Feminism and Social issues.
While the psychology of women's health does not inevitably require a feminist approach, the socio-cultural perspective does lend itself to a mote political analysis than is usual in psychological work, and thus it is useful to discuss the range of views, encompassed by term feminism, which underlie the research and scholarship reviewed.
Three major types of feminism are usually distinguished (e.g. Riger, 1992), although these perspectives often overlap in practice. Liberal feminism, firstly is based on the assumption that sexism and inequity are perpetuating, because each successive generation is exposed to the changeable through strategies which raise people's awareness of social inequities. Change, according to this perspective, requires the promotion at an individual level of liberal values such as tolerance and respect for diversity, and the identification and modification of legislation, socialization practices and social institutions which cause specific inequities, The perspective sees social institutions as essentially being and egalitarian, changes to the detail of cultural institutions and customs.
Radical feminism, by contrast, takes as its foundation the view that power inequities between men and women are not accidental , but inherent in the structure of human society. This position holds that the dominant cultural discourses of patriarchal societies position men as naturally superior to women. Social institutions, including law, government, education, employment and childcare systems, militate against women's freedom to live as they choose and to participate i society as the equals of men. By extension, radical feminism holds that changes to sex based inequities will not result from the promotion of libera or tolerant attitudes or from changes to the structure of socitey and the assumptions which underlie social organization.
