All about feminist theory

1. Feminist Theories

4. Subordination of
Women
Pre-requisite to
Strategies
Power Differential
Evolution of
Challenges &
Oppression
Critical Analysis
from a Wide Angle
Web of Meaning –
Collective Speech-
Women’s /Gendered/
Cross- Sectional
Standpoint
Purpose of Feminist Theories

5. • Struggle to end Sexist Oppression
• End to Institutionalized Sexism
• Doesn’t promote women superiority and privilege
• For everyone
• Doesn’t aim to benefit a specific group of women
Feminism

7. • Focus: Sex, Gender and Sexuality
• Patriarchy’s elimination
• Hierarchy, Power Differences, Dominance of one over
another
• Essentialists’ POV : Biological Determinism  Women’s
miserable position in society & gender based violence is a
result of their biological anatomy
• Celebration of Womanhood : Biological & Psychological
Radical Feminism

8. • Focus : Gender & Gender Equality
• Sex & Gender: All humans possess a Neutral/Common Nature
• Respect Personhood & Individual Autonomy
• Equal opportunity  develop rational & moral capacities 
to achieve Personhood
• Reaching Full Potential of women via pre requisites
• Criticism: Men values are norms to be attained by women
Liberal Feminism

9. • Lens : Class Differential, Wealth, Capitalism
• Private Property is root cause oppression
• What is the Private Property of Males?
• Game of Structures ; Super & Sub.
• Dialectical Materialism is the solution
• Social Revolution & Structural Reforms
Marxist Feminism

10. • Focus: Psyche, Ego, Sexuality, Sigmund Freud’s
Psychoanalytic Theory
• Oedipus Complex:
– Animosity towards same- sex parent
– Love and attachment for opposite-sex parent
• Oppressions tied to the resolution of OC &
Electra Complex
• Criticism: Is Female Sexuality Parasitic?
Psychoanalytic Feminism

11. • Patriarchy is not only misogynist, but misandrist as
well
• Exploits men in the name of culture, ghairat, riwaj,
alpha & omega, aggressive ideologies
• Toxic Masculinity i.e. “Man Enough” internalized by
men
• Deconstruction of Pseudo Masculinity
• Development of adulthood neurosis in men
Men’s Feminism

12. A Rescue Approach for Men
1. Better relationships
2. Better health and work-life balance
3. Trust between intimate partners
4. Burden sharing through mature
partnerships
5. Respectful acknowledgment of needs
6. More time for leisure and hobbies
7. Better standard of living
8. Confident and well rounded children
9. Debasing the notion of “Real Man”
10. Pluralism
11. Inclusive work culture
12. Improved Self- Image
13. Improved Agency
14. Better Governance
15. Partners in Development
16. Integration over Autonomy
17. Restoration of Balance
18. Relative Gains
19. Sustainable Economic Growth
20. Psychological Welfare
21. Social Solidarity
22. Backlash against Toxic
Masculinity
23. Discourage Gender
Stereotyping

13. • Lens: Difference & Diversity
• Fluidity of Thought, Gender, Tastes & Aspirations,
Sexuality
• Resist Patriarchy & Male Privilege
• No unified truth
• Rise of Queer, Prostitution, Male Escorts
Post- Modern Feminism

14. • Focus: Intersectionality, Imperialism, Post-
Colonialism
• Cultural Diversity- core of argument
• Analyzes how class, race , gender & sexuality
underpins sub-ordination of all genders
• Combo. of Marxism, IPE, PM , Socialist feminism
• Unite instead of being affected by divisive forces
Multicultural, Colonial/ Post Colonial,
Global Feminism

15. • Colonialism continues in the disguise of feminism
• Concept of Sub- Alternity
• Gyatri Spivak – Women as subaltern of the subaltern
• White/ Caucasian women have spoken for them 
silencing them further
• Present a “decked- up fair” of the West by
misunderstanding the Eastern & African nations
• Justify colonization
Post- Colonial Theory

16. • Colonial Theorists: Subaltern are incapable of truth but
their voice can expose the military, pseudo democracies,
capitalists, religious elites
• Criticism
– Women Agency in India ignored
– Ignorant of multiple motivations of suicide
– No insight into subjectivity of matter
– North-South economic inequities analysis missing
from analysis