Feminism

Question 1

Sex-

Answer 1

Refers to the biological differences between males and females, such as reproductive organs, hormones, and chromosomes.

Question 2

gender

Answer 2

Refers to the social and cultural roles, behaviours, and expectations associated with being male, female, or other gender identities.

Question 3

gender v sex debate

Answer 3

One of the central debates is whether gender differences are primarily due to biological factors (nature) or societal influences (nurture). While biology does play a role in determining sex, many argue that gender roles and identities are largely shaped by cultural, social, and environmental factors.

Question 4

gender as a social construct and LGBTQ+

Answer 4

Traditional views often see gender as a binary (male/female), but there’s growing recognition and acceptance of gender as a spectrum. This includes understanding and validating non-binary, transgender, and other gender identities beyond the binary.
Understanding the distinction between sex and gender is crucial for addressing issues related to gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, and discrimination. Recognizing that gender roles and expectations are socially constructed can help challenge and change harmful stereotypes and biases.

Question 5

getting rid of gender distinctions and LGBTQ+

Answer 5

• Does eradicating gender eliminate the possibility of trans women being accepted by the gender they wish to be accepted by.

Question 6

Sexual violence and eradicating gender distinctions

Answer 6

• difficult to make sense of without sex? But would it be perpetrated in the same way? It is inherently gendered - do we remove the theoretical instruments we have to make sense of them? But would they occur with the same gendered dimension if sex/gender were eradicated?

Question 7

gender distinctions are importantly linked to sexual difference

Answer 7

Chambers
o Eg while biological differences exist between sexes (e.g., gestation, birth, breastfeeding), these differences do not justify the gendered cultural roles assigned to mothers and fathers. Feminists advocate for equal parenting roles beyond biologically mandated areas.
o There’s a concern that tying equality to identity ((i.e., men and women should have equal rights and opportunities regardless of gender) may lead to the belief that women must emulate men to be valued. Would it be better still for women’s equality if they did not gestate their children? Is breastfeeding anti-feminist? Is a woman who returns to work five days after giving birth—just like most men return to work only days after becoming fathers—better than one who stays at home.

Question 8

sex/gender model

Answer 8

• This model emphasizes the distinction between biological sex and social gender. It recognizes that while sex is biologically determined, gender is socially constructed.
• It also highlights the impact of societal norms, cultural expectations, and institutional structures on shaping individuals’ experiences based on their sex and gender

Question 9

Finlayson- critique of sex/gender model- prominence of sex in this

Answer 9

• Criticism is that the traditional sex/gender model merely introduces an extra category of ‘gender’ on top of ‘sex’ and leaves the later intact and unscrutinised.
• In demanding more criticism of the category of sex, feminists are attacking the ‘coat-rack’ view: a person’s sex is depicted as a structure on which various possible gender identities may be hung.

Question 10

sex/gender model - compatible with patriarchy

Answer 10

• The sex/gender model is quite compatible with many of the traditional patriarchal views which feminists want to criticise.
• Victorians were aware that not all differences between men and women were natural ones, otherwise they would not have argued that women would be ‘masculinised’ if given access to education.
• Nothing inherently feminist about the idea that there is a social dimension to differences between men and women

Question 11

Finlayson - need to change the notion of sex

Answer 11

• we should change the way we see the category of sex by ridding ourselves of the idea that it is something unitary or simple.

o Sex is more complicated e.g. intersex people.
o Intersexuality forces us to agree that either ‘male’ and ‘female’ are not the only categories, or we have to come to see the two categories as overlapping i.e. as a continuum instead of a binary split.
o Frye - sex differences are not particularly salient in themselves and are often less salient than the differences that exist between individuals of the same sex, they are made visible and salient by our constant efforts to signal our sex to one another.

Question 12

Finlayson- issue with sex/gender model - concept of naturalness.

Answer 12

o Sex differences are viewed, as opposed to gender differences, as natural (in contrast with nurture).

• Traditional ‘sex’ markers fail to pick out ‘women’ in a way adequate to feminists’ purposes - this arbitrarily leaves out people e.g. trans and intersex people who have good claim to be within the scope of feminist concern.
• Sex relies on a binary

Question 13

Finlayson - solution to sex/gender model

Answer 13

o Instead of arguing for the liberation of women, refuse to acknowledge the category of women and men.

o Under this critique, drawing a division between males and females is no more necessary or sensible than dividing the population up in to ‘Xs - people with brown hair and blue eyes who were raised by a single parent’ and ‘Ys - people with dark hair and eyes who were born in London’.

Question 14

Finlayson - overall issue with sex/gender model

Answer 14

• The sex/gender model adopted by many feminists preserves a key ingredient of the patriarchal conceptions of sex difference that feminists should be trying to challenge: the idea of a fixed, ‘natural’ substratum of ‘sex’ upon which gender variations may be superimposed.

Question 15

Butler on gender

Answer 15

o Butler posits that gender is not an innate or biological essence but is rather constructed through repeated performances and acts. This challenges the idea of a stable category of ‘women’ and suggests that gender is continuously produced and re-produced through language, norms, and social practices.

o when we name a child as “girl” or “boy”, we participate in creating them as that very thing. By speaking of people (or ourselves) as “man” or “woman”, we are in the process creating and defining those categories.

