Feminism and the Family

The same way Marxists see the family as a tool of the Bourgoise -  Feminists see the family as a tool of male dominated society helping to keep women in their place.

ANN OAKLEY (1984) Studied housework and gender socialisation "Women are an oppressed social group, a group of people sharing a common exclusion from full participation in key social institutions" "Women in 1980's Britain are still subject to the awful soul-destroying tryanny of being told the meaning of their lives by other in terms which are not theirs" "All women are feminists at heart"

Criticisms Portrays women as being too passive Puppet Theory: Speaks to members of society as passive recipients of oppression Social Action Theorists & Postmodernists say this isn't accurate as it ignores the choices people have and the specific influences Fail to look at underlying causes - capitalism

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