Criticisms Of Althusser: Liberal Feminist

Criticisms of Althusser

Althusser ignores the active struggles of the working class which can change society. There are also criticisms that he assumes that the communist party knows what is best and that workers should blindly follow the policies. In his satirical book based on the Russian Revolution “Animal Farm”, George Orwell shows how the Russians overthrew one elite group, only to replace them with another. JK Galbraith comments that Marxists ignore the point which Karl Marx made; that the state apparatus and rule by dictatorship of the proletariat as being a necessity in the short run but not in the long run. His criticisms is not so much about Karl Marx as the way that people calling themselves Marxists have misused his name to introduce

They reject the ideas that biological differences will make women less competent in some jobs or professions or the other stereotype that men are less emotional, have less empathy and are therefore less able to nurture children or other people who need caring, including the elderly. Liberal Feminists would distinguish between sex and gender. By sex they mean biological differences such as the ability to reproduce as well as hormonal and physical characteristics. Gender differences are socially constructed with differences between the male roles originally as ‘hunter-gatherer’ but later as the breadwinner, whereas females have the carer role and will look after children or other vulnerable members of the family. Liberal Feminists would argue that whilst sex differences are fixed, gender differences both vary over time and between cultures. Liberal Feminists will note how occupations which were the preserve of men have been changed, sometimes because of external influences such as the First and Second World Wars when women carried out a wider number of roles than they had previously

They will see that there has been some political progress with Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) becoming the first woman Prime Minister of the UK in 1979, the increasing number of female MP’s following the 1997 general election, and Theresa May (b 1956) becoming Prime Minister in 2016. They would assume that changes are transmitted through socialisation processes so that Feminists must seek to change these patterns. They will seek to overcome prejudices in both directions so that there is no reason why men should not become nurses or women become physicists. In 2016 they would wish to overcome the glass ceiling where the number of women appointed to be directors of the largest 100 firms (the FTSE 100) is still small. Liberal Feminists would also look at what was happening across different cultures so that in India there has been a female Prime Minister and similarly there has been a female President in Pakistan. Liberal Feminists would argue that men are capable of performing instrumental and expressive roles and would aim to break down the barriers which prevent greater equality. Liberal Feminism is closest to a consensus theory because it recognises that there are conflicts between the genders but doesn’t see this as inevitable, only as a result of outdated attitudes.

Evaluation of Liberal Feminism

Some people would suggest that the Liberal Feminist view