Custom «Feminist and Most Other Sociological Theories» Essay Paper Sample

The feminist theory is an extension of feminism into a philosophical or theoretical discourse with the aim of understanding the nature of inequalities that exist based on gender. It focuses on the social roles as well as lived experiences of women and their feministic politic. The feminist theory's main distinction from other sociology theories is that it is interdisciplinary and woman-centered in addition to actively promoting the ways in which we can achieve social justice. According to Simmel, it is the only theory that assumes that change in the social order is essential in the process of making the woman an equal citizen fully as it recognized that gender relations are fundamental in the organization of the society.

While most social theories define the scope of the theory as well as what is social, for feminists, a major problem is that the social worlds defined by classical theories excludes large portions of the human interaction and action. Most classical theories excluded parts of this social world are typically those occupied by women and/or children with classical theories showing little interests in the institutions such as family, households and community where the experiences of women are often centered. The methodologies developed indicated that subjective reality is the only way in which we can know human behavior.

Feminist theories also diverge from the theoretical models the preceded them by seeing men as being in possession of the most important power in a society. According to Freidan, Pluralist theories conceive power as being widely dispersed across the class system, power elite theories lint political power directly to the upper-class interests, autonomous state theorist perceive the state as being relatively independent of the class interests. The feminist theory initial premise is that to have a sound understanding of power cannot be achieved without first having a strong analysis of gender.