Feminist theory

(interpersonal violence) falls between two camps of thought. Feminist theorists such as Johnson (2010) stress that agency data highlight the symmetry of gender within IPV and draw a connection to the use of IPV by males to maintain a patriarchal society and exert intimate terrorism over their partners. Any IPV violence perpetuated by woman is considered violent resistance (Johnson, 2010) to oppression and the patriarchal system. Feminist theorists argue that utilizing data from the CTS (Conflict…

The feminist theory that I’ll be discussing is the feminist institutional theory. According to Ritzer and Stepnisky, the theory states “that gender differences result from the different roles that women and men play within various institutional settings (Ritzer & Stepnisky, 2013). A major difference between men and women is the sexual division of labor in the family and how they are socialized as children and adults. This division of labor between the sexes links women to their roles as mothers,…

disability when I was assigned reading from the anthology Feminist Disability Studies. With essays from writers such as Rosemarie Garland-Thomson and Alison Kafer, it is an incredibly powerful collection, demonstrating how the interests of feminist theory and disability studies overlap. And yet, despite the efforts of these scholars and disabled feminists in academia and in activist groups, disability does not seem to be on the broader feminist agenda. Similar to the Garland-Thomson and Kafer…

The main goal of Christina Hughes' Key Concepts in Feminist Theory and Research is to present a "conceptual literacy" for social science students. Hughes' differential studies of equality, choice, difference, time and experience, which are some of the most crucial concepts in feminist theory. However, the author not only supplies an overview of the enormous amount of literature on feminist ideology, but also presents complex theories and stresses the significance of deconstruction in social…

Third wave feminism is the composition of several diverse strains of feminist theories that emerged around the early 1990s, although much like the movement itself it’s origins are subject to a great deal of debate. When Rebecca Walker famously declared in 1992 “I am the Third Wave”, she opened the doors to a movement that moved past what they perceived as the second wave’s ideological rigidity (Walker). This essay explores a wide range of academic discourse on third-wave feminism with the…

women should have equal rights and opportunities.” Throughout history, feminism has existed and along with it, so has many different theories offering different guiding principles and politics for how to act in the world (Bromley, 2012). As time progresses, different social and political reforms emerge and with that, so does the reorganization of feminist theories. During the early 1960s, a new wave of feminism began. After women received their right to vote, women’s liberation movement was born…

Within feminist theory, feminist scholars are concerned with a broad range of issues and topics for discussion. Animal studies is a new and edgy field, especially in the context of feminist theory. The general findings of the review include patriarchal schemas, and speciesism as an institution of oppression influencing and interconnected with sexism and racism. While there are notable authors and scholars within the field of animal studies in feminist theory (see Carol Adams and Josephine…

This chapter is going to shed light on two distinctive feminist standpoint theorists: Dorothy E. Smith and Patricia Hill Collins. Among other feminist standpoint theorists, the feminist critiques of these two women stand out for me as applicable when analyzing Umm Zakiyyah's trilogy If I Should Speak. The mutuality Smith and Collins have is that they have sought a sociology which takes women's experience as a vantage point where they could see the full picture of society. They are empiricists…

Black feminist thought can be thought of as an understanding behind the intersectionality of race and sex. The assumption that race and sex can be divorced and examined separately prevents many people from grasping the concept of black feminist thought. African-American women are a part of a minority race and minority sex, which they must live with on a daily basis. Therefore, examining race and sex separately is a distorted, biased, and inaccurate view on African-American women in society. As a…

Masculinities. As the recently-concluded 2016 Presidential Election has revealed, what it means to be Men in the United States (if not the West/Global North) resonates with political volatility. While this particular debate has yielded many a now-ubiquitous theory – hegemonic masculinity (Connell), Structured Action (Messerschmidt), inclusivity (Anderson), female masculinity (Halberstam), manhood acts (Schrock/Schwalbe),…