Radical Feminist Theory

Arnot (2002) points out that by the late 1970s feminist critics of education were content that liberal approaches would not suffice for social equality. There was a need for a more radical approach to reveal the roots of patriarchy and they turned to radical feminism. By using the motto ‘personal is political’ radical feminists politicized gender relationships in all domains and revealed the power relationships related to sex. Early radical feminists of the 1960s contend that women’s oppression is universal and constitutes the base for other types of oppression.

Radical feminist pedagogy encourages teachers to give women’s experiences the place they deserve in the curriculum. They consider the education system as male oriented and thus alienating women to their own experience and demand that the achievements and contributions of women be included in the curriculum (Middleton, 1993).

A radical feminist teacher aims at the integration of the students to collective action by women since radical feminism aims at transformation of the society and asserts that the knowledge of women, which they gained through oppression, will be the basis of transformation. This tenet of radical feminism goes in line with Freire’s belief that the society will be transformed by the oppressed through the self-awareness they gain via education.

A classroom organized according to the tenets of radical feminist pedagogy is modeled on the women’s consciousness raising groups of the 1970s. The affective processes are valued nearly equal to the cognitive processes and the atmosphere is as nonhierarchical as possible.  As Enns and Sinacore (2005) point out, patriarchal ways of thinking result in a polarized model of the world, in which men and women are considered the opposites of each other. This model of thinking creates two different worlds for women and men and values one over the other. In the radical feminist classroom these binary opposites are integrated by valuing both of them. Thinking is not positioned against feeling in such a classroom, just like feminine is not positioned against masculine. This way the students are expected to transcend the binary oppositions.

Unlike a liberal feminist educator, a radical feminist teacher might argue that women only classrooms and female educators are more beneficial for girls. The underlying assumption is that, at the presence of males the females might not be able to reveal the unconscious ways they reproduce patriarchal values.

Since radical feminism has an emphasis on male control over women’s bodies, radical feminist pedagogy problematizes sexual harassment and rape in educational settings. Sexual violence is used as a control mechanism by males so fighting against it is part of their policy. Gender and Women’s Studies Departments at universities can be taken as an achievement of this strand. Backed by the strong women’s movement, feminists established these departments to empower women and challenge the sexism in the academia.

They were criticized for taking women as a homogeneous category and the ways of subordination of women similar to each other. In their analysis of patriarchy they did not involve economic issues. This gap was to be filled by the socialist feminists.