CSS Gender Studies Feminist Theories and Practice Syllabus

Feminist Theories and Practice syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Feminist Theories and Practice in CSS Gender Studies, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Defining Feminism

   1 topic

   • What is Feminism?
2. 2

   Equality-Based and Structural Feminisms

   3 topics

   • Liberal Feminism
   • Radical Feminism
   • Marxist / Socialist Feminism
3. 3

   Psychological and Postmodern Feminisms

   3 topics

   • Psychoanalytical Feminism
   • Men's Feminism
   • Postmodern Feminism

Feminist Theories and Practice flashcards for CSS Gender Studies

18 of 51 cards from the Feminist Theories and Practice deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. Define feminism.

   Feminism is a range of social and political movements, theories, and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes, and to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.

2. What are the three 'waves' of feminism and their core concerns?

   First wave (19th-early 20th c.): legal rights, especially suffrage and property rights. Second wave (1960s-80s): social/cultural inequality, sexuality, family, reproductive rights, workplace. Third wave (1990s onward): diversity, intersectionality, individuality, and challenging universal definitions of womanhood.

3. Distinguish between 'sex' and 'gender' as used in feminist theory.

   Sex refers to biological/physiological differences between males and females. Gender refers to the socially and culturally constructed roles, behaviours, and attributes a society considers appropriate for men and women.

4. What is patriarchy?

   Patriarchy is a social system in which men hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege, and control of property; it is the central concept feminists identify as the source of women's oppression.

5. What is meant by 'the personal is political,' and which wave popularized it?

   It is the second-wave feminist slogan (associated with Carol Hanisch, 1969) meaning that personal experiences such as housework, sexuality, and family life are shaped by and reflect larger political power structures, so private problems have political causes and solutions.

6. What is misogyny?

   Misogyny is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls; it enforces sexism by punishing women who reject male dominance and rewarding those who accept it.

7. Define sexism.

   Sexism is prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex; it is the belief that one sex is superior to or more valuable than the other.

8. What is the difference between 'equality feminism' and 'difference feminism'?

   Equality feminism argues women are essentially the same as men and should have identical rights and treatment. Difference feminism argues women have distinct qualities and experiences that should be valued and accommodated rather than erased.

9. What is intersectionality and who coined the term?

   Intersectionality is the framework that overlapping social identities such as gender, race, class, and sexuality combine to create distinct modes of discrimination and privilege. The term was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989.

10. Name the major schools/types of feminism.

    Liberal, Radical, Marxist/Socialist, Psychoanalytical, Postmodern, and Men's (pro-feminist) feminism; others include cultural, ecofeminism, postcolonial, and Black feminism.

11. What is the central premise of Liberal Feminism?

    Liberal feminism holds that women's subordination is rooted in legal and customary constraints that block their entry into and success in the public sphere; equality can be achieved through legal and political reform within the existing system without revolutionary change.

12. Which Enlightenment ideas underpin Liberal Feminism?

    Liberal feminism is grounded in Enlightenment liberalism: belief in individual rights, rationality, autonomy, equality before the law, and the idea that all humans are rational agents entitled to the same opportunities.

13. Name two foundational thinkers of Liberal Feminism and a key text of each.

    Mary Wollstonecraft — 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman' (1792); John Stuart Mill — 'The Subjection of Women' (1869). Betty Friedan ('The Feminine Mystique', 1963) is a key modern liberal feminist.

14. What did Betty Friedan call 'the problem that has no name'?

    In 'The Feminine Mystique' (1963), Friedan used it to describe the widespread unhappiness, emptiness, and lack of fulfillment of middle-class American housewives confined to domestic roles despite material comfort.

15. What reforms does Liberal Feminism typically advocate?

    Equal legal rights, suffrage, equal pay, anti-discrimination laws, equal access to education and employment, reproductive choice, and removal of barriers to women's participation in public life.

16. What is a common critique of Liberal Feminism?

    It is criticized for accepting male/capitalist values and structures rather than transforming them, for focusing on educated middle-class white women, for ignoring class and race, and for treating equality as access to a male-defined public world.

17. Founded by Betty Friedan in 1966, what organization institutionalized liberal feminism in the US?

    The National Organization for Women (NOW).

18. What is the central premise of Radical Feminism?

    Radical feminism holds that patriarchy is the fundamental and oldest form of oppression, rooted in men's control over women's bodies and sexuality, and that it must be uprooted radically (at its root) rather than reformed.

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