Notes · PoliticsUK · A-Levels

An Optional Political Idea

Beyond the three core ideologies, students study one further idea, chosen from anarchism, ecologism, feminism, multiculturalism and nationalism; this note develops feminism as the exemplar, and its framework (core ideas, strands, key thinkers) applies equally to the alternatives. It examines feminism's core ideas - the sex/gender distinction, patriarchy and 'the personal is political' - its strands and key thinkers, and the tensions within it.

5 sections~24 min reading time3 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 1 · Advanced 3

T·121212 / 18

Exam profile

AO1 · Demonstrate knowledge of the core ideas, strands and key thinkers of the chosen optional idea (feminism)AO2 · Analyse how the core ideas interconnect and where the strands and thinkers divergeAO3 · Evaluate the tensions within the idea using named thinkers, reaching a substantiated judgement

Operators:explain and analyseevaluateto what extentanalyse and evaluate this statementexamine

basic level

AS-Level expects the core ideas of the chosen optional idea and its main strands.

higher level

The full A-Level requires the prescribed key thinkers and sustained evaluation of the tensions within the idea, reaching a judgement.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

An Optional Political Idea

The optional idea and the study of feminism#

FoundationAQA 7152/3: Political ideas - one further ideaDfE GCE Politics subject content

The optional political ideas

Fig. 1Students study one optional idea from five; this note develops feminism, and the same framework applies to the alternatives.

In addition to the three core ideologies, the specification requires the study of ONE further political idea, chosen from anarchism, ecologism, feminism, multiculturalism and nationalism. Each is studied in the same way as the core ideologies - through its core ideas, its internal strands, and the ideas of prescribed key thinkers - and each is assessed with the same distinctive named-thinker requirement. This note develops FEMINISM as the exemplar, both because it is widely taught and because it illustrates the analytical approach especially clearly; students studying a different optional idea should apply exactly the same method (core ideas, strands, thinkers, internal tensions) to their chosen idea.

Feminism is best understood not as a single doctrine but as a diverse movement and body of thought united by two basic commitments: first, the recognition that women have been, and are, disadvantaged and subordinated because of their sex or gender; and second, the desire to overcome that subordination and achieve the liberation or emancipation of women. Beyond these shared starting points, feminists disagree profoundly about the causes of women's subordination, its remedy, and even what 'liberation' means - which is why feminism, like the core ideologies, is a family of strands in genuine tension, and why the analytical framework of core ideas, strands and thinkers applies so well.

Feminism has developed in historical 'waves', which provides useful context. The 'first wave' (broadly the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) focused on formal, legal equality - above all the campaign for the vote (suffrage) and for equal legal and property rights. The 'second wave' (from the 1960s) broadened the focus beyond formal equality to the deeper structures of women's oppression in the family, sexuality, culture and the economy - capturing the idea that legal equality alone had not liberated women. Later developments (sometimes called a 'third wave' and after) have emphasised diversity among women, difference, and the intersection of gender with race, class and other identities. These waves map roughly onto the strands of feminist thought.

As a political idea, feminism both draws on and challenges the other ideologies, which is worth grasping at the outset. It has borrowed from liberalism (equal rights, individual autonomy), from socialism (the analysis of oppression and the critique of the existing economic order), and it has developed its own distinctive concepts (patriarchy, the sex/gender distinction, 'the personal is political') that challenge assumptions shared by the mainstream ideologies - above all the assumption that the 'private' sphere of the family and personal life lies outside politics. Understanding feminism therefore both extends and tests the analysis of the core ideologies, and the sections that follow develop its core ideas, its strands, its prescribed thinkers, and the tensions that run through it.

Worked example

What unites feminism despite its diversity

Explain what all strands of feminism share, given their deep internal disagreements.

Recognition of subordination
All feminists recognise that women have been, and are, disadvantaged and subordinated because of their sex or gender.
The goal of liberation
All feminists seek to overcome that subordination and achieve the emancipation or liberation of women.
The disagreements
They differ profoundly on the CAUSE of subordination (law, patriarchy, capitalism), the REMEDY, and even what liberation means.
The implication
Feminism is a family of strands united by a diagnosis (women are subordinated) and a goal (liberation) but divided over explanation and cure.

