Last Updated on July 20, 2025 by Karl Thompson
Feminism is a major theoretical perspective within sociology and feminist theory has contributed significantly to our understanding of gender inequalities.
This page acts as a hub. From here, you can explore several different types of feminism. You can also learn about some key concepts of feminist theory. These include patriarchy, the public-private divide, and intersectionality.
In A level sociology Feminist theory is usually split into three main categories: Liberal, Marxist and Radical feminism. Students also usually study difference or postmodern feminism. Another useful distinction is between first, second, third and fourth wave feminism.
This post also provides links to Feminist theory applied to different topic areas within sociology. These include feminist perspectives on the family, religion, and crime and deviance.
The study of gender inequalities is central to Feminism. This post also provides links to more general material on gender inequalities in contemporary society.
Three Key ideas in Feminist Theory
There are a lot of different types of feminism, but there are three key ideas which practically all Feminists share in common. (Really just two, given that point three is contested).
- Inequality between men and women is the most significant form of inequality – Anthropological evidence demonstrates that inequalities between men and women exist in every single society in human history, and in most of these societies women have an inferior social status to men. Feminism exists to rectify the Systematic injustices that women experience because of their sex
- Gender norms are socially constructed – They are not determined by biology and thus gender norms can be changed. Feminism criticises the discrimination experienced by women based on their gender. Some of the social norms associated with being a “women” result in discrimination against females, such as their ‘natural’ role as mothers in families. Note, boys also learn gender norms e.g. assertiveness, confidence etc, which advantage them and encourage some of them to believe that men have the right to control women.
- A critique of Patriarchy was one of the founding ideas of Feminism…. ‘Patriarchy refers to a society in which there are unequal power relations between women and men whereby women are systematically disadvantaged and oppressed’ (London Feminist Network).
Introductory posts on Feminism
An introduction to sex, gender and gender identity – these concepts are fundamental to all Feminist theory. They key shared idea is that gender is socially constructed. Sex does not determine gender or gender identity.
Different types of Feminism and Feminist theory
As well as being a theory, Feminism is also a political movement. Feminists emphasise the importance of political activism in order challenge gender inequalities. Feminism exists to rectify the Systematic injustices that women experience because of their sex. There is a lot of disagreement within Feminism over how to achieve this – strategies vary from doing research to highlight the extent of gender inequality, to having consciousness raising sessions with groups of women and men, to working with governments to create social policies, to more radical strategies such as political lesbianism.
An introduction to Liberal, Marxist and Radical Feminism – Liberal, Radical and Marxist and Feminism are the three main types of feminism, with different explanations for sex and gender inequalities and related strategies for social change
Feminist Theory for A Level Sociology – A levelsociology revision notes covering liberal, radical marxist and difference Feminisms and a brief overview of how Feminist theory applies to different topic areas with A level sociology.
Postmodern Feminism – takes a radical social constructionist approach to understanding sex and gender. Both sex and gender are fluid and we shouldn’t think in terms of just male-female. Explores the key works of various posttmodern Feminists such as Judith Butler.
First, second and third wave Feminism – coming August 2025
Fourth wave feminism – coming July 2025.
Specific Feminist Theories
Sylvia Walby – Six Structures of Patriarchy – Walby argued that there were six areas of social life in which women were still oppressed such as paid work and the media – this post explores her ideas and uses a range of contemporary evidence to evaluate her views.
Bell Hooks: Intersectionality and Second Wave Feminism – a more in-depth look at the work of Bell Hooks, who challenged all of patriarchy, capitalism and racism.
Judith Butler: Gender and Performativity – gender is not fixed, but traditional gender norms are reinforced when the majority of people keep ‘doing gender’ in the same way. We can challenge dominant gender norms by performing gender in subversive ways.
Feminist theory applied to families, crime and other topics…
Feminist Theory is a criticism of Previous Sociological Explanations Gender inequality. Feminist theory arose as a reaction to the sexist, biological explanations for gender inequalities such as those of Talcott Parsons. Feminism actually sees sociology itself as sexist as all previous theories: Functionalism, Marxism and Interactionism have failed to adequately explain gender differences in modern society. Feminism is a huge body of theory. Below it is simplified into four main perspectives: Radical Feminism, Marxist Feminism, Liberal Feminism and Difference Feminism
Feminism and Malestream sociology – an overview of how Feminism has criticise sociology for being male biased.
Feminist perspectives on the family – detailed class notes covering liberal, Marxist and radical feminist perspectives on the role of the nuclear family in society. Liberal feminists have a march of progress view of family life’. The radical feminist view emphasises the ways in which the traditional nuclear family perpetuates patriarchy and the ‘dark side of family life’. Marxist Feminists emphasise how the traditional nuclear family performs functions for capitalism, at the expense of women.
Radical Feminist perspectives on religion – summary revision notes covering Simone de Beauviour and Nawal El Saadawi among other fave rad fems.
Feminist Perspectives on Crime and Deviance – Summaries and Evaluations of Heidensohn’s Control Theory, Pat Carlen’s Gender Deal, Zimmerman’s Doing Gender and a brief look at intersectionality.
Exploring Feminist Concepts
What is Patriarchy? Patriarchy is one of the main causes of female disadvantage
Gender inequalities in contemporary society
Gender inequalities in the United Kingdom –
Signposting
Feminism is just one of several key sociological theories that help us understand how society works. To compare it with other perspectives like Functionalism, Marxism, and Postmodernism, check out the main sociological theories overview.
To explore more topics across the A-level sociology specification, please visit my A-level Sociology homepage where you’ll find resources on education, families, crime, theory, methods and more.