women. The focus of a feminist critique is a social system that is
designed by men, guided by their particular gendered world views and experiences, and designed to privilege
their values and experiences at the expense of others.

Who those men are, in terms of race and class, among other things, varies from place to place.

But at a global level, and especially within Western nations, those men in power have historically been wealthy,
white, cisgender, and heterosexual, which is an important historical and contemporary point. Those in power
determine how society operates, and they determine it based on their own perspectives, experiences, and
interests, which more often than not serve to create unequal and unjust systems.

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Within the social sciences, the development of a feminist perspective and feminist theories have always been
about de-centering the privileged white male perspective from framing social problems, the approach to
studying them, how we actually study them, what we conclude about them, and what we try to do about them
as a society. Feminist social science begins by casting off the assumptions derived from the particular
standpoint of privileged white men. This means not just reconfiguring social science to not privilege men, but
also, to de-center whiteness, heterosexuality, middle and upper-class status, ability, and other elements of the
dominant perspective in order to create a social science that combats inequality and fosters equality through
inclusion.

Patricia Hill Collins, one of the most accomplished and important American sociologists alive today, referred to
this approach to seeing the world and its peoples as "intersectional." This approach recognizes that systems of
power and privilege, and of oppression, work together, intersect, and rely upon each other. This concept has
become central to today's feminism because understanding intersectionality is central to understanding and
fighting inequality.

Collins's articulation of the concept (and the lived reality of it) is what makes race, class, sexuality, nationality,
ability, and many other things necessary to include in a feminist perspective. For, one is never simply just a
woman or a man: one is defined by and operates within these other social constructs that have very real
consequences that shape experiences, life chances, perspectives, and values.

So what is feminism really all about? Feminism is about fighting inequality in all of its forms, including classism,
racism, global corporate colonialism, heterosexism and homophobia, xenophobia, religious intolerance, and of
course, the persistent problem of sexism. It is also about fighting these on a global level, and not just within our
own communities and societies, because we are all connected by globalized systems of economy and
governance, and because of this, power, privilege, and inequality operate on a global scale.

Definition of Intersectionality

Intersectionality refers to the simultaneous experience of categorical and hierarchical classifications including
but not limited to race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationality. It also refers to the fact that what are often
perceived as disparate forms of oppression, like racism, classism, sexism, and xenophobia, are actually
mutually dependent and intersecting in nature, and together they compose a unified system of oppression.
Thus, the privileges we enjoy and the discrimination we face are a product of our unique positioning in society
as determined by these social classifiers.

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Sociologist Patricia Hill Collins developed and explained the concept of intersectionality in her groundbreaking
book, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, published in
1990. Today intersectionality is a mainstay concept of critical race studies, feminist studies, queer studies, the
sociology of globalization, and a critical sociological approach, generally speaking.

In addition to race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationality, many of today's sociologists also include categories
like age, religion, culture, ethnicity, ability, body type, and even looks in their intersectional approach.

Sociology of Social Inequality

Overview

Social inequality is characterized by the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social
positions or statuses within a group or society. It contains structured and recurrent patterns of unequal
distributions of goods, wealth, opportunities, rewards, and punishments. Racism, for example, is understood to
be a phenomenon whereby access to rights and resources is unfairly distributed across racial lines. In the
context of the U.S., people of color typically experience racism, which benefits white people by conferring on
them white privilege, which allows them greater access to rights and resources than other Americans.

There are two main ways to measure social inequality: inequality of conditions, and inequality of opportunities.
Inequality of conditions refers to the unequal distribution of income, wealth, and material goods. Housing, for
example, is an inequality of conditions with the homeless and those living in housing projects sitting at the
bottom of the hierarchy while those living in multi-million dollar mansions sit at the top. Another example is at
the level of whole communities, where some are poor, unstable, and plagued by violence, while others are
invested in by business and government so that they thrive and provide safe, secure, and happy conditions for
their inhabitants.

Inequality of opportunities refers to the unequal distribution of life chances across individuals. This is reflected
in measures such as level of education, health status, and treatment by the criminal justice system. For
example, studies have shown that college and university professors are more likely to ignore emails from
women and people of color than they are to ignore those from white men, which privileges the educational
outcomes of white men by channeling a biased amount of mentoring and educational resources to them.

Discrimination at individual, community, and institutional levels is a major part of the process of reproducing
social inequalities of race, class, gender, and sexuality. For example, women are systematically paid less than

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men for doing the same work, and sociologists have conclusively demonstrated that racism is built into the very
foundation of our society, and is present in all of our social institutions.

Two Main Theories of Social Inequality

There are two main views of social inequality within sociology. One view aligns with the functionalist theory and
the other aligns with conflict theory.

Functionalist theorists believe that inequality is inevitable and desirable and plays an important function in
society. Important positions in society require more training and thus should receive more rewards. Social
inequality and social stratification, according to this view, lead to a meritocracy based on ability.

Conflict theorists, on the other hand, view inequality as resulting from groups with power dominating less
powerful groups. They believe that social inequality prevents and hinders societal progress as those in power
repress the powerless people in order to maintain the status quo. In today's world, this work of domination is
achieved primarily through the power of ideology--our thoughts, values, beliefs, world views, norms, and
expectations--through a process known as cultural hegemony.