welcome to this cheater tu sociology topic video on theory and methods focused on feminism we've looked at feminism throughout the specification where it's been applied to certain areas of study such as crime education family and beliefs among dollars but it's worth reminding ourselves of some of the key ideas behind feminism before looking at the approach in more depth feminism is a conflict theory that suggests that power in society is divided on the basis of gender they suggest that patriarchal oppression of women exists in all sections of society in employment at home education and media they also suggest that the study of sociology has enlarged being male stream in other words male theorists focusing on the issues that are of concern to males and certainly early feminism focused on the study of female issues and the representations of women in society however feminism has evolved over time to deal with contemporary issues surrounding gender differences and has a particular focus in contemporary society on the intersectionality of women's experiences examining differences based upon social class ethnicity sexuality disability age religion and geographical location which gives feminism a broad appeal into looking it are gender differences in the 21st century feminism as an approach has consistently evolved to tackle the issues that women face in contemporary society the first wave of feminism was concerned with the political equality of women and their rights for representation in society from writers such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Harriet Martineau through to the suffragettes and suffragists the first wave of feminism consistently fought over a period exceed in a hundred years to gain universal suffrage the right to vote for women which came about in 1928 the second wave of feminism commenced in the post-world War two period and was focused upon the social and economic equality of women in society it championed equal rights and equal pay for women in the workplace and addressed issues of female emancipation from social norms of what of women being the housewife or mother leading figures in the second wave feminism what Ann Oakley who examined gender differences at home and the philosopher Simone to move wire this is also the period associated with women's liberation movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s which typifies the attitude of social change in post-war USA in Europe however critics of second wave feminism stated it did not do enough to address the differences of all women often ignoring those of lower social classes minority ethnic backgrounds or LGBTQ women from the criticisms rose third wave feminism examining the different experiences that women face globally whilst in Europe this was focused on changing social perceptions of women in areas of the developing world this was focused on giving women reproductive rights and tackling issues such as female genital mutilation and forced marriage more recently fourth wave feminism has emerged focusing on the empowerment of women using digital technologies and social media to encourage and support female achievements perhaps the most notable movement of this era has been the hashtag me to campaign tackling historical sexual abuse of women there are different branches of feminism and each takes a different approach to the issues that women face in society liberal feminism looks to address gender inequality by utilizing the existing systems and structures in place and pressing for legal changes to address inequality in society this approach has been successful in introducing legislation such as the Equal Pay Act the sexual Discrimination Act the legalization of abortion availability of contraception on prescription the removal of the marital rape exclusion clause and the Equality Act to name but a few it is also addressed issues such as educational underachievement breaking down barriers to education for girls particularly in male-dominated domains and influenced girls to aim higher and pursue careers that were once seen as reserved for males this has had numerous impacts on gender equality in society addressing education family life work and social stratification whilst liberal feminism has had notable success critics would suggest that inequality remains but for liberal feminists there is a march of progress towards equality and this continues with liberal feminists tackling newer forms of exploitation such as media representations of women being challenged Marxist feminism examines the dual exploitation that women face in society both from males and from capitalism much of our understanding of Marxist feminism has come from examining gender roles at home particularly when discussing the domestic division of labor and that is one of Marxist feminist lasting contributions Benson's description of women being kept out of the job market so they may be used to the reserve army of labour taking on in times of economic growth and let go in times of recession highlights difficulties that women face in employment finances colorful descriptions of the way that women absorb the frustrations of workers highlights the dual exploitation of women by men and capitalism a further contribution comes from Delphian Lanyrd who suggested the unpaid labor women to at home greatly benefits capitalism and their husbands Marxist feminism also looks at the patriarchal nature of employment and the assumptions made about women's ability and commitment to their careers Marxist feminism as a challenge the notion that women should stay at home and look after the family and examine concepts in employment such as a glass ceiling in the gender pay gap however critics would suggest that there have been changes in women's employment with a decline of traditional manufacturing growth industry such as a service sector have become feminized as as the workplace however Marxist feminist would suggest that the existing wage gap and the under-representation of females and positions of power would suggest there is still some way to go a third branch of feminism to consider is radical feminism and this is perhaps the most maligned in society often parodied and linked to negative stereotypes of feminism radical feminists suggest that the patriarchy is present in all aspects of society and is so ingrained into the consciousness of society that the only solution is to restructure in a bid to gain equality they protest that many of the recent developments in employment education and home life are merely token gestures and superficial in comparison to the oppression of women that is still carried out there are more extreme branches of radical feminism such as female supremacy and female separatism that advocate lack of contact with males and political lesbianism in order to create a society that puts women's needs at the forefront radical feminism had a huge influence on our understanding of society with theorists such as Millett suggesting that males will use physical psychological and ideological force to keep women in a position of subservience and with the emergence of alt-right of men's rights groups it can be suggested that Millett is correct so too with the negative stereotyping of feminism in the media the little in an ideology that promotes equality as radical and dangerous critics of radical feminism would suggest that they often neglect the progress that has been made and they have been criticized for ignoring the intersectional nature of women's experiences one of the contributions of families and that often goes unnoticed is their contribution towards the methodology that is used in social research feminists have often rejected the cold and objective nature of Maelstrom sociology suggested that it shows a lack of empathy for those that it studies treating them little better than Lab Rats Oakleigh in her research suggested adaptation of interpretivist ideas to create feminist methodology using unstructured interviews that focused on empathetic understanding of the lives of the women they studied as well as offering practical advice in dealing with their issues locally contended that the role of a sociologist is to offer help when needed rather than the detached role of positivist methods tended to convey furthermore feminist interviewing encourages those who were interviewed to move the conversation forward and to engage in the issues present this form of interview then becomes a call to action which some sociologists will criticize for its objective nature and potential for interviewer bias when evaluating the impacts of feminism a simple evaluation is the extent to which feminism has been effective the primary aim of feminism has been to tackle inequality but inequalities between women's experiences on a global scale remain whilst progress has been made in the West the position of women in the developing world remains precarious with patriarchal oppression lack of control over reproductive rights inability to choose a partner or display sexual preferences come in place the intersectional nature of women's experiences are not always address with critics stating that the needs of Western middle-class women are given precedence in the media over those in the developing world while women in the West are fighting for a seat in the boardroom women in the developing world are fighting for their lives a further criticism is that feminism can be seen as quite fragmented approach there are many examples of disagreements within the feminist movement that detract from the progress that has been made recent examples of disagreements over the position of trans women have highlighted some of these ideological differences and led to different branches of farrell ism being in conflict with one another however there is much evidence to suggest that feminism has made a huge contribution to the field of sociology it's introduced a greater understanding of the gender differences that exist in society and introduce new perspectives that have challenged the boys club of mail stream sociology home and family life women's experiences of crime religion education and poverty have all been illuminated by feminist thought whilst closer analysis of media stereotyping of women has been advanced by the feminist movement unlike some other theories feminism has and continues to evolve to meet the contemporary challenges including postmodern and post-structuralism intersectional feminism and female empowerment movements such as digital feminism of all evolved with society and feminism has changed the lives of many women both in the UK and globally through legal changes access to education greater employment opportunities and allowing women to have control over their reproductive rights while some may criticize feminism for not going far enough the scale of gender equality means that feminism will remain relevant for many years to come that concludes his 230 u sociology topic video on theory methods focused on feminism thanks for watching