Because patriarchy is a systematic phenomenon, they argue, gender equality can only be attained by overthrowing the patriarchal order. The use of patriarchy as a concept fro explaining gender inequality has been popular with many feminist theorists. In asserting that ‘the personal is political’, radical feminists have drawn wide spread attention to the many linked dimensions of women’s oppression. Their emphasis on male violence and the objectification of women has brought these issues into the heart of mainstream debates about women’s subordination. Many objects can be raised, however, to radical feminist views. The main one, perhaps, is that the concept of patriarchy as it has been used is inadequate as a general explanation of women’s oppression. Radical feminists have tended to claim that patriarchy has existed throughout history and across cultures – that it is a universal phenomenon. Critics argue, however, that such conceptions of patriarchy do not leave room for historical or cultural variations. It also ignores the important influence that race, class or ethnicity may have on the nature of women’s subordination. In other words, it is not possible to see patriarchy as a universal phenomenon; doing so risk biological reductionism – attributing all these complexities of gender inequality to a simple distinction between men and women. Recently, an important reconceptualization of patriarchy has been advanced by Sylvia Walby. Walby argues that the notion of patriarchy remains a valuable and useful explanatory tool, providing that it is used in certain ways.

Black Feminism

Do the versions of feminism outlined above apply equally to the experience of both white and non-white women? Many black feminists, and feminists from developing countries, claim they do not. They argue that ethnic divisions among women are not considered by the main feminist schools of thought, which are oriented to the dilemmas of white, predominantly middle-class women living in industrialized societies. It is not valid, they claim, to generalize theories about women’s subordination as a whole from the experience of a specific group of women. Moreover, the very idea that there is a ‘unified’ form of gender oppression that is experienced equally by all women is problematic. Dissatisfaction with existing forms of feminism led to the emergence of a black feminism which concentrates on the particular problems facing black women. In the foreword to her personal memoirs, American black feminist Bell Hooks argues:

Many feminist thinkers writing and talking about girlhood right now like to suggest that black girls have better self-esteem than their white counterparts. The measurement of this difference is often that black girls are more assertive, speak more, appear more confident. Yet in traditional southern-based black life, it was and is expected of girls to be articulate, to hold ourselves with dignity. Our parents and teacher were always urging us to stand up right and speak clearly. These traits were meant to uplift the race. They were not necessarily traits associated with building female self-esteem. An outspoken girl might still feel that she was worthless because her skin was not light enough or her hair the right texture. These are variables that white researchers often do not consider when they measure the self esteem of black females with a yardstick that was designed based on values emerging from white experience (hooks 1997).            Black feminist writings tend to emphasize history – aspects of the past which inform the current problems facing black women. The writings of American black feminists emphasize the influence of the powerful legacy of slavery, segregation and civil rights movement on gender inequalities in the black community. They point out that early black suffragettes supported the campaign for women’s rights, but realized that the question of race could not be ignored: black women have not been central to the women’s liberation movement in part because ‘womanhood’ dominated their identities much less than concepts of race did. Hooks has argued that explanatory frameworks favored by white feminists – for example, the view of the family as a mainstay of patriarchy – may not be applicable in black communities, where the family represents a main point of solidarity against racism. In other words, the oppression of black women may be found in different locations compared with that of white women. Black feminists contend, therefore, that any theory of gender equality which does not take racism into account cannot be expected to explain black women’s oppression adequately. Class dimensions are another factor which cannot be neglected in the case of many black women. Some black feminists have held that the strength of black feminist theory is its focus on the interplay between race, class and gender concerns. Black women are multiple disadvantaged, they argue, on the basis of their color, their sex and their class position. When these three factors interact, they reinforce and intensify one another (Brewer 1993).