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Feminist Theory

👥 Sociology By CampusDown Wiki Editorial Team Last updated
Quick answer: feminist theories explain gender inequality and how to end it, locating its roots in law and institutions (liberal), patriarchy (radical), or capitalism and patriarchy together (socialist).
Contents
  1. 1. Waves
  2. 2. Main strands
  3. 3. Intersectionality
  4. 4. In social work
  5. 5. References

Waves

The first wave, after Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), fought for suffrage and education. The second wave, spurred by Beauvoir's The Second Sex ("one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman") and Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, politicised family, sexuality and reproduction.

Main strands

  • Liberal: legal and educational discrimination; reform for equal rights.
  • Marxist: oppression rooted in class and private property (Engels).
  • Radical: patriarchy as the fundamental oppression (Millett, Firestone).
  • Socialist: dual systems of capitalism and patriarchy; domestic labour (Hartmann).
  • Postmodern: gender as performance (Butler, Gender Trouble).

Intersectionality

Crenshaw (1989) showed that Black women's experience of combined race and sex discrimination cannot be captured on a single axis.

In social work

Feminist practice links personal problems to structure, with egalitarian helping relationships, consciousness-raising and empowerment.

References

  1. Beauvoir, S. de. (1949). Le Deuxième Sexe. Gallimard.
  2. Friedan, B. (1963). The Feminine Mystique. Norton.
  3. Millett, K. (1970). Sexual Politics. Doubleday.
  4. Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), 139-167.
  5. Tong, R., & Botts, T. F. (2018). Feminist Thought (5th ed.). Westview Press.

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This article was last updated on October 15, 2026. It is based on widely recognized original works and textbooks; when citing it in a paper, please check the original sources listed in the references.