Do lesbian feminists define and organize their households differently than the heterosexual population? The traditional American kinship system is based on a hierarchical duel-gender system. Lesbian feminism is based on an egalitarian single-gender system.
Lesbian feminism as a household pattern differs from the normative nuclear family in two ways: household composition (single-gender as opposed to duel-gender) and ideology (egalitarian as opposed to hierarchical).
Lesbian feminism is the daughter of two related social movement, the lesbian/gay rights and the feminist movements. In the 1960s lesbians and gay men began to suggest (among other things) that homosexuality is not a psychological pathology but an alternate form of sexual expression upon which viable relationships can be formed.
Feminists argued that the nuclear family's gender-differentiated roles, and the belief in gender asymmetry are not naturally determined but socially constructed and that the female role exploits women.
Feminists advocated (among other things) the abolition of traditional gender roles within the family and the establishment of households of people with a gender egalitarian ideal. This was the belief that adult household members, regardless of gender, should equally share domestic labor, financial support of the household, and childcare.
Over the past four decades the combination of these two movements has resulted in the growth of a distinctive lesbian feminist identity, self-conscious lesbian feminist communities, and egalitarian households which have helped to normalize these values and this life style within the larger heterosexual society.
The lesbian feminist model has has a significant changing effect on the ideology of traditional heterosexual household and relationships. They are currently much more egalitarian in nature. This makes the lesbian feminist identity stronger than it used to be.
The slow changes that have taken place in our society have brought lesbian feminists and heterosexual households closer together in ideology and organization. Today we would define their differently-gendered living arrangements and systems as much more similar in ideology and functioning in an egalitarian way. The identities of both have taken on the qualities of feminism in spite of the differences in gender.
