Premium Essay

How and Why Have Feminists Been Critical of the ‘Public/Private’ Divide?

In:

Submitted By ercjp
Words 581
Pages 3
How and why have feminists been critical of the ‘public/private’ divide?
The public/private divide is a particular concern for feminists. The public/private divide is a divide between the public sphere of work and politics usually dominated by men, and the private area of home and family in which typical gender roles are applied. This divide can be said to create the problem of gender inequality, as women are often pushed into being a housewife due to the societal norms; they are heavily discouraged from breaking out into the public sphere and beginning an alternative career. In this way, patriarchy has been created – whilst the women traditionally stay at home, the men are therefore the ones who are earning money and occupying important positions within society. Feminists believe that this gender inequality should be overthrown, although different types of feminists have different views on the subject.
Liberal feminists wish to keep the public and private spheres separate. They do not want to completely remove the divide between the two, because they believe in maintaining a woman's personal freedom of choice between a domestic or public role. Moreover, they believe that men and women do have different natures – women have a natural leaning towards the domestic life and motherhood, rather than the more traditionally male public career. However, liberal feminists do believe that there is a need for reforms in the public sphere, for example equal pay is one of their concerns. If a woman chooses to pursue a career outside of the private sphere, she should not be discriminated against and should receive the same pay as a man in the same position would. Radical Feminists are highly critical of the public/private divide. Unlike liberal feminists, they do believe that the traditional role of women within the private sphere is long outdated and should be abolished.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Feminism

...Foundation Course 1 Human Rights, Gender & Environment Understanding Patriarchy Suranjita Ray• Subordination of women to men is prevalent in large parts of the world. We come across experiences where women are not only treated as subordinate to men but are also subject to discriminations, humiliations, exploitations, oppressions, control and violence. Women experience discrimination and unequal treatment in terms of basic right to food, health care, education, employment, control over productive resources, decision-making and livelihood not because of their biological differences or sex, which is natural but because of their gender differences which is a social construct. “Sex is considered a fact - one is born with either male or female genitalia. Gender is considered a social construction - it grants meaning to the fact of sex. Conversely, it could be said that only after specific meanings came to be attached to the sexes, did sex differences become pertinent” (Geetha, 2002: 10). Gender based discriminations and exploitations are widespread and the socio-culturally defined characteristics, aptitudes, abilities, desires, personality traits, roles, responsibilities and behavioral patterns of men and women contribute to the inequalities and hierarchies in society. Gender differences are man made and they get legitimised in a patriarchal society. This paper attempts to link the theoretical dimensions of patriarchy with its empirical experiences to engage in the ongoing...

Words: 9801 - Pages: 40

Premium Essay

Feminism: Implications of Language in Organisational Theory.

...Theories of work organisation have gone through considerable changes in the last couple of decades. Describe what you believe to be the main changes and evaluate their importance in the changing world of business. (You may choose a particular industry or occupation to illustrate your argument). Introduction to the feminist movement: In an constantly evolving society, theories of work organisations have undergone drastic changes over the past few decades (Tosi 2009). Organisational theory developed from the work of Taylor and Weber (Reed & Ross-Smith 1994) along with the management theory of Mintzberg (Bartram 2005). The application of these concepts needed to change to reflect the desires and expectations of the current working demographic. The ‘highly visible’ (Stanley & Wise 2000) feminist or women’s movements, particularly in developed countries throughout the past century, have allowed women to enjoy substantially increased levels of equality and the ability to enter male-dominated occupations which their predecessors could not. Modern philosophers such as Foucault and de Saussure (Kelemen & Rumens 2008) have been considering one facet of ‘poststructuralism’ (Tosi 2009, p. 263), leading to a new stream of though on the implications of language interpretation. Modern poststructuralist feminists such as McNay and Weedon (as cited in Kelemen & Rumens 2008) have been debating ways in which to instigate and enhance a shift from a male-centric organisation compositions towards...

Words: 2245 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

50 Key Concepts in Gender Studies

...50 Key Concepts in Gender Studies Jane Pilcher & Imelda Whelehan Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies i Recent volumes include: Key Concepts in Social Research Geoff Payne and Judy Payne Key Concepts in Medical Sociology Jonathan Gabe, Mike Bury and Mary Ann Elston Forthcoming titles include: Key Concepts in Leisure Studies David Harris Key Concepts in Critical Social Theory Nick Crossley Key Concepts in Urban Studies Mark Gottdiener The SAGE Key Concepts series provide students with accessible and authoritative knowledge of the essential topics in a variety of disciplines. Cross-referenced throughout, the format encourages critical evaluation through understanding. Written by experienced and respected academics, the books are indispensable study aids and guides to comprehension. JANE PILCHER AND IMELDA WHELEHAN Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies SAGE Publications London • Thousand Oaks • New Delhi iii © Jane Pilcher and Imelda Whelehan 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the Publishers. SAGE Publications Ltd 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP SAGE Publications Inc 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd B-42 Panchsheel Enclave Post Box 4109 New Delhi 100 017 British Library...

