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Radical feminism seeks to redress the power balance between women and men in society. Rather than equalising women and men through legal processes, radical feminists believe that gender inequality must be tackled at a more fundamental level, so that patriarchal barriers are broken down, and women cease to be oppressed as a sex.

The impetus for this type of feminism comes from the perception of society as being ruled by patriarchal structures. Many psychologists and sociologists believe that the way we interact with each other is based around a system of power relationships. One of the most famous of these philosophers is Foucault, who wrote a great deal about the different power relationships we encounter within society.

A radical feminist would recognise the play of power between the genders as being based on male domination that goes back thousands of years, and that persists today through social constructs such as marriage, the media, the role of women in the home, and the inequality of women in the workplace.

Radical feminism may also state that this dominance is perpetuated by social systems which are designed to keep women and non-dominant (for example, homosexual) men in place. Radical feminists also acknowledge that other systems of oppression are also in place, including that of different races, ethnic backgrounds, class, intellectual ability, sexual preference, or perceived attractiveness. These systems tend to place white, middle-class, able men at the top of society, and therefore each in turn perpetuates the patriarchy.

It therefore follows that the only way to reach true equality between everyone in each gender is to break down the patriarchal structures that control society.

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