Result: All strands of feminism share the recognition that women are subordinated because of their sex or gender and the goal of women's liberation, but they diverge on the cause and cure - so feminism is a diverse movement unified by a diagnosis and a goal rather than a single doctrine.

Typical mistakes

Treating feminism as a single unified doctrine rather than a family of strands in genuine tension.
Confining feminism to 'equal rights' - the second-wave and radical strands go far beyond formal legal equality.

Active revision

Explain and analyse three ideas shared by all strands of feminism. (9 marks)

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for politics (Department for Education)

The core ideas of feminism#

StandardAQA 7152/3: Political ideas - one further ideaDfE GCE Politics subject content

The core ideas of feminism

Fig. 2The sex/gender distinction makes subordination changeable; patriarchy names the system; 'the personal is political' locates it in the private sphere - all serving liberation.

The foundational concept of feminist thought is the distinction between sex and gender, which underpins almost everything else. Sex refers to the biological differences between males and females (chromosomes, anatomy, reproductive role) - fixed and universal. Gender refers to the social and cultural construction of 'masculinity' and 'femininity' - the roles, behaviours, expectations and identities that a society attaches to being a man or a woman. The crucial feminist claim is that gender is socially constructed, not biologically determined: the qualities conventionally regarded as 'feminine' (passivity, domesticity, emotionality) are not natural consequences of female biology but are learned through socialisation, and can therefore be changed. Distinguishing sex from gender allows feminists to argue that women's subordination is not natural or inevitable but the product of a changeable social order.

The central analytical concept of feminism is patriarchy - literally 'rule by the father', used by feminists to mean the systematic, pervasive domination of women by men that structures society. Patriarchy is understood as a system of power operating at every level: in the state and the economy, in law and politics, in culture and ideas, and - crucially for radical feminists - in the 'private' sphere of the family, sexuality and personal relationships. The concept allows feminists to see the many particular disadvantages women face not as isolated problems but as expressions of a single, interlocking structure of male power, and the analysis of patriarchy - its nature, its causes and how deeply it reaches - is a major source of the disagreements between the strands.

A third core idea, most strongly associated with radical feminism, is that 'the personal is political'. This challenges the conventional distinction, shared by the mainstream ideologies, between a 'public' sphere of politics, work and the state (regarded as the proper domain of political analysis) and a 'private' sphere of the family, domestic life and personal relationships (regarded as outside politics). Feminists argue that this very distinction serves to hide women's oppression, because much of women's subordination occurs precisely in the 'private' sphere - in the division of domestic labour, in family relationships, in sexuality. By insisting that the personal is political, feminists bring the private sphere into political analysis and argue that women's liberation requires transforming personal and family life, not just public law.

These ideas connect to feminism's central goals and to a key internal debate over equality and difference. Feminism's goal is the liberation or emancipation of women, but strands understand this differently: some seek EQUALITY - that women should have the same rights, opportunities and treatment as men, and that gender differences should be minimised (equality feminism); others emphasise DIFFERENCE - that women are (whether by nature or by their distinct experience) genuinely different from men, and that liberation means valuing and asserting women's distinctive qualities rather than measuring women against a male standard (difference feminism). The core ideas thus form an interlocking structure - the sex/gender distinction makes subordination changeable, patriarchy names the system that produces it, 'the personal is political' locates it in the private as well as the public sphere, and the goal is a liberation understood as either equality or the affirmation of difference - and mastering how these ideas connect is the basis for analysing the strands and evaluating the tensions within feminism.

Worked example

How the sex/gender distinction supports the feminist argument

Explain why the distinction between sex and gender is so important to feminist thought.