Words: 86432 - Pages: 346

Premium Essay

Paper

...Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hooks, Bell. Feminism is for everybody: passionate politics / Bell Hooks. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-89608-629-1 - ISBN 0-89608-628-3 (pbk.) 1. Feminist theory. 2. Feminism - Philosophy. 3. Feminism Political aspects. 4. Sex discrimination against women. 1. Title. FEMINIST POLITICS Where We Stand 1 CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING A Constant Change of Heart 7 3. SISI:ERHOOD IS STILL POWERFUL 4. Vll 13 00-036589 South End Press, 7 Brookline Street, #1, Cambridge, MA 02139 06 05 04 7 8 9 Printed in Canada 19 OUR BODIES, OURSELVES Reproductive Rights 25 6. HQl190 .H67 2000 305.42'01 - dc21 FEMINIST EDUCATION FOR CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS BEAUTY WITHIN AND WITHOUT 31 7. FEMINIST CLASS STRUGGLE 37 8. GLOBAL FEMINISM 44 5. 9. WOMEN AT WORI( 48 10. RACE AND GENDER 55 11. ENDING VIOLENCE 61 12. FEMINIST MASCULINITY 67 13. FEMINIST PARENTING 72 14. LIBERATING MARRIAGE AND PARTNERSHIP 78 15. A FEMINIST SEXUAL POLITIC An Ethics of Mutual Freedom 85 16. TOTAL BLISS Lesbianism and Feminism 93 INTRODUCTION 17. TO LOVE AGAIN The Heart of Feminism 100 18. FEMINIST SPIRITUALITY 105 19. VISIONARY FEMINISM...

Words: 37459 - Pages: 150

Premium Essay

Feminism

...Feminism in Multicultural Societies An analysis of Dutch Multicultural and Postsecular Developments and their Implications for Feminist Debates Eva Midden A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements of the degree of PhD at the University of Central Lancashire May 2010       Student Declaration Concurrent registration for two or more academic awards I declare that while registered as a candidate for the research degree, I have not been registered candidate or enrolled student for another award of the University or other academic or professional institution Material submitted for another award I declare that no material contained in the thesis has been used in any other submission for an academic award and is solely my own work Signature of Candidate Type of Award School ___PhD_________________________________ ___Centre for Professional Ethics___________ 1   Abstract It was long assumed that both multiculturalism and feminism are connected to progressive movements and hence have comparable and compatible goals. However, both in academia and in popular media the critique on multiculturalism has grown and is often accompanied with arguments related to gender equality and/or feminism. According to political scientist Susan Moller Okin for example there are fundamental conflicts between our commitment to gender equality and the desire to respect the customs of minority cultures or religions. If we agree that women...

Words: 97145 - Pages: 389

Premium Essay

Sociological Theories

...macro perspectives analyses the way society as a whole fits together. Structural theory sees society as a system of relationships that creates the structure of the society in which we live. It is this structure that determines our lives and characters. Structured sets of social relationships are the 'reality' that lie below the appearance of 'the free individual' of western individualism. Structuralism focuses on the particular set of 'structural laws' that apply in any one society.   Despite their differences, both functionalism and Marxism use a model of how society as a whole works. Many functionalists base their model of society around the assumption of basic needs and go to explain how different parts of society help to meet those needs. Marxists, on the other hand, see society as resting upon an economic base or infrastructure, with a superstructure above it. They see society as divided into social classes which have the potential to be in conflict with each other.    However, the main differences between functionalist and Marxist perspectives then, is the way they characterize the social structure. Functionalists stress the extent to which the different elements of the social structure fit together harmoniously. Marxists stress the lack of fit between the different parts, particularly social classes, and so emphasize the potential for social conflict.   Not all sociological...

