Feminist movement also focuses on women’s consciousness about their disadvantageous positions that is regarded as the second class citizen, the
purpose is to correct the labeling on women and to restructure the society in order to get the equality in gender. The basic goal of feminist movement is to
correct the misconception of women stereotyping and to get the equality toward men.
b. Values of Feminism
Based on the brief explanation about feminism above, there are three values that are important for feminist struggle to get equality towards men. The
values will be explained below. i. Freedom of choice
According to Zillah Einstein in her book The Sexual Politics of the New Right: Understanding the “Crisis of Liberalism”
liberalism as an ideology
promised certain crucial values, such as individual autonomy, freedom of choice,
equality of opportunity and so on 1982:189. Stanton also supports Einstein ideas that personal freedom is the first right to be proclaimed, and that does not and
cannot now belong to the relation of wife, to the mistress of the isolated home, to the financial dependent Madsen, 2000:40.
ii. Equality Einstein states that liberalism as an ideology promised certain crucial
values, such as individual autonomy, freedom of choice, equality of opportunity
and so on 1982:189. Humm also supports Einstein’s statement that the urgent PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
desire that feminist want: equal rights and also equal opportunities 1992:2. Humm states:
“Liberal feminism aims to achieve equal rights, political and social rights for women. It wishes to bring women equally into all public institutions
and to extend the creation of knowledge so that women’s issue can no longer be ignored 1992:181.
Moreover, Madsen states that liberal emphasis on the individual and
stresses the importance of the individual which are protected by guaranteed rights,
economic justice and equality of opportunity 2000:35.
iii. Woman’s right to be herself Stanton states that the rights of the individual are natural rights which the
individual brings into the world of birth; these rights cannot be taken away because they are constituted of the individual. Women and men are created equal,
therefore women’s rights have to be appreciated as the same with men 2000:39
c. Patriarchy and Its Oppression
According to Madsen, patriarchy is another recurrent term, refers to government by men; patriarchy is a cultural ideological system that privileges
men and all things masculine, and a political system that places power in the hands of men and thus serves male interests at the expense of women 2000:xii.
Feminists argue that the opposite of feminism is not masculinity but patriarchy. Therefore, it is not surprising that the word ‘patriarchy’ has negative association
when used in the context of feminist theory. Humm states that the oppression of women differs too from class and race
because it has not come out of capitalism and imperialism. The sexual division of labor and the oppression of women by men predate capitalism. Patriarchal
authority is based on male control over the woman’s productive capacity and over her person. This control existed before the development of capitalist commodity
production. It was belonged to a society in which the persons of human beings were owned by others. Patriarchy, however, is contradicted by the dominant mode
of production in capitalism because in capitalism the owner of capitalist owns and controls the labor power but not the persons of his laborers 1992:96-97
In Gilman’s view, capitalism and patriarchy work together in the economic and sexual exploitation of women Madsen 2000: 41. As the negative
outcome of patriarchy is oppression. Women constitute the oppressed class in patriarchal society and men constitute the class of oppressors. Gender oppression
is the systematic under patriarchy and not a matter isolated violent and discriminatory incidents. According to Anne Koeidt women’s oppression stem
from men’s sexual power over women which is achieved through actual or threatened physical violence and by psychological inducements such as romance
Humm, 1992:261. Firestone also supports Koeidt ideas on forms of oppressions, she states:
“But sexual oppression is the fundamental and foundational form of oppression in patriarchal society “Madsen, 2000:158.
Firestone also shows how women and children are educated to accept their
place in lower class, a rigidly segregated class modeled upon the sexual class that PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
is ‘woman’ trough the twin mythologies of femininity and childhood. Another form of oppression according to Firestone is love oppression. She concludes that
love and romance are very different for men and for women. men idealize, mystify and glorify the individual women with whom they fall in love in order to
obscure her inferior class status, women, in contrast, pursue the male love and approval that will raise her up from he subordination class position and validate
her existence. In this way, love becomes a political force, a force for unequal power relations Madsen, 2000:159. Or in the other word it could be said that
there are two forms of oppressions, they are physical violence or sexual abuse and psychological inducements or love oppression.
C. Theoretical Framework