Question 16

Butler -issue with feminism

Answer 16

o The political assumption that there must be a universal basis for feminism, one which must be found in an identity assumed to exist cross-culturally, accompanies the notion that the oppression of women has some singular form discernible in the universal or hegemonic structure of patriarchy
o Also based on ideas of intersectionality- no single experience
o There is very little agreement on what it is that constitutes, or ought to constitute, the category of women.
o questioning and challenging the necessity of constructing a single or abiding ground for feminism that is invariably contested and exclusionary.

Question 17

Butler- how to reformulate a representational politics

Answer 17

o a radical rethinking of the ontological constructions of identity appears to be necessary

o It may be time to entertain a radical critique that seeks to free feminist theory from the necessity of having to construct a single or abiding ground which is invariable contested by those identity or anti-identity positions that it invariably excludes.
o ‘representationʼ will be shown to make sense for feminism only when the subject of ‘womenʼ is nowhere presumed.

Question 18

Butler issue with idea of women

Answer 18

o It would be wrong to assume in advance that there is a category of ‘womenʼ that simply need to be filled in with various components of race, class, age, ethnicity, and sexuality in order to become complete.
o Counterproductive to distinguish between sex and gender
* Judith Butler - sex itself is socially constructed - artificial distinction between different features.

Question 19

Butler - how to view sex

Answer 19

critiques the notion that sex is a purely biological category, arguing instead that it is shaped by cultural and social norms.

there is no difference between sex and gender.
Gender is performative identity based on the assumption of sex

Question 20

1st wave feminism

Answer 20

• Primarily focused on legal inequalities, especially women’s suffrage (right to vote).
  o Women’s suffrage
  o Legal rights, including property rights and the right to divorce
  o Access to education and employment opportunities

Question 21

2nd wave feminism

Answer 21

• Broadened the debate to include sexuality, family, the workplace, and reproductive rights. This wave also addressed cultural inequalities and discrimination.
  o Reproductive rights, including access to contraception and abortion
  o Equal pay for equal work
  o Addressing sexual harassment and violence against women
  o Recognition of unpaid labor (e.g., caregiving, housework)
  o Challenging traditional gender roles and stereotypes
  o Access to education and employment without discrimination

Question 22

3rd wave feminism

Answer 22

• Emphasized diversity, inclusivity, and intersectionality. Addressed issues like body positivity, sexuality, race, and global feminism
  o Intersectionality in feminist theory and activism
  o Body positivity and challenging beauty standards
  o LGBTQ+ rights and inclusion within feminist movements
  o Reproductive justice, emphasizing broader social and economic factors
  o Global feminism, addressing issues like globalization, poverty, and violence against women.

Question 23

4th wave feminism

Answer 23

Continues the themes of the third wave while leveraging digital media for activism. Addresses issues such as sexual harassment, gender-based violence, reproductive rights, and social media activism + Inclusive feminism that recognizes and addresses the unique challenges faced by transgender and non-binary individuals. Advocacy for transgender rights, healthcare access, and legal recognition

Question 24

Chambers on patriarchy

Answer 24

• Patriarchy is the ideology by which men constitute the dominant social group and masculinity is the dominant social practice. Under patriarchy this masculine perspective is presented as universal, and thus invisible as a perspective.
• The simplest conception of a patriarchal society, and the one associated with liberal feminism is one in which there are clear, measurable inequalities: unequal legal rights, sex discrimination, unequal pay, unequal representation in the job market and in positions of power.

Question 25

Chambers- Liberalism and patriarchy

Answer 25

• liberals of many varieties argue a situation can be unequal without being unjust, so long as those involved are able to make choices about their lives. This liberal commitment to choice entrenches patriarchy if and when it is asserted that women in general do exercise free choice. Gender inequality thus becomes the result of some combination of natural difference and free choice, and disrupting it becomes both unnatural and unjust.

Question 26

Chambers - feminists and liberalism

Answer 26

• Feminism rejects the notion that women are inherently limited by biology or liberated by individual choice.
• for liberalism and feminism to work together - the liberal feminist might dispute the extent to which women really do choose things that make themselves unequal. She might argue that much of our action is socially mandated, that many of our preferences are socially constructed.

Question 27

Chambers- effect of patriarchy on both men and women

Answer 27

• men benefit from societal privileges, while women face social inferiority, impacting their experiences and opportunities. Doesn’t mean that men are agents and women are victims but that both men and women are constrained by societal gender norms, impacting their choices and opportunities.

Question 28

Chambers - women as not in control

Answer 28

• Does not reject the value of individual choice but They are not in control. Their choices are shaped by the social construction of appropriate gendered behaviour
  o eg critiques beauty standards that impose financial burdens, physical risks, and societal pressures primarily on women. Women but not men are subjected to beauty standards which sap their finances and energy. The feminist conclusion is not that no woman actively chooses beauty practices, or that no woman enjoys participating in them some women may choose to adhere to beauty standards but emphasizes that choices cannot be the sole measure of justice within a context that perpetuates inequality.
• Feminism thus resists the liberal idea that we are atomistic, autonomous individuals in need only of basic legal rights to protect our freedom of choice.