Define the two
Sex is the fixed biological difference between male and female; gender is the socially constructed roles and expectations attached to being a man or woman.
The key claim
Feminists argue gender is learned through socialisation, not determined by biology - 'feminine' qualities are taught, not natural.
The consequence
If women's subordinate roles are the product of gender (social construction) rather than sex (biology), they are not natural or inevitable and CAN be changed.
The strategic point
The distinction disarms the anti-feminist claim that women's position reflects natural, unchangeable biological differences.

Result: The sex/gender distinction is foundational because it separates fixed biology (sex) from socially constructed roles (gender), allowing feminists to argue that women's subordination is a changeable product of social construction rather than a natural, inevitable consequence of biology.

Typical mistakes

Confusing sex (biological) with gender (socially constructed) - the distinction is foundational and a frequent discriminator.
Missing that 'the personal is political' challenges the public/private divide that the mainstream ideologies take for granted.

Active revision

Explain and analyse three core ideas of feminism. (9 marks)

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Politics (7152) specification (AQA)

The strands of feminism#

AdvancedAQA 7152/3: Political ideas - one further ideaDfE GCE Politics subject content

The strands and key thinkers of feminism

Fig. 3The strands locate oppression differently - in law (liberal), capitalism (socialist), patriarchy (radical) and the complexity of identity (post-modern/intersectional).

Feminism divides into several strands that differ over the cause of women's subordination and the remedy, and distinguishing them is essential to a strong answer. Liberal feminism, the earliest and most moderate strand, applies the principles of liberalism - individual rights, equality of opportunity, reason - to the position of women. It locates women's subordination chiefly in unjust laws and in the denial of equal rights and opportunities in the PUBLIC sphere (education, work, politics, the law), and seeks reform: the removal of legal and institutional discrimination so that women can compete equally with men. Liberal feminism works within the existing system, is reformist rather than revolutionary, and focuses on formal and equal-opportunity equality - the strand behind the campaigns for the vote, equal pay and anti-discrimination law.

Socialist and Marxist feminism locates the root of women's oppression in the economic system - in capitalism and class - rather than in law or in men as such. On this analysis, women's subordination serves capitalism: the unpaid domestic labour of women in the family reproduces and services the (male) workforce at no cost to employers, women form a 'reserve army of labour' to be drawn in and pushed out of paid work as the economy requires, and the family transmits the values capitalism needs. Because oppression is rooted in the economic structure, socialist feminists argue that women's liberation cannot be achieved by legal reform alone but requires the transformation of the capitalist economy - liberation and class emancipation are intertwined.

Radical feminism locates the root of women's oppression in patriarchy itself - in the systematic domination of women by men - treating this as the fundamental and most basic division in society, deeper than class or law. Its distinctive claims are that patriarchy pervades the 'private' sphere (the family, sexuality, reproduction, personal relationships) as much as the public, that 'the personal is political', and that women's liberation therefore requires a revolution not just in law or economics but in culture, consciousness and personal life. Radical feminists differ among themselves - some emphasise the need to challenge male control of women's bodies and sexuality, some assert and celebrate women's difference from men - but all treat patriarchy as the primary system of oppression to be overthrown.

A further important development is post-modern and difference feminism, together with the intersectional critique, which questions whether there is a single category of 'woman' at all. Difference feminism argues, against equality feminism, that women are genuinely different from men (whether by nature or by their distinct experience) and that liberation means valuing women's distinctive qualities rather than assimilating women to a male norm. Post-modern feminism stresses the diversity of women's identities and experiences and is sceptical of universal claims about 'women' as a group. The intersectional critique - that gender oppression intersects with race, class, sexuality and other axes, so that the experience of, say, a poor black woman cannot be captured by a feminism built around the experience of white, middle-class women - has been especially influential. The strongest answers can set out these strands (liberal, socialist/Marxist, radical, post-modern/difference), explain how each locates the cause of oppression differently (law and opportunity; capitalism; patriarchy; the complexity of identity) and prescribes a different remedy (reform; economic transformation; cultural revolution; recognising difference and intersection), and use the prescribed thinkers to develop the analysis.

