Why Is Radical Feminism Is Wrong

‘Radical feminist theology is inspirational but wrong’

Some would argue that radical feminism was inspirational and it was not wrong as it was necessary in order to achieve equality for women. Harriet Taylor forcefully set out the arguments in Enfranchisement of Women for the right to vote and also for ‘equality in all rights, political, civil and social, with the male citizens of the community’. She argued that true partnership between men and women would also mean equal pay and financial independence. First wave or liberal feminists in recent years have brought about social reform such as state-funded childcare, flexible working hours, and maternity leave for women. Many would say that her forceful way, is the only way to get the discussion of equality going properly.
Women of the second wave feminism realised that they need to change the mind set of men and women.
There needed to be a change in attitude in order to get rid of the male-dominance in the world. Someone who believed In this was Betty Friedan. She found out that women who were at home were bored and frustrated. She wrote about this in a book she made. Again, many people would say that this was necessary in order to get equality, as her forceful approach made other women realise that many women were feeling bored and frustrated and that they weren’t abnormal.

Simone de Beauvoir is someone who In the late twentieth century, was instrumental in changing the way women think about themselves as inferior to men and changed it to one of where they feel equal and just as capable as men. This is something that was very important and yet again shows that radical feminism was necessary as clearly women needed to get out of the brainwash that they were inferior and this seemed to be the only way to do it. Beauvoir said that women with this mind-set will never be able to live fully authentic, liberated and fulfilled
lives.

One of the most controversial debates between feminists and non-feminists alike is the significance of biological sex and gender. There are two types of views, the existentialist view and the essentialist view. The existentialist view is that biological sex is of little significance and that gender characteristics are the product of nurture through culture and upbringing. This therefore means that we cannot call someone male or female based on what they are born like. Therefore many would argue that this means that men cannot be superior to women as we cannot just judge ourselves based on things we are born with.

The essentialist view is that there are different characteristics between men and women. Therefore, they are better than each other at certain things, for example, men tend to be stronger than women. Therefore, they may disagree with whole view of feminism completely, or they just believe that women and men should be equal but in different roles.

Some would argue that radical feminists are inspiration but wrong, this is because they may believe that it is possible to handle certain situations in a less radical approach, or because they may feel like some feminists seem to be trying to not only get equality but in fact bring about the dominance of women over men.

To conclude, I believe that radical feminism is inspirational and necessary as it is the only way for women to fully get their views across, men would not listen if women weren’t so forceful, clearly the radical feminist approach has worked in getting more women to recognise that they need to fight for equality as seen in the example of Beauvoir.