Words: 9486 - Pages: 38

Premium Essay

1. Using Material from Item B and Elsewhere Assess the Usefulness of Marxist Approaches in Explaining Crime Marxism Is a Conflict Theory Established by Karl Marx

...system as ‘a tool of the ruling class’ where they can control the working class and crime is an unavoidable result because of the oppression the working class are subject to. They also believe that laws are enforced mostly to benefit the interests of the ruling class. (An example of this is 80% of laws exist to protect private property.) NeoMarxists (also known as critical criminology) are another branch of Marxism which was established in the 1970s. They discuss more contemporary ideas of crime and their ideas, such as saying crime results out of political anger. They note that the traditional Marxist perspective is too deterministic and try to implement an element of free will in their theory. Traditional Marxist’s view of crime has 3 key aspects: The Criminogenic capitalism, the state and law making and ideological functions of crime and law. As previously stated, criminogenic capitalism is the Marxist idea that crime is inevitable because of the nature of capitalism. They believe that because of capitalism as the unequal divide between classes, committing crime is sometimes the only way people can live. For example, a young woman who is living in poverty may have to resort to prostitution in order to survive. In addition, sometimes the working class may feel frustrated that they are under the control of the bourgeoisie and act out in crimes such as violence and vandalism as a way of venting their anger at being alienated from society. However, they do state that...

Words: 2024 - Pages: 9

Free Essay

Anticommunism and Mccarthyism

...the ear of federal officials was an important source of the crusade against "Communists in government," a primary engine of the Second Red Scare. The hunt for communists in the U.S. government, which began in the 1930s and reached a fever pitch in the 1950s, reshaped the terrain of party politics and halted expansion of the American welfare state. Conservatives' attack on the New Deal-often seen as triggered by the rise of mass production unionism-also was a reaction to the emergence of a consumer movement that was feminist, anti-racist, and pro-labor. That movement was predominantly female and wielded more influence over federal policy than scholars have recognized. Focusing on the League of Women Shoppers, the Consumers' National Federation, and the fate of their members who obtained positions in such government agencies as the Office of Price Administration, this article argues that conservative anticommunists' gendered animosity to the consumer movement was critical to the pre-history of the federal employee loyalty program created in 1947, and that civil servants with ties to consumer groups were prominent among that program's casualties. In May 1939, a front-page story in the Chicago Tribune warned that a "Communist-front" group called the League of Women Shoppers (LWS) was conducting an "ingenious campaign" to intimidate employers into supporting the National Labor Relations Act by threatening to boycott non-compliant companies. Many wives of officials prominent in Franklin...

Words: 6635 - Pages: 27

Free Essay

Citizenship

...between the state and individuals. Historically citizenship is being inevitably linked with the state formation. Originally citizenship was denoting residence of people within protected walls of a city. Thus, whoever belonged to a community residing inside the boundaries was considered a citizen. Later this term has acquired a different meaning and the standards and definitions of citizenship have changed. There were many reasons that have caused such changes: history proceeded with its migrations, wars and annexation and along on its way brought new meanings to citizenship. Such change in definition, for example, can be found in suffrage granted to women and the nonpropertied classes. Paupers, convicts and soldiers are another example of how political and civil rights were once a privilege of certain classes only (Dahrendorf, 1974, p. 11). With the introduction of mass democracy and social protection as well as introduction of welfare state a need in the new conception that would look on the relationship on an individual and the state appeared consequently. The norms of citizenship, therefore, have improved with the development of state and citizenship became a multination concept, which implies different things to different nations (Dahrendorf, 1974, p. 12). According to Michael Ignatieff (1995), the introduction of the welfare state can be explained as an attempt to make citizenship “a real as opposed to a purely formal experience” (Ignatieff, 1995, p. 67). The experience of World...

Words: 5963 - Pages: 24

Premium Essay

Ir Theories

...Linklater, Chapters 6 and 7 © Richard Devetak, Chapter 8 © Christian Reus-Smit, Chapter 9 © Jacqui True, Chapter 10 © Matthew Paterson 2001, 2005 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First edition 1996 Second edition 2001 Published 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd....

Words: 132890 - Pages: 532

Premium Essay

Feminism In Nigeria

...This paper examines leadership practice in Nigeria from a feminist perspective. The paper briefly x-rayed Nigeria’s problems from a feminist perspective and come to the conclusion that, majority of these problems are caused by the default androcentric social practices allowed by patriarchy and masculinism, it is important to proffer solution to these problems using the same feminist theoretical frame-work. Hence, this paper attempts long lasting solution to the problem of leadership as it confronts Nigeria. FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ON SOME NIGERIA NATIONAL ISSUES This section looks at some of the issues that concern Nigeria leadership and development problems and try to look at them from a feminist perspective in order to chart a new paradigm at...

