6.Critically evaluate the contribution of different feminist Essay

6.Critically evaluate the contribution of different feminist approaches to the discipline of Sociology - Essay Example usually emphasize on the ‘male domination of society’ (Kirby, 2000, p.90) trying to explain the causes for various social phenomena; the above method of explaining the development of social facts leads to the justification of certain social facts and the ignorance of others; it is mentioned, for instance, by Kirby (2000) that feminist approaches are used in order to explain the abuse of women by men but there is no reference to the opposite phenomenon. Despite their weaknesses, the feminist approaches have contributed to the development of sociology but this contribution has different aspects and consequences in the context explained below. Feminist perspectives in sociology are likely to have a specific theoretical form; this form is usually depended on the social theory on which these perspectives are based; the above fact is made clear in the study of Rege (2003) where it is noted that ‘a popular method of categorizing feminist theory has been the hyphenated approach: liberal, radical, Marxist, socialist, postmodern and black feminisms’ (Rege, 2003, p.51The development of feminist approaches in sociology has led to severe conflicts among researchers that study the specific field; more specifically, it has been supported that the existence of feminist approaches implies that in sociology there are also ‘masculine’ approaches (Hage, 1994, p.140); this fact leads to the assumption that social theories are not based on the observation and objective interpretation of social phenomena but they are likely to be influenced by the gender of the sociologist involved. This assumption could lead to the decrease of quality and validity of social theories. The above view would also imply that theories that are quite known and which are not characterized as based on a feminist approach of social phenomena, for instance the positivism, cannot be used in order to explain social conditions or actions that are related to women – for example the role of the women in