The notion of sexism is a very recent idea in our society. The idea that men were superior to and different from women was so deeply integrated into much thinking that most people never thought to question it. Throughout the history of ideas, female inferiority has been seen as the natural order of things. This is where feminism comes into place... feminism is the view which examines the world from the viewpoint of women, hence this 'traditional' view that men dominate women is challenged by feminists, as feminism believes that women are disadvantaged relative to men and that female interests are ignored or devalued by society. Feminism is therefore the movement which essentially campaigns for equality for women in society; examples of feminist groups which have campaigned for equal rights are the suffragettes and suffragists who protested for the right to vote for women in the 20th century. As Paula Trelchler herself put it... feminism is the radical notion that women are people.

Liberal feminist Gavron suggested that women are trapped by the traditional roles within the family and that they should have more choice with regards to marriage and family life. Oakly further argued that the mother housewife role has been responsible for the subordination of women in the workforce. Female professional workers are three times less likely to be married than their fellow male workers. Oakly criticized Young and Wilmott, who in their 1972 study suggested that men were doing more in the home, however, in her book 'the sociology of housework', 1974, Oakly opposed this, arguing that males work in the home does not compare to that of women. She further argued that policies such as banning children from working in factories and the 1842 Mining Act pushed women into the home, as prior to this, females went out to work, thus leading to women playing the housewife and domestic