Worked example

Contrasting the strands on cause and remedy

Explain how liberal, socialist and radical feminism differ over the cause and remedy of women's oppression.

Liberal
Cause: unjust laws and unequal opportunity in the public sphere. Remedy: reform - equal rights and anti-discrimination law so women compete equally.
Socialist / Marxist
Cause: capitalism, which relies on women's unpaid domestic labour and a reserve army of labour. Remedy: transform the economic system - liberation is bound up with class emancipation.
Radical
Cause: patriarchy itself, pervading the private sphere; 'the personal is political'. Remedy: a revolution in culture, consciousness and personal life, not just law or economics.
The disagreement
The strands locate oppression in different systems (law, capitalism, patriarchy) and so prescribe different, sometimes incompatible, remedies.

Result: Liberal feminism blames unjust laws and prescribes reform, socialist feminism blames capitalism and prescribes economic transformation, and radical feminism blames patriarchy and prescribes a cultural revolution - so the strands disagree fundamentally about both the cause and the cure of women's oppression, a division a top answer develops with named thinkers.

Typical mistakes

Treating all feminism as 'radical' or as 'equal rights' - the strands differ fundamentally over cause (law, capitalism, patriarchy) and remedy.
Ignoring the intersectional critique and difference feminism, which challenge the idea of a single category of 'woman'.

Active revision

'The strands of feminism disagree fundamentally about the cause of women's oppression.' Analyse and evaluate this statement with reference to key thinkers. (25 marks)

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for politics (Department for Education)

Key feminist thinkers#

AdvancedAQA 7152/3: Political ideas - one further ideaDfE GCE Politics subject content

Key feminist thinkers and their ideas

Fig. 4Each prescribed thinker contributes a distinctive idea, from economic dependence (Gilman) to intersectionality (hooks).

The named-thinker requirement is as central to the optional idea as to the core ideologies, so a strong answer commands the prescribed feminist thinkers and their distinctive ideas. Charlotte Perkins Gilman argued, in Women and Economics, that women's subordination was rooted in their economic dependence on men - the 'sexuo-economic' relationship in which women depended on men for their livelihood - and that this dependence, together with the socialisation of girls into domestic roles, produced and perpetuated female inferiority. Her remedy was women's economic independence and the reorganisation of domestic and childcare work so that women could participate fully in the economy - an analysis that emphasises how gender roles are socially and economically constructed rather than natural, bridging liberal and socialist concerns.

Simone de Beauvoir provided one of feminism's most influential philosophical foundations. In The Second Sex she argued that 'one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman' - that femininity is not a natural essence but something socially constructed and imposed - and that throughout history man has been treated as the norm, the essential 'Subject', while woman has been defined as 'the Other', the deviation from the male standard. Woman's subordination, on this existentialist analysis, lies in being denied the full status of a free, self-defining subject and being confined to immanence and the role assigned to her. De Beauvoir's insistence that gender is made, not born, and her analysis of woman as 'the Other' were foundational for the second wave and for radical feminism.

Kate Millett gave radical feminism its central analysis of patriarchy. In Sexual Politics she argued that patriarchy is pervasive and political - that the relationship between the sexes is a political relationship of power ('sexual politics'), that patriarchy is sustained above all through the family and the socialisation of children into gender roles, and that it operates in the personal and cultural sphere as much as in law and the economy. Her work is a classic statement of the radical-feminist claims that 'the personal is political' and that women's liberation requires a transformation of consciousness and culture, not merely legal reform. Sheila Rowbotham developed socialist/Marxist feminism, analysing how patriarchy and capitalism are interwoven - how women's oppression is bound up with their role in the family under capitalism and with the reproduction of labour - and arguing that liberation requires challenging both the economic system and patriarchal relations together, in a movement linking feminism and socialism.