Words: 7319 - Pages: 30

Premium Essay

Marx

...THE PROBLEM WITH WORK A JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN CENTER BOOK THE PROBLEM WITH WORK Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries KATHI WEEKS Duke University Press Durham and London 2011 © 2011 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper co Designed by Heather Hensley Typeset in Minion Pro by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book. THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED WITH LOVE TO JulieWalwick (1959-2010) Contents ix Acknowledgments INTRODUCTION i The Problem with Work i CHAPTF1 37 Mapping the Work Ethic CHAPTER 2 79 Marxism, Productivism, and the Refusal of Work CHAPTER 3 113 Working Demands: From Wages for Housework to Basic Income CHAPTER 4 151 "Hours for What We Will": Work, Family, and the Demand for Shorter Hours 5 CHAPTER 175 The Future Is Now: Utopian Demands and the Temporalities of Hope EPILOGUE 227 A Life beyond Work 235 255 Notes References 275 Index Acknowledgments thank the following friends and colleagues for their helpful feedback on versions of these arguments and portions of the manuscript: Anne Allison, Courtney Berger, Tina Campt, ChristineDiStefano, Greg Grandin, Judith Grant, Michael Hardt, Stefano Harney, Rebecca I would like to Karl, Ranji Khanna, Corey Robin...

Words: 116847 - Pages: 468

Free Essay

Women in Saudi Arabia

...today is the issue of power and who should have it or not have it. Power relates to rights and applies to both males and females alike. Power transcends to human rights and the free will to do as a person wants to do as long as it’s within the boundaries of the rules and regulations that govern a particular place. However, we know that power has been held by an overwhelming majority by males which has led to women being deprived of some of the basic privileges that should be afforded to every human being. There have been varying reasons why women’s rights and privileges have been denied ranging from their biological inferiority to religious reasons. Saudi Arabia is known as the birthplace of Islam. Consequentially, the country adheres to a strict interpretation of Islamic religious law called the Sharia. For example, in Saudi Arabia, men and women are not permitted to attend public events together. Furthermore, men and women are segregated in the work place with men getting finer office spaces and women getting offices that alienate them from public view. In Saudi Arabia, there is an obvious divide of gender roles where men basically have majority of the power while women are afforded very limited rights (Mackey 10). I will be evaluating women’s rights in Saudi Arabia to show how they are denied their basic rights as human beings like economic rights, marriage, and purdah (concepts for separation of men and women) as well as analyze how changes to their unequal treatment (compared...

Words: 3112 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

Quotas in Disrimination

...gender quotas.[1] In the private sector, an employer’s pursuit of numerically fixed race or gender balance is suspect under Title VII.[2] Under both bodies of antidiscrimination law, quotas are regarded as discrimination. If a civil rights initiative can be portrayed as encouraging employers to adopt quotas, its political demise is nearly certain in the United States.[3] Narrow forms of affirmative action have survived, legally and politically, only to the extent that they can be distinguished from quotas. Quotas are so widely regarded as legally, politically, and morally repugnant that they are taboo: The “q-word”[4] is rarely the subject of any serious debate, even by those who favor stronger civil rights protections for women and minorities. The related belief in the illegitimacy of ever pursuing numerically informed demographic balance – especially along lines of race or gender -- is gaining strength in the Supreme Court’s major antidiscrimination cases in the last several years.[5] It is widely accepted – even by civil rights advocates – that pursuing racial or gender balance as a goal, “for its own sake,” would be illegitimate.[6] This principle threatens the constitutionality of race-based affirmative action, which may meet its demise in Fisher v. Texas next Term. Meanwhile, in Europe, quotas have made a definitive comeback, as a way of pursuing gender equality. Legislative and constitutional transformations over the last few years have led to the adoption of various...

Words: 13862 - Pages: 56

Premium Essay

Stuff

...do such a good job on Heidi after all.” Later, he would be convicted of conspiring to hide profits from his daughter’s call girl ring. Fleiss had dropped out of school when she was sixteen and established a liaison with a playboyfinancier who gave her a Rolls-Royce for her twenty-first birthday. In her early twenties, Fleiss interned in the world of prostitution by working for Madame Alex (Elizabeth Adams), Hollywood’s reigning call girl entrepreneur until her death in 1995. In 1990, backed by television director and pornography filmmaker Ivan Nagy, 24-year-old Fleiss opened her own business. She now refers to her call girl operation as nothing more than a sensible adjunct to many other Hollywood enterprises. One telling anecdote was how she was paid $40,000 a night by a customer to do little...

Words: 18652 - Pages: 75