Mary Beth McLendon

Chapter 4: 130-153

Psychoanalytic and gender feminists explain women's behavior as a product of women's ways of thinking. They examine early childhood experiences for reasons behind gender inequality and the perception that society regards masculinity as better than femininity. Gender feminists think that biological factors also influence men's masculinity and women's femininity.

Sigmund Freud is a major influence on psychoanalytic feminism because of his theories about sexual development and the subsequent effect of events on the human psyche. He argues that the process of sexual maturation produces ideas about masculinity and femininity and that if a person does not progress through all the stages of sexual maturation, that person will not be fully psychologically developed. One of the most important stages of sexual maturation for Freud is the resolution of the Oedipus and castration complexes.

Feminists in the 1970's reacted to Freud by rejecting his emphasis on female biology as the cause of women's social position and instead suggested that women's social position is the product of a social construction of femininity.

Feminist psychoanalysts argue that gender identity, gender behavior, and sexual orientation result from social values. A. Adler discusses the idea of infant powerlessness and claims that women become neurotic because their creative efforts are thwarted by patriarchal culture. K. Horney suggests that women feel inferior because they realize that they are subordinate to men in society. C. Thompson agrees with Horney and purports that society must change legal, political, economic, and social structures to address the issue of women feeling inferior.

D. Dinnerstein and N. Chodorow advocate dual parenting as the solution to women's subordination. Dinnerstein claims that men feel a need to control women and women feel a need to be controlled by men because women do most of the mothering/parenting and so women are associated with a power that must be rejected in order for the child to be an independent individual. Chodorow suggests that males see themselves as physically unlike their mothers and so they are better prepared to be detached and successful in the business world. Critics have a problem with the dual parenting emphasis on psychological rather than social influences.

J. Mitchell argues that the Oedipus complex and the incest taboo historically served to create human society and separates people from animals; men exchanged women as this has created patriarchal society. Critics argue that she does not adequately explain why it is women who are exchanged and not men.