bell hooks brought the intersectional critique to the fore and reshaped feminist thought. In Ain't I a Woman and later works she argued that mainstream feminism had been built around the experience of white, middle-class women and had marginalised the experience of black and working-class women, whose oppression cannot be understood through gender alone. Her key contribution is the insistence that gender oppression is inseparable from race and class - that these axes of oppression INTERSECT - so that feminism must be understood as a movement to end sexist oppression in all its intersecting forms, for ALL women, rather than as the pursuit of equality with men by a privileged group of women. A strong answer deploys these thinkers precisely - Gilman on economic dependence, de Beauvoir on woman as 'the Other', Millett on patriarchy and sexual politics, Rowbotham on capitalism and patriarchy, hooks on intersectionality - and uses them to analyse the core ideas and the strands, since arguing with the named thinkers rather than in the abstract is the single most important skill in an optional-idea essay.

Worked example

Using de Beauvoir and hooks in an essay

Explain how de Beauvoir and bell hooks each advance the analysis of women's oppression, and how they differ.

de Beauvoir
Woman is defined as 'the Other' against a male norm, and 'one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman' - gender is socially constructed and women are denied full subjecthood.
hooks
Mainstream feminism centred white, middle-class women; gender oppression intersects with race and class, so feminism must address all intersecting oppressions.
The advance each makes
de Beauvoir grounds the claim that gender is made, not born; hooks broadens feminism to the diversity of women and the intersection of oppressions.
The difference
de Beauvoir tends towards a universal category of 'woman'; hooks challenges that universalism, insisting the experience of 'woman' varies by race and class.

Result: de Beauvoir establishes that gender is socially constructed and that woman is defined as 'the Other', while hooks challenges the universal category of 'woman' by showing gender oppression intersects with race and class - so together they show feminism's development from a foundational analysis of gender to an intersectional account of diverse women's oppression.

Typical mistakes

Writing about feminism in the abstract without the prescribed named thinkers - the most common reason optional-idea answers underperform.
Misattributing ideas - keep de Beauvoir ('the Other'), Millett (patriarchy/sexual politics), Rowbotham (socialist feminism) and hooks (intersectionality) distinct.

Active revision

Explain and analyse three feminist thinkers' contributions to the understanding of women's oppression. (9 marks)

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Politics (7152) specification (AQA)

Tensions within feminism and its relation to other ideologies#

AdvancedAQA 7152/3: Political ideas - one further ideaDfE GCE Politics subject content

Liberal versus radical feminism

Fig. 5Both recognise women's subordination and seek liberation; they divide over the cause (law vs patriarchy) and the remedy (reform vs revolution).

The evaluative essays require candidates to analyse the tensions WITHIN feminism, and there are several deep fault-lines that a strong answer can develop with named thinkers. The first is the debate between EQUALITY and DIFFERENCE. Equality feminists (in the liberal tradition, and much socialist feminism) hold that women should have the same rights, opportunities and treatment as men and that gender differences should be minimised; difference feminists hold that women are genuinely different from men - whether by nature or by distinct experience - and that liberation means valuing women's distinctive qualities rather than assimilating women to a male standard. This tension runs deep, because equality feminism can be accused of accepting a male norm, while difference feminism can be accused of reinforcing the very stereotypes (women as caring, nurturing, distinct) that were used to subordinate women.

A second fault-line concerns REFORM versus REVOLUTION - the same means-debate that divides socialism. Liberal feminism is reformist, working within the existing legal and political system to remove discrimination and secure equal rights and opportunities; radical and socialist feminism regard reform as insufficient, arguing that women's oppression is rooted in structures - patriarchy, capitalism - so deep that legal equality leaves the real sources of subordination untouched, and that liberation requires a transformation of culture, consciousness or the economic system. Critics of liberal feminism argue it merely admits some women to a fundamentally unequal system; critics of the radical and socialist strands argue that their revolutionary aims are unrealistic and that legal reform has delivered real, tangible gains for women.