Question 29

Chambers on what feminism is

Answer 29

• FEMINISM is a refusal of that which is genuinely ideological: patriarchy.
• Feminism’s first priority has been to point out that patriarchy is an ideology, that its supposedly universal perspective is the perspective of a specific group that is unjustly dominant, and that it is so successful ideologically that it has become the default perspective of the subordinate group as well.
• Feminism’s critique of patriarchy underscores the dangers of presenting a specific perspective as universal, highlighting the need for diversity, inclusivity, and recognition of multiple viewpoints

Question 30

Chambers - on feminism not being an ideology

Answer 30

• Not universally accepted/ main stream- its analysis of reality is not accepted
• it does not represent the standpoint of the powerful or dominant group; it is not hegemonic
• feminism is inherently diverse, encompassing contrasting female perspectives and contrasting policy prescriptions. eg o With the emergence of gender studies, the focus on women has been diluted, leading to debates on the relevance of womanhood- some feminists question the concept of womanhood, others advocate for its protection and value.

Question 31

Hooks on diversity of feminism

Answer 31

o bell hooks notes, ‘A central problem within feminist discourse has been our inability to either arrive at a consensus of opinion about what feminism is or accept definitions that could serve as points of unification’

Question 32

Wittig on debates on womanhood

Answer 32

 Monique Wittig puts it, ‘For many of us [feminism] means someone who fights for women as a class and for the disappearance of this class. For many others it means someone who fights for woman and her defence” i.e protected difference or support of individual.

Question 33

chambers - feminism is an ideology under Marxist conception (based on reality)

Answer 33

• first, because it presents a distinctive analysis of how things are; it interprets reality.
  o The Entrenchment of Gender. Gender is a significant social cleavage, one that is enduring and has endured.
  o The Existence of Patriarchy. The social cleavage of gender is not normatively neutral: it is profoundly unequal, with women the disadvantaged and men the advantaged group

Question 34

chambers - feminism is an ideology under Marxist conception (based on perspective)

Answer 34

it emerges from the standpoint of a particular social group; it expresses the perspective of women as women- rooted in experience.

Question 35

chambers - feminism is an ideology under Marxist conception (demand for change)

Answer 35

it has an inescapably reforming or revolutionary nature; it demands change.
o The Need for Change. The fact of entrenched patriarchal gender division is normatively wrong, and political action is needed to lessen and ultimately overcome it.

• One way in which feminism is ideological is that it is inescapably political: feminism both analyses the political and engages in political struggle. It continues to challenge gender inequalities and advocate for women’s rights through political analysis and activism.

Question 36

Chambers - 3 theses of feminism

Answer 36

1. Entrenchment of gender
2. Existence of patriarchy:
   3 The need for change

Question 37

chambers - entrenchment of gender

Answer 37

• gender is one of the most significant social cleavages.
• Patriarchal ideology in Western liberal societies insists both that women and men are ineluctably different, such that social inequality is premised upon biological difference Women and men are bound to lead different sorts of lives with different sorts of preferences, activities, positions in the family and workplace, and so on.

Question 38

Chambers- Entrenchment of gender and feminist discourse

Answer 38

• feminists dispute any idea that gender difference is desirable because it is natural: they dispute the Prison of Biology.
• There is sex, which is the natural (and hence inevitable and unproblematic) biological distinction between male and female humans, and there is gender, which is the social (and hence mutable and open to problematization) categorization of people into masculine and feminine. In insisting that sex and gender are distinct, feminists call attention to the fact that much of what is often attributed to biology should more properly be attributed to culture.
• the emphasis on gender as socially constructed does not seek to eliminate gender difference entirely but rather to deconstruct and reimagine it in ways that are more inclusive, equitable, and empowering for all individuals, regardless of their gender identity eg allows for the recognition of the diverse ways in which people experience and express their gender identities. Rather than enforcing a strict binary division between male and female, this perspective acknowledges that gender exists on a spectrum and encompasses a wide range of identities beyond traditional notions of masculinity and femininity.

Question 39

Chambers - society entrenches gender

Answer 39

• Simone de Beauvoir wrote that ‘one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman’
• a boy must learn masculinity in just the same way as a girl learns femininity. Such claims are liberating because they suggest that we are not imprisoned by our biology; that we can be male and female without being masculine and feminine.

Question 40

Butler on the entrenchment of gender

Answer 40

• Some queer theorists argue that gender is entrenched but that its entrenchment is an illusion of patriarchy that must be dispelled. For example, Judith Butler’s famous claim that gender is ‘performative’ can be read as a claim about the essential non-essentiality of gender. If we view gender in this way, as a category without stable roots in physical sex difference, then the entrenchment of gender becomes crucial to the project of patriarchy, and uprooting it becomes crucial to the project of feminism.

Question 41

Chambers on entrenchment of gender social impact

Answer 41

• Is unifying - all women face the task of negotiating their identity as the dominated sex in a society that places great weight on the maintenance of gender difference…. the entrenchment of gender need not undermine the salience of other social cleavages; indeed, it may be that gender inequality is interwoven with other inequalities

Question 42

Against the entrenchment gender

Answer 42

• Some feminists argue against the clear distinction between biological sex and socially constructed gender. They believe that emphasizing this distinction might not always be beneficial for the liberation of women. both biology and culture can influence behaviour, and they often interact in complex ways. Biological factors can shape cultural norms, and cultural norms can, in turn, influence biological understandings and interpretations.

Instead of viewing biology as destiny or using biological differences to justify inequality, feminists advocate for recognizing the diversity and fluidity of human experiences and identities. They aim to dismantle harmful gender stereotypes and cultural norms that limit women’s opportunities and perpetuate inequality.

