Core Ideas and Principles of Feminism

Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.

• identifies reason one, e.g. the private sphere is where women's oppression is most entrenched.1 mark
• develops it, e.g. matters such as domestic labour, marital rape and childcare were historically treated as outside politics and therefore beyond legal challenge.1 mark
• analyses the significance, e.g. if the private sphere is exempt from political scrutiny, patriarchy within the family can never be directly challenged by public policy.1 mark
• identifies reason two, e.g. keeping the private sphere 'non-political' has historically excluded women from full participation in the public sphere.1 mark
• develops it, e.g. responsibility for unpaid domestic and caring work limited women's time and opportunity to engage in paid work, education and politics.1 mark
• analyses the significance, e.g. this created a cycle in which private-sphere burdens produced public-sphere disadvantage, which then reinforced the idea that public life was a male domain.1 mark
• links both reasons together, e.g. both show that treating the private sphere as apolitical protects patriarchy rather than describing a genuinely separate, non-political space.1 mark
• uses accurate feminist terminology throughout (patriarchy, public/private divide, gender roles).1 mark
• reaches a supported closing point on why collapsing the divide matters for feminist strategy, e.g. it justifies the radical feminist claim that 'the personal is political'.1 mark

Nothing ticked yet - 9 available

Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.

• Basic, general assertions about feminism with little accurate use of core vocabulary (patriarchy, sex/gender, public/private divide) and no developed reference to distinct strands.3 marks
• Some accurate explanation of shared feminist principles (e.g. that women are disadvantaged and this is not natural) and some awareness that strands differ, but points are asserted rather than analysed, and evidence is thin or generic.3 marks
• Sustained analysis balancing genuine points of unity (e.g. all strands agree patriarchy exists and that gender is at least partly constructed; all use the sex/gender distinction) against genuine points of division (e.g. liberal feminists see the state as reformable while radical feminists see it as inherently patriarchal; disagreement over whether capitalism or patriarchy is the root cause). Some accurate, specific use of named strands.3 marks
• As Level 3, but with a well-supported, direct judgement on the statement itself (not just a summary), precise and accurate use of named strands and their core claims, and a clear final weighing of unity against division that explains WHY one outweighs the other rather than simply asserting it.3 marks
• Credit for unity: all strands share the diagnosis that women are structurally disadvantaged relative to men; all strands use the sex/gender distinction to reject 'natural' explanations of women's roles; all strands regard patriarchy, in some form, as real.3 marks
• Credit for division: liberal feminists (e.g. arguing in the tradition of Wollstonecraft and Friedan) believe the state and law can be reformed to deliver equality; radical feminists argue the state itself is patriarchal and that the private sphere, not just public rights, must be transformed; socialist feminists locate the root cause in capitalism's need for women's unpaid domestic labour rather than in patriarchy alone; postmodern feminists reject a single, universal account of 'woman' altogether, arguing gender identity is fluid and diverse, which undercuts the idea of one shared 'women's experience'.3 marks
• Credit for a conclusion that identifies the divide over the STATE as the deepest one, since it determines whether feminists pursue reform through existing institutions or reject those institutions as part of the problem.3 marks
• No credit for vague claims that 'all feminists want equality' without specifying what kind of equality (equality of rights versus equality of outcome) or engaging with the divisions the question requires.3 marks

Nothing ticked yet - 24 available