A third fault-line concerns the PUBLIC/PRIVATE divide and the question of essentialism. Radical feminism's insistence that 'the personal is political' - that the private sphere of family and sexuality is a key site of oppression - divides it from liberal feminism, which has traditionally focused on the public sphere and been more cautious about state intrusion into private life. And the intersectional and post-modern critique challenges ALL the older strands by questioning whether there is a single category of 'woman' with shared interests at all: hooks's insistence that gender oppression intersects with race and class implies that a feminism built around the experience of one group of women (typically white and middle-class) cannot speak for all, fragmenting the movement's claim to a common sisterhood. These tensions - equality vs difference, reform vs revolution, the public/private divide, and the challenge of intersectionality - are the material for the higher-level evaluative essays.

Feminism's relation to the other ideologies, and a final judgement on its coherence, complete the topic. Feminism both draws on and challenges the mainstream ideologies: liberal feminism extends liberalism's individualism and equal rights to women; socialist feminism extends the socialist critique of capitalism to gender; radical feminism develops a distinctive analysis (patriarchy, the personal is political) that challenges assumptions shared across the ideological spectrum, above all the public/private divide. Evaluating feminism means asking whether, given these deep internal tensions, it is a coherent single ideology or a set of quite different positions loosely united by a concern for women - and a defensible judgement is that feminism is best understood, like the core ideologies, as a family of strands genuinely divided over cause, remedy and even the meaning of liberation, but united by the shared recognition of women's subordination and the goal of emancipation. The strongest answers argue this with the named thinkers - deploying, for example, liberal against radical feminism on reform versus revolution, or hooks's intersectionality against the idea of a universal 'woman' - reaching a clear judgement rather than merely listing the strands.

Worked example

Model essay plan: is feminism too divided to be one ideology?

Plan a 25-mark answer evaluating whether feminism is too internally divided to be a single ideology, using key thinkers.

Introduction and thesis
Note feminism's diversity; signal a judgement - it is a family of divided strands united by a shared diagnosis and goal, like the core ideologies. Name the thinkers.
The divisions
Equality vs difference; reform vs revolution (liberal Friedan vs radical Millett); the public/private divide; the intersectional challenge (hooks) to a universal 'woman'.
The unifying commitments
All strands recognise women's subordination because of sex/gender and seek liberation - a shared diagnosis and goal, and shared concepts (the sex/gender distinction).
Compare to the core ideologies
Liberalism, conservatism and socialism are equally divided into strands yet count as ideologies - so internal division does not disqualify feminism.
Judgement
Conclude that feminism is a genuine ideology in the same sense as the core three - a family of strands divided over cause and remedy but united by the recognition of women's subordination and the goal of emancipation.

Result: A top-band plan sets the deep divisions (equality/difference, reform/revolution, intersectionality) against the shared diagnosis and goal, argues with named thinkers (Friedan, Millett, hooks), and judges that feminism - like the core ideologies - is a coherent ideology precisely as a family of strands in tension, united by the recognition of women's subordination and the goal of liberation.

Typical mistakes

Presenting feminism as internally united, ignoring the deep tensions over equality/difference, reform/revolution and intersectionality.
Failing to argue the tensions with named thinkers, or to reach a judgement on feminism's coherence.

Active revision

'Feminism is too internally divided to be a single ideology.' Analyse and evaluate this statement with reference to key thinkers. (25 marks)

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for politics (Department for Education)

References & sources

Sources

Department for Education

GCE AS and A level subject content for politics

AQA

AQA AS and A-level Politics (7152) specification

An Optional Political Idea

5 sections~24 min reading time3 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 1 · Advanced 3

An Optional Political Idea

Key points

What unites feminism despite its diversity

Key points

How the sex/gender distinction supports the feminist argument

Key points

Contrasting the strands on cause and remedy

Key points

Using de Beauvoir and hooks in an essay

Key points

Model essay plan: is feminism too divided to be one ideology?

Sources

An Optional Political Idea

Key points

What unites feminism despite its diversity

Key points

How the sex/gender distinction supports the feminist argument

Key points

Contrasting the strands on cause and remedy

Key points

Using de Beauvoir and hooks in an essay

Key points

Model essay plan: is feminism too divided to be one ideology?

Sources