Question 43

transgenderism and entrenchment of gender

Answer 43

• Transgenderism and transsexualism can be seen as either complementary or opposed to feminism. The two are complementary insofar as transgenderism or transsexualism call into question the rigidity of gender difference and assert the importance of disrupting the gender binary, a stance sometimes known as transfeminism. But some feminists argue that certain forms of transgenderism or transsexualism undermine feminism by entrenching the gender binary, as when transsexualism uses the idea of a biological truth of gender into which each person naturally belongs, or when forms of transgenderism maintain rigidly gendered behaviours

Question 44

Chambers- existence of the patriarchy

Answer 44

• gender difference means gender inequality.
• the Existence of Patriarchy is developed in different ways within feminist ideology.
• Feminists are uneasy with a position that implies that women are acting wrongly…. The Existence of Patriarchy reminds us that women (and men) are choosing and acting within a patriarchal context. It therefore follows that both our options and our preferences are shaped by this context. We can only act within the options that are available to, and cast as appropriate for, us.

Question 45

Chambers on the need for change

Answer 45

• One cannot be a feminist without believing that the gender inequality highlighted by the first two theses is unjust and must be abolished. Feminism is thus inherently a reforming or revolutionary movement.

Question 46

difference feminists

Answer 46

• difference feminists argue that gender equality can be compatible with gender difference, even if current patriarchal structures prevent this. Such feminists argue that justice requires that feminine roles are properly valued and rewarded, and that the women who take them on are afforded the status traditionally reserved for male activities.

Question 47

what strand of feminism is chambers

Answer 47

liberal or egalitarian feminism. This strand of feminism emphasizes the importance of gender equality within existing social and political structures, advocating for equal rights, opportunities, and treatment for all individuals regardless of gender.

Question 48

ethics of care

Answer 48

o strand of difference feminism

justice. Equality for such feminists requires not the elimination of difference but a revaluing of women’s distinctiveness: care-based thinking needs to be recognized as a distinct and valuable method of being and acting in the world, not dismissed as a facet of unreason.

o The ethics of care- there are differences between men and women- men focus on justice, entitlement, things which are inherently competition, women focus on needs rather than the competition of everyone having certain rights/ entitlements etc. – Kohlberg came up with this idea. She said aren’t women conforming to society- society should conform to women and thus look at helping people, consent, needs over competition.

Question 49

radical feminists

Answer 49

• radical feminists sees gender difference and gender inequality as deeply entangled. For radical feminists patriarchy is a system and ideology based on male domination and female submission. That is to say, patriarchal gender norms cast the male as dominant and the female as submissive, an elucidation of gender difference that is inherently unequal…. They insist that this is not a goal that can be achieved merely by legal remedies that do not disrupt the underlying gender system.

Question 50

Hooks on why feminism was separated

Answer 50

• Contemporary black women could not join together to fight for women’s rights because we did not see “womanhood” as an important aspect of our identity. Racist, sexist socialization had conditioned us to devalue our femaleness and to regard race as the only relevant label of identification. In other words, we were asked to deny a part of ourselves— and we did. Consequently, when the women’s movement raised the issue of sexist oppression, we argued that sexism was insignificant in light of the harsher, more brutal reality of racism.

Question 51

Hooks on importance of feminism

Answer 51

• the “female” aspect of their being which caused their lot to be different from that of the black male, a fact that was made evident when white men supported giving black men the vote while leaving all women disenfran¬chised.

Question 52

Hooks - black women struggling to support anyone else

Answer 52

• Black women were placed in a double bind; to support women’s suffrage would imply that they were allying themselves with white women activists who had publicly revealed their racism, but to support only black male suffrage was to endorse a patriarchal social order that would grant them no political voice.

Question 53

Black women as needing to speak for themselves

Answer 53

• All too often in our society it is assumed that one can know all there is to know about black people by merely hearing the life story and opinions of one black person + criticises white people who are paid to write about black people – black women need to take on their own role

Question 54

Hooks - observance of intersectionality

Answer 54

• I was disturbed by the white women’s liberationists’ insistence that race and sex were two separate issues. My life experience had shown me that the two issues were inseparable.

Question 55

intersectionality

Answer 55

the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage

Question 56

Hooks- use of term feminism

Answer 56

• I choose to re-appropriate the term “feminism,” to focus on the fact that to be “feminist” in any authentic sense of the term is to want for all people, female and male, liberation from sexist role patterns, domination, and oppression.
  o [Our] struggle for liberation has significance only if it takes place within a feminist movement that has as its fundamental goal the liberation of all people.

Question 57

Hooks - men as victims

Answer 57

• over-emphasis on the male as oppressor often obscures the fact that men too are victimized. To be an oppressor is dehumanizing and anti-human in nature, as it is to be a victim. Patriarchy forces fathers to act as monsters, encourages husbands and lovers to be rapists in disguise; it teaches our blood brothers to feel ashamed that they care for us, and denies all men the emotional life that would act as a humanizing, self-affirming force in their lives.

Question 58

Hooks- feminism over more than just patriarchy

Answer 58

• feminism is not simply a struggle to end male chauvinism or a movement to ensure that women will have equal rights with men; it is a commitment to eradicating the ideology of domination that permeates Western culture on various levels–sex, race, and class, to name a few–and a commitment to reorganizing U.S. society so that the self-development of people can take precedence over imperialism, economic expansion, and material desires

Question 59

Hooks- feminism as a positive ideology

Answer 59

• Teaching women how to defend themselves against male rapists is not the same as working to change society so that men will not rape

Question 60

Hooks- women’s role in racism

Answer 60

• we must first be willing to examine woman’s relationship to society, to race, and to American culture - as it is, and not as we would ideally have it be. That means confronting the reality of white female racism. Sexist discrimination has prevented white women from assuming the dominant role in the perpetuation of white racial imperialism, but it has not prevented white women from absorbing, supporting, and advocating racist ideology or acting individually as racist oppressors in various spheres of American life.

