This chapter discusses typologies of modern feminist theories. Lorber's categorisation of feminist theories distinguishes between three broad kinds of feminist discourses: gender reform feminisms, gender resistant feminisms, and gender revolution feminisms. Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley categorise the various types of feminist theories as theories of gender difference, theories of gender inequality, theories of gender oppression, and theories of structural oppression. All theories of gender difference are based on the thesis that the differences between men and women are immutable. These theories include cultural feminist theories, institutional role feminist theories, and existential feminist theories. Cultural feminism is a variety of feminism emphasising essential differences between men and women, based on biological differences in reproductive capacity. Institutional role feminist theories argue that gender differences result from the different roles that women and men come to play within various institutional settings. Existential feminist theories focus on the marginalisation of women as other in a male-created culture.
Top6.1 Typologies Of Modern Feminist Theories
There are several typological presentations of feminist theories like Lorber’s (1997) and Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley’s (1998) groupings among others.
Lorber’s (1997) categorisation distinguishes between three broad kinds of feminist discourses: gender reform feminisms, gender resistant feminisms, and gender revolution feminisms. Gender reform feminisms are rooted in the political philosophy of liberalism with its emphasis on individual rights. Gender resistant feminisms focus on specific behaviours and group dynamics through which women are kept in a subordinate position, even in subcultures which claim to support gender equality. Gender revolution feminisms seek to disrupt the social order through deconstructing its concepts and categories and analysing the cultural reproduction of inequalities.
Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley (1998) describe their typology as organised around feminism's most basic question: ‘And what about the women?’ Essentially they see four answers to the question. The first is that women's location in, and experience of, most situations is different from that of the men in those situations. The second is that women's location in most situations is not only different from but also less privileged than or unequal to that of men. The third is that women's situation also has to be understood in terms of a direct power relationship between men and women. The fourth is that women's experience of difference, inequality, and oppression varies. They thus see the various types of feminist theories as theories of gender difference, theories of gender inequality, theories of gender oppression and theories of structural oppression.
Both Lorber’s (1997) and Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley’s (1998) typologies help pattern the existing literature on gender and feminism. In this book we adopt Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley’s (1998) typology and categorisation of feminist theories as illustrated in Table 1.
Table 1. Overview of varieties of feminist theories
| Basic varieties of feminist theory—answers to the descriptive question, “what about the women?” | Distinctions within theories-answer to the explanatory question, “Why is women's situation as it is?” |
| Gender difference |
| Women’s location in, and experience of, most situations is different from that of men in the situation. | Cultural feminism
Institutional
Existential and phenomenological |
| Gender inequality |
| Women’s location in most situations is not only different from but also less privileged than or unequal to that of men. | Liberal feminism
Marxian
Marx and Engel’s explanations
Contemporary Marxian explanations |
| Gender oppression |
| Women are oppressed, not just different from or unequal to, but actively restrained, subordinated, moulded, ad used and abused by men. | Psychoanalytic feminism
Radical feminism
Socialist feminism |
| Structural oppression |
| Women’s experience of difference, inequality, and oppression varies by their social location within capitalism, patriarchy, and racism. | Socialist feminism
Intersectionality theory |
| Feminism and postmodernism |
(Source: Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley, 1998)