What are feminist/women liberation movements ?
The feminist movement (also known as the women’s liberation movement, the women’s movement, or simply feminism) refers to a series of political campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women’s suffrage, sexual harassment, and sexual violence, etc.. all of which fall under the label of feminism and the feminist movement.
In the traditional family , Father knew best and mother was always there to feed, comfort and rely upon. For the most part, dad was the breadwinner, mom the nurturer. Children were expected to be the product of marriage and marriage was only between a man and a woman. Divorce rates were low and the majority couples stayed married for most of their lives. Welfare roles were almost non-existent as were out-of-wedlock births. The family might not have been perfect, but it was intact and the lack of social programs and crime reflected it.
But , two types of feminism movements brought many changes in traditional families. those radical feminism and liberal feminisms.T he radical feminism the attitude of women is “The institution of marriage is the chief vehicle for the perpetuation of the oppression of women; it is through the role of wife that the subjugation of women is maintained.” Marriage was referred to “as a slavery-like practice” that needed to be destroyed to bring about equality between men and women. They believe that men and religion are corrupt, marriage is slavery and bearing and raising children is beneath them. Their agenda does not take into account that women are part of a family and families are the bedrock of a good and healthy society.
On the other hand Liberal feminists , demand for better treatment and want the right to be educated, vote, own property and be treated as an equal in marriage by the law. Thus, Radical feminists don’t want families and marriages ,it is because liberal feminists the the following changes can be noted in traditional family setup.
Impact on the parent-child relations in the family:
Investigations into the behavior of the working mothers who have been identified as beneficiaries of women liberation movement have revealed the impact of women liberation movement on the parent child relations in the family.
- First, the organized efforts of the women liberation movement were all to alter the altitudes of different societies in favour of female children. Daughters are considered as important as sons.
- Second, the girl children are almost given as much a place as that given to boys In the household with regard to food, dress and health-care, education, subjects chosen of occupations desirable for them. The child rearing practices are modified to make girls as good as boys with reference to self-confidence, independence, individualism, and formation of personality. They are assigned out of home responsibility. The type of personality they have acquired favoured changing about gender equality, gender importance and gender inevitability the well being and perpetuation of the nuclear family.
- Third, the very enlightened one of the women liberations movement reported that in the case of families where the mother is unemployed, the relationship between the mother and child has became the most well-knit and enduring one. The mother-child relationship has been reinforced by the absence of the father for long hours from home due to the bifurcation between workplace and home. Even the adult husband who returns home after experiencing stress and strain at the work-place needs emotional support and personal warmth. Thus the wife-mother tends to specialize in “expressive roles in contrast to the husband-father who concentrates an instrumental” role.
- Fourth, the respondent further reported that in ‘the case of employed mother, the mother-child relationship in the family has became weakened. This has became a blow to the enculturation process. Long absence of mother and father from house has deprived the child from that type of enculturation which was liked by the parents and desired by the women liberation movement.
- Fifth, it is increasingly realized that even though men showed equally share the burden of child-rearing and when the women have taken up out-of-home work, it rarely happened even when genuine sharing was attempted it was at best very inadequate and partial sharing. This has left women with the burden of the major responsibility at home along with her work in the farm, firm or office. Thus, in fact, what happened was a role-accretion when a woman has taken up out-of -home work. As a wife or mother, she has facilitated the role performance of others in managing the family.
Impact on marital adjustment in the family:
Recent researches have shown that the impact of Women Liberation Movement on marital adjustment in the family is fairly substantial.
- First, the men influenced by Women Liberation Movement say realizing that unless their daughters and wives go outside the home and work the family cannot be in comfortable Financial situations. At the same time husbands or fathers feel that they have lose their control over their wives and daughters if they took jobs outside the home, because they could not continue to monitor their sexual behavior and became an independent income would make them less willing to accept male dominance.
- Second , several respondents, under the influence of women Liberation Movement woman with more education of more challenging and higher paid job’s out of their choice or with the approval of their husbands report more marital satisfaction. On the other hand most women who could enter only relations uninteresting jobs with modest pay of who could continue to shoulder most of the burden of the household express marital satisfaction because of their husbands feel that they were deprived to some services they normally would expect.
- Third, recent investigation reveal that, working wives are able to obtain a stronger voice in family decisions, they reported greater marital satisfaction. This effect is greater toward the middle and social strata.
- Fourth, researches show that husbands of working wives experienced less satisfaction with their marriages of a generally lower mental and physical well being than husbands whose wives stay at home.
- Fifth, as the women are trying to achieve greater equality between husbands and wives, the divorce rate is increasing. This is because for more women are able to live independent.
- Sixth, even though some women claim that they have achieved equal voice in making decision and independent activities have eventually created a strong solidarity, several of them feel that such as equality has also created substantial conflict. They have reported that egalitarian relatives within the family have necessary yielding more happiness.
- Finally, several respondents enlighten by Women Liberation Movement feel appeased under the present system but they expect that they would be happier under different arrangements. They simply do not know which marital arrangement might yield the greatest happiness for them. Thus they are not able to predict whether greater equality within the society of the within the home will make them happier with their lot.
Impact on work within the family:
The impact of Women Liberation Movement on the traditional labour within the family was not much.
- First, those enlightened by the Women Liberation Movement reported the introduction of household labour saving devices did not reduce the number of hours housewives devoted to domestic tasks. Even though the machines have increased the productivity of household as an economic unit. They did not decrease the number of hours women works. This is mainly because of the direct care of the children in the family. Men contribute very little to the total amount of domestic work accomplished. Two thirds of the husbands are reported to do no household work at all.
- Second those influenced by the Women Liberation Movement reported the younger men and women with more education, wives with better educated husbands and those who held jobs for many years have moved toward more egalitarian sex attitudes. As a result, husbands increased their participation by only a small amount. The most important change is that the wives reduced the number of hours they devote to various tasks in the family.
Conclusion : THE Feminist movements , the family is becoming more the private holding of its members than a collective possession of many relatives. The family has become more socialist than autocratic. The relationship between the husband and wife has become one which is based on choice, instead of based on traditional static customs, the training is now based on more on mutual attraction and mutual happiness. Modern family is against the dominance of any one and it is based on self-reliance. Husband-wife relation has became self styled. Capitalism in the economic field, liberalism in the ideological domain, and the principle of equality in the social and political systems have become the anchor sheets of the urban family. The modem family is itself not static. It is still in the process of change into a new direction.