Question 61

Hooks - Not enough to point out patriarchy-

Answer 61

All too frequently in the women’s movement it was assumed one could be free of sexist thinking by simply adopting the appropriate feminist rhetoric; it was further assumed that identifying oneself as oppressed freed one from being an oppressor. To a very grave extent such thinking prevented white feminists from understanding and overcoming their own sexist-racist attitudes toward black women. They could pay lip-service to the idea of sisterhood and solidarity between women but at the same time dismiss black women

Question 62

Hooks - idea of difference of sexes

Answer 62

feminism offers women not liberation but the right to act as surrogate men. It has not provided a blueprint for change that would lead to the elimination of sexist oppression or a transformation of our society. The women’s movement has become a kind of ghetto or concentration camp for women who are seeking to attain the kind of power they feel men have.

Question 63

Hooks - feminism as wrongly unifying

Answer 63

It provides an atmosphere where women who have little in common, who may resent or even feel indifferent to one another can bond on the basis of shared negative feelings toward men. Finally, it gives women of all races, who desire to assume the imperialist, sexist, racist positions of destruction men hold with a platform that allows them to act as if the attainment of their personal aspirations and their lust for power is for the common good of all women.

Question 64

Nussbaum on liberalism and feminism as it stands

Answer 64

• Liberalism can incorporate what is most valuable to feminists. It needs to learn and take on board the insights from feminists but it can and will change

Question 65

Nussbaum on what liberalism is

Answer 65

• Liberalism: At the heart of this tradition is a twofold intuition about human beings: namely, that all, just by being human, are of equal dignity and worth, no matter where they are situated in society, and that the primary source of this worth is a power of moral choice within them, a power that consists in the ability to plan a life in accordance with one’s own evaluations of ends.
• Liberalism is opposed, first of all, to any approach to politics that turns morally irrelevant differences into systematic sources of social hierarchies. It is opposed, then, to the naturalizing of hierarchies— to feudalism and hereditary monarchy, to the caste system characteristic of traditional Indian society…. It is opposed, second, to forms of political organization that are corporatist or organically organized— that seek a good for the group as a whole without focusing above all on the well-being and agency of individual group members.

Question 66

Nassbaum - critique of liberalism as individualistic

Answer 66

• liberal individualism puts the individual prior to society by making it the prior unit for political thought.
• Would be close to endorsing psychological egoism, the view that people are all motivated to pursue their own self-interest above all else.
• subordinates the value to be attached to community and to collective social entities such as families, groups, and classes.

Question 67

Jagger on critique of liberalism as individualistic

Answer 67

• Alison jagger - ‘the liberal conception of human nature and of political philosophy cannot constitute the philosophical foundation for an adequate theory of women’s liberation.
• Jagger- Liberals see ‘community and cooperation…as phenomena whose existence and even possibility is puzzling’ if not downright impossible- ‘Logically if not empirically, human individuals could exist outside a social context’

Question 68

care theorists critique of liberalism

Answer 68

that self interest is an inherently masculine trait/lens, and if we went through a female lens we would look more towards caring ideals.

Question 69

Nussbaum - liberal thinkers as somewhat social

Answer 69

• liberal thinkers, such as Mill, Hume, Smith, and Rawls, have an evidently social and other inclusive psychology, building affiliation with and need for others into the very foundations of their accounts of human motivation and denying that individuals can satisfy their basic desires independently of relationship and community.
• Rawls, imagines the agents in the “original position” as held together by a concern for building a community in which they will live together on terms of mutual cooperation
• The essential emphasis of liberal individualism is on respect for others as individuals; how can this even initially be thought to involve egoism?

Question 70

Nussbaum - critique of liberalism as subverting the values of family and community

Answer 70

• Feminists have argued that the focus of liberalism on individualism, the dignity and worth of the individual, slights and unfairly subordinates the value to be attached to community and to collective social identities such as families, groups, and classes.

Question 71

Nussbaum - some feminists see self sufficiency as a good goal

Answer 71

o E.g. the Self Employed Women’s Association in India is one of the most successful female employment and credit projects globally, making self sufficiency one of its ten normative points for women. Does not entail neglect of others in this context bur does hold that women care best for others when they are economically situated so they can survive on their own.

Question 72

Nussbaum - liberalism does not reject need for community

Answer 72

• Liberalism holds that the flourishing of human beings taken one by one is both analytically and normatively prior to the flourishing of the state or the nation or the religious group
• The central question of politics should not be, How is the organic whole doing?, but rather, How are X and Y and Z and Q doing?… Putting things this way does not require us to deny that X might love Y intensely and view his life as worthless without Y; it does not require that Z and Q do not plan their lives together and aim at shared ends; it does not require us to hold that all four do not need one another profoundly or vividly hold the pleasure and pain of one another in their imaginations. It just asks us to concern ourselves with the distribution of resources and opportunities in a certain way, namely, with concern to see how well each and every one of them is doing, seeing each and every one as an end, worthy of concern.

Question 73

Nussbaum - insight into individual human flourishing as good for feminists

Answer 73

• Put this way, (liberalism asks us to concern ourselves with the distribution of resources and opportunities in a certain way, namely, with concern to see how well each and every one of them is doing, seeing each and every one as an end, worthy of concern.) liberal individualism seems to be a good view for feminists to embrace. For it is clear that women have too rarely been treated as ends in themselves, and too frequently treated as means to the ends of others. Women’s individual well-being has far too rarely been taken into account in political and economic planning and measurement

Question 74

Nussbaum critique of liberalism and reason

Answer 74

Liberalism focuses too much on reason and ignores the role of emotion and care: “Liberal political theory is grounded on the conception of human beings as essentially rational agents.”

• The feminist argument is, more frequently, that women, as a result of their experiences of mothering and of family love, have rightly valued some important elements in human life that men often undervalue. Rationalism is a trait that men cherish most

Question 75

Nussbaum - defence of of liberalism and egoists

Answer 75

• Liberal individualism, I have argued, does not ask a woman to become an egoist, putting her own gratification first and others’ second. As far as liberalism is concerned, she may be (and in most versions ought to be) a committed altruist, even to the point of making considerable sacrifices of her own personal welfare for the sake of others. What liberalism asks, however, is that the woman distinguish her own well-being from the well-being of others, noticing what tensions might exist between the two, even if they are bound up in one another. Liberalism asks, further, that a woman reflect and choose for herself the extent to which she will indeed sacrifice her own well-being for others— that she do so not out of habit or convention but as the result of an individual decision, freely made.

Question 76

Nassbaum- early defence of rationalism of liberalism

Answer 76

• Modern feminist thinkers usually grant that this liberal move has had at least some value for women in seeking to secure their equality. They point out that earlier feminists were able to appeal to women’s rational capacity as a ground for claims to full political and moral equality

Question 77

Mackinnnon - liberalism has left private sphere unexamined

Answer 77

• MacKinnon has argued that not only male aggression and female timidity but also the character of both male and female sexual desire are shaped by the social norm that women ought to be the subordinates of men. Men eroticize domination and learn to achieve sexual satisfaction in connection with its assertion

o MacKinnon’s insistence on criticizing socially deformed preferences goes against one strand in contemporary liberalism, namely, the part of economic utilitarianism that sees preferences as given, a bedrock to which law and politics respond rather than material that is itself shaped by law and politics.

Insofar as liberalism has left the private sphere unexamined, this critique of desire is a critique of liberalism. It challenges liberalism to do for desire what it has often done with greed and anger and envy— that is, to conduct a rigorous examination of its social formation and to think of the moral education of children with these aims in mind

Question 78

Nussbaum - addressing private sphere/ desire is in line with liberalism’s deepest aspirations

Answer 78

o Mill recognized that gender hierarchy deformed the desires of both men and women. Women, he held, internalize their inferior status in ways that shape their desires and choice, and many of these ways are very damaging to them and to society. He held that “what is now called the nature of women is an eminently artificial thing— the result of forced repression in some directions, unnatural stimulation in others.”…

Question 79

Nussbaum - liberalism to learn from feminism (the family)

Answer 79

Liberal reluctance to interfere with the family has run very deep. - * John Rawls, while envisaging a society in which each individual’s well-being would be a matter of social concern, still imagined the contracting individuals as heads of households, who would be expected to take thought altruistically for the interests of family members

• Liberalism has much to learn from feminism in this area. It should begin by learning the facts of women’s hunger, domestic violence, marital rape, and unequal access to education. It should go on to correct these facts by laws and by moral education. It should also consider the implications of women’s individuality for many traditional areas of law and policy, prominently including divorce and taxation.

Question 80

Nussbaum - failure to address families in liberalism is failure of thinkers not theory

Answer 80

is not that they are too individualist but that they are not individualist enough. They assume too much organic unity and harmony. They give people too much credit for altruism and are not worried enough about the damages of competition.

• In this feminist reformulation, parties in the original position would be individuals, rather than representatives of household units; and parties in the original position, in addition to being ignorant of their wealth, class, and conception of the good, would also be ignorant of their sex

Question 81

Nussbaum - Liberalism’s failure in formal equality

Answer 81

• liberalism’s disregard of differences between persons that are a product of history and social setting makes it adopt an unacceptably formal conception of equality, one that cannot in the end treat individuals as equals given the reality of social hierarchy and unequal power
  o one might use basically liberal language to justify schooling children of different races in separate schools: As long as the schools are equal, the children have been treated as equal.

o liberalism has sometimes been taken to require that the law be “sex blind,”- Feminists have worried, for example, that this sort of neutrality will prevent them from demanding pregnancy and maternity leaves as parts of women’s equality of opportunity.

Question 82

Nussbaum - liberalism to learn from feminism in formal equality

Answer 82

Libertarian liberals allow wide latitude for advantages that individuals derive from morally irrelevant attributes of birth and social location but are strict on the rules that should govern benefits, insisting on a type of neutrality in which morally irrelevant characteristics play no role in the design of distributive policies and programs. Rawlsian liberals, noting that individuals arrive in society with many advantages that they have already derived from morally irrelevant characteristics, think it not just reasonable but morally required to readjust things in order that individuals should not be kings and princes; they therefore permit themselves a more extensive scrutiny of the history of group hierarchy and subordination, rejecting abstractness at this point as incompatible with a fully equal treatment.

Feminist liberals have typically followed this strand of liberal thinking, and their criticisms of other ideas of neutrality have been very important in generating legal change.

Question 83

Dworkin - central thesis

Answer 83

• Andrea Dworkin’s central thesis is that women deserve equal dignity, rights, and treatment as men.

