What Is Dorothy Smith's Emergence Of Sisterhood?

Janet Lee’s and Susan M. Shaw’s, Women’s Voices Feminist Visions Classic and Contemporary Readings did provide the proper data to support their analyses. Lee and Shaw used sufficient evidence to address their main topic- the analysis of women’s gender studies by examining historical and contemporary writings. In chapter one Lee and Shaw discussed the purpose of women’s studies and examined gender. The ideas of feminism we evaluated, Lee and Shaw explained the negative attributes associated with feminism as well as the history of the gender movement. Women’s studies is a field of study that has been slowly expanding in the academic world sense the 1970’s. Lee and Shaw did provide the results to the data they analyzed. To prove their statements regarding the study of the

The work of a founding mother of feminism and the work of a philosopher who was a proponent for the working-class movement and an advocate for communism may seem to be too different to have overarching themes within them, but Mary Wollstonecraft and Karl Marx have many topics that can be compared to each other. Though their type of work and topics of discussion do differ to a great extent, their works both focus on the components of progress, how progress occurs, and what the final outcome will be. These influential proponents of feminism and communism, Wollstonecraft and Marx, are both attempting to use their works to aid in the understanding of what each of their goals were and how society is able to achieve them.

In this essay I will explore the different schools of feminism such as Marxist, liberal and radical feminism, who share the view that women are oppressed in a patriarchal society but differ in opinion on who benefits from the inequalities. Each school of feminism has their own understanding of family roles and relationships which I will assess through this essay.

The theorist that I chose is Dorothy Smith. She is a well-known Marxist feminist scholar and activist (Carroll, 2010, p. 1). The reason I chose to write about Dorothy Smith is because her unique approach to feminism and women’s movements interested me, making me want to learn more about her.

The first rumblings of feminism began in the latter part of the eighteenth century with what was later to be called the “women’s movement.” By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the political focus of the women’s movement would center on suffrage—the political right or act of voting, and those who advocated such rights for women suffragists or suffragettes. (Klein 29) During this beginning era of feminism, it is clear that equality means one and only one thing: sameness. That is, being viewed as essentially the same as men; having the same rights, opportunities and privileges as

Feminist sociologist, Dorothy Smith argues that sociology has been biased and exclusive towards a white male perspective of society. Furthermore, Smith argues that sociology focuses on class struggles as well as ways of managing and governing society, which are the core components in oppression seen in women. Smith uses an intersectionality perspective to show the ways social theory perceives society that rarely reflects women’s concerns and struggles. Smith goes on to question the history of sociology and the ways theory would be affected if given a feminist point of view. Furthermore, when discussing Theordor Adorno’s argument of culture industry, it highly lacked a feminist perspective of how media is used to target women’s beauty standards and reinforce social roles. Furthermore, Erving Goffman’s theory of social interactions scarcely discussed the performances expected of women’s roles, which further creates female oppression. Both Adorno and Goffman provided important concepts to social theory, however, they never made means to incorporate feminist perspectives in their work, in addition, Smith offers perspectives on how these theories would be altered when discussed through a different lens.

The feminist movement of the 1960’s focused solely on the improvement and well- being of women. The idea of Feminism is a critical theory as it is an analytical examination of social conditions and what tools could be utilized to proactively improve these conditions. Overcoming the consistent barriers women had to endure during this era remains prevalent and continues to have psychological effects. In order to strengthen one’s mindset regarding feminism, we must first refer back and understand the intellectual history of the women’s movement and examine areas of how counseling can assist with overcoming these impediments. The Feminist philosophy is the philosophical dimension of intellectual feminism. Many philosophers understand their intellectual history and the history of the women's movement in terms of three "waves."

Neither Mary Wollstonecraft nor Karl Marx were content with the society in which they were living in during their time, and they both had different ideas and how to change it. They both agreed that our species is unique in that all humans have the ability and potential to control their lives and make what they want out of it. They have the ability to feel good about themselves and have a sense of self-fulfillment. However, each of these philosophers had a different opinion in mind on which obstacle was preventing humans from making full use of their potential to succeed and be happy. Wollstonecraft, in particular, was referring to how women do not get the same opportunities as men due to the fact that they are not looked at as equal to men. This was due to a few reasons. Men were being biased towards females, they could not get a good education, and most women themselves did not see a need to change. Wollstonecraft felt that the way to combat all this was to start allowing women to get the same education as men do, which would also allow them to be independent. Only then will they realize that women are just as intelligent and rational as men themselves are. Marx, on the other hand,

The stereotypes and misunderstanding of the word “feminist” completely, contradict the definition of the word. Stereotypes such as “men haters” is completely different from people who fight for the equality of women in our society such as politically and economically. After researching on two feminist known as Margaret Sanger and Alice Walker, added more towards my knowledge on the history of feminist. Before this project I was not really aware of all the discrimination and what women had to go through to achieve equality. Based on the research I was able to identify many legacies left behind by these two women, who inspired me incredibly to be pursue my goals in life to one day become as successful as them.

Women's liberation is an accumulation of developments and philosophies went for characterizing, building up, and shielding measure up to political, financial, and social rights for ladies (Feminism, n.d.). In an expansive sense it is ladies' yearning towards fairness with men in all circles of society. In a limited sense it is ladies' development, which has an objective to dispose of victimization them.

She paraphrases her fellow scholar Karlyn Kors Campbell who found that, “The primary purpose of [women's liberation] rhetoric was 'consciousness raising' toward other women” (Zivanovic 209). “traditional means, designed to encourage passivity and acceptance in an audience, were at odds with the goals of women's liberation, especially fundamental goal of self-determination” (Zivanovic 209). “Such 'consciousness raising' involves […] leaderless groups in which each person can express herself and all are considered expert (Zivanovic 209). “Women's liberation rhetoric […] is characterized by the use of confrontative non-adjustive strategies designed to 'violate the reality structure'” (Zivanovic 209). By reversing the roles in the first part

While she centralized her perspective at the University of British Columbia, it was at the same time she rediscovered the ideology of Karl Marx. She said that while attending the London School of Economics she had learned the teachings of his work with a distorted interpretation. Smith was influenced by Marx’s writings due to the notion of his ideology about politics and the ideas and images of the ruling class and how they become the dominant ones in our culture because the people ruling also own the productive apparatus of society.

The concept of sisterhood has been an integral part of the feminist movement since its beginning. Sisterhood recognizes the common oppression that women face in a patriarchal society, and suggests that strength can be found in unification. Keith E. Melder in Beginnings of Sisterhood discussed the impact of sisterhood on women's movement: “sisterhood strengthened women's collective identity.... From their active, collective enterprises, women gained a sense of power” (48). The strength of sisterhood generated dramatic changes for women's rights.

She explains that “Feminism is not about burning bras and hating men. It’s about gender equality” (Dockterman 104). Feminism is strong women standing up for their rights and ability to strive in a man’s world enough for it to become our world – a world where both men and woman strive to better humankind not mankind. It proves that women can be intelligent and strong,

When it comes to his view about Marxism, he believe that that the Marxism goal was