Question 84

Dworkin- central moral sin

Answer 84

• for Dworkin, the central moral sin is objectification- treating a human being as a mere object, a tool for the ends of others.

Question 85

Kant on objectification

Answer 85

• Kant held that objectification happens inevitably between men and women in sexual relationships- The intense sensations of sex drive out, for a time, all thought of respect for humanity as an end, leading partners to treat one another as mere tools of their own urgent desires for pleasure.

Question 86

Dworkin’s view of Kant

Answer 86

o Dworkin critiques Kant’s view on sexual desire, she denies that the baneful tendencies Kant imputes to sexual desire belong to it inevitably or as such.
o Dworkin thinks that it is always a mistake to read existing social behaviour as reflecting desire’s underlying “nature, arguing that societal structures and gender asymmetries shape sexual desires and relationships.

• She contends that men have been socialized to view aggression, violence, and objectification of women as normal male attitudes, affecting both men’s and women’s perceptions of sexuality and equality.

Question 87

Dworkin on reproduction of bad attitudes about women

Answer 87

• How are these bad attitudes about women reproduced, in a culture that in some respects accords women equal dignity as persons ? Dworkin answers that a key part of the causal story is violent and humiliating pornography.

Question 88

Dworkin on changes to porn

Answer 88

• Dworkin and MacKinnon are often criticized for advocating censorship in relation to their views on pornography, but Neither MacKinnon nor Dworkin recommends using the criminal law to punish the makers or distributors of pornography. they propose civil ordinances allowing women harmed by pornography to sue its makers and distributors.
• she does not attack works involving consensual, nonhumiliating activity that would be far more likely to be targeted by the current obscenity test than by her test

Question 89

Dworkin on sexual equality

Answer 89

o Dworkin holds that it is because men view women as sex objects that women do not enjoy equal dignity. She therefore sees a change in socially constructed forms of sexual desire as the key to women’s equality

Question 90

economic critique of Dworkin

Answer 90

• Some critics argue that Dworkin’s focus on sexual objectification overlooks other forms of women’s subordination, such as economic inequality. viewed women in other ways as well: as bearers of, and carers for, children; as homemakers; as performers of domestic labour

Question 91

emotional critique of Dworkin

Answer 91

critiques Dworkin for not allowing room for this concept of “self-overcoming” in her vision of justice. By presenting justice as an unending struggle against aggressors without the possibility of reconciliation, Dworkin’s approach may limit the potential for healing, understanding, and long-term social change.

Question 92

Crenshaw

Answer 92

• Emphasis on identity-based politics as promoting community for black individuals.
• injustices don’t add up but they intersect and interact in different ways. Being at the intersections (e.g. a black woman) gives one a unique experience.

Question 93

Holly Lawford Smith

Answer 93

• intersectionality deprives women of an inherent feminist movement? Intersectionality might divide women up. But it was created to bring more women into the movement?
• Intersectionality as performing a different function? Alerts our attention to how women are disadvantaged in different ways but a catch all policy of feminism can help us form a better response to this disadvantage. Ensuring feminism works for all women, not just for one group of women.

Question 94

Iris Marion Young

Answer 94

● Aggregation of individual choices - one woman choosing to wear makeup might disadvantage women overall.
○ Women choose to follow these beauty standards in the first place because of patriarchal norms, which in turn reinforces and creates patriarchy (structural injustice idea as it reinforces itself).
○ Individuals do not make decisions within a vacuum

Question 95

Butler on intersectionality

Answer 95

• The term “women” is not a stable or fixed category. It is subject to change and reinterpretation across different historical, cultural, and political contexts. Gender intersects with other identity markers such as race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and region, making it impossible to separate gender from these intersecting factors.
• Butler critiques the notion of a universal patriarchy, arguing that it fails to account for the diverse and complex ways in which gender oppression manifests in different cultural contexts. The attempt to establish a universal status for patriarchy can lead to the appropriation and misrepresentation of non-Western cultures by Western feminists.

Question 96

Intersectionality and sex with men

Answer 96

• Certain limits of feminist strategies as strategies that can be taken up by black women.
• White feminists, specifically white lesbian feminists, advocated for the policy of separatism - women would refuse to engage romantically or sexually with men.
• separatism and oppositional politics are not a policy for black women as they feel solidarity with progressive black men and do not advocate the fractionalisation that white women who are separatists demand.

Question 97

intersectionality as not additive

Answer 97

• Oppression is not necessarily additive - the oppression faced by a black woman is not necessarily the sum of being a woman and being black, as black women may face oppression that are not faced by white women or black men.
• e.g. systematic rape of black women = the interaction of male sexual entitlement and the practice of white racial domination creates a new tactic of oppression.
• This cannot be reduced to the oppression faced by black people and that of women, instead the sexual experience of black women under the racist patriarchy is an expression of sexualised racism and racialised sexism.

Crenshaw: a lawsuit brought by a group of black women against General Motors for their policy of firing black women first. - The court ruled that they were not being discriminated against as they were not being discriminated against as women, as white women werenʼt a subject of the firing, and not as black people as black men werenʼt the target of firing

Question 98

Okin on Rawls

Answer 98

there is a gender bias in the Original Position.

Question 99

Okin- unequal division of labour

Answer 99

• The injustice that results from the division of labour between the sexes affects virtually all women in our society, though not all in the same ways.
• Underlying and intertwined with all these inequalities (eg women earning less than men) is the unequal distribution of the unpaid labour of the family
• The traditional division of labour within families, especially regarding childcare and domestic responsibilities, perpetuates gender inequalities. This division not only affects women’s economic opportunities but also undermines their equality in politics and other spheres of life.

Question 100

Okin - changes to public work are not enough

Answer 100

• The fact that women are doing more paid work does not imply that they are more equal
• Nothing in the nature of work makes it impossible to adjust it to the fact that people are parents as well as workers. That these things have not happened is part of the historically, socially constructed differentiation between the sexes that feminists have come to call gender.

Question 101

Okin - private v public distinction

Answer 101

• In the past, political theorists often used to distinguish clearly between ‘private’ domestic life and the ‘public’ life of politics and the marketplace, claiming explicitly that the two spheres operated in accordance with different principles. They separated out the family from what they deemed the subject matter of politics, and they made closely related, explicit claims about the nature of women and the appropriateness of excluding them from civil and political life.
• The judgement that the family is ‘nonpolitical’ is implicit in the fact that it is simply not discussed in most works of political theory today.
• When theorists of justice talk about ‘work,’ they mean paid work performed in the marketplace. They must be assuming that women, in the gender-structured family, continue to do their unpaid work of nurturing and socializing the young and providing a haven of intimate relations.

Question 102

Okin - where to look

Answer 102

move beyond private/ public distinction :

• Domestic life, which encompasses family dynamics, relationships, and responsibilities, should not be excluded from considerations of justice. Instead, it should be recognized as a critical domain where justice must be upheld and reinforced.
• the interconnectedness of the ‘public’ and ‘private’ spheres. In doing so, they emphasize that inequalities, injustices, and power dynamics within the family can have far-reaching consequences and should be addressed with the same rigor and commitment as issues in the ‘public’ realm.

Question 103

Okin on Rawls and the family

Answer 103

• Rawls acknowledges the importance of the family in social justice, his theory is criticized for not adequately addressing the gender-based injustices perpetuated within families.
  ○ Rawls… states at the outset of his theory that the family is part of the subject matter of a theory of social justice.

can neither neglect the family nor accept family structures and practices that violate these norms.

Question 104

Iris Marion Young on distribution

Answer 104

two problems with the distributive paradigm:

First, it tends to focus thinking about social justice on the allocation of material goods such as things, resources, income, and wealth, or on the distribution of social positions, especially jobs. This focus tends to ignore the social structure and institutional context that often help determine distributive patterns.

When metaphorically extended to nonmaterial social goods, the concept of distribution represents them as though they were static things, instead of a function of social relations and processes.

Question 105

Iris Marion Young on justice

Answer 105

• The concepts of domination and oppression, rather than the concept of distribution, should be the starting point for a conception of social justice.
• Justice should refer not only to distribution, but also to the institutional conditions necessary for the development and exercise of individual capacities and collective communication and cooperation.

Question 106

Iris Marion young - issue with impartiality

Answer 106

• The ideal of impartiality in moral theory reduces differences to unity and legitimizes bureaucratic authority.
  ○ The ideal of impartiality in moral theory posits that moral judgments and decisions should be made without favoring one individual or group over another based on personal biases, emotions, or interests.
• This ideal allows privileged standpoints to appear universal and reinforces hierarchical decision-making.

Question 107

Iris Marion Young - how we should move beyond impartiality

Answer 107

• Politics of difference - equality as the participation and inclusion of all groups sometimes requires different treatment for oppressed or disadvantaged groups. To promote social justice, I argue, social policy should sometimes accord special treatment to groups
• Affirmative action challenges principles of liberal equality by emphasizing group differences. making this challenge explicit strengthens the case for these programs.

Question 108

Pateman - social contract as sexual contract

Answer 108

• The original pact is a sexual as well as a social contract: it is sexual in the sense of patriarchal - that is, the contract establishes men’s political right over women - and also sexual in the sense of establishing orderly access by men to women’s bodies

Question 109

Pateman - social contract and patriarchy

Answer 109

• Civil freedom is a masculine attribute and depends upon patriarchal right.’ Social contract establishes men’s’ right over women.
• Patriarchal civil society is divided into two spheres, but attention is directed to one sphere only. The story of the social contract is treated as an account of the creation of the public sphere of civil freedom. The other, private, sphere is not seen as politically relevant
• Women are excluded from the original social contract.

Question 110

Pateman - traditional subordination of patriarchy to private sphere

Answer 110

• Impression can be given that the sexual contract and the social contract are two separate, albeit related, contracts, and that the sexual contract concerns the private sphere. Patriarchy then appears to have no relevance to the public world. On the contrary, patriarchal right extends throughout civil society.

Question 111

Pateman - patriarchy before contract

Answer 111

• Women are excluded from the original social contract.
• Women are not born free; women have no natural freedom. The classic pictures of the state of nature also contain an order of subjection - between men and women… sexual difference is political difference; sexual difference is the difference between freedom and subjection. Women are not party to the original contract through which men transform their natural freedom into the security of civil freedom. Women are the subject of the contract.
• The sex contract as the story of patriarchal right - the right of men over women. This created a patriarchal social order.

Question 112

Pateman - interaction between public and private

Answer 112

• The private sphere is typically presupposed as a necessary, natural foundation for civil, i.e., public life, but treated as irrelevant to the concerns of political theorists – it thus also filters into public sphere

Question 113

Pateman on the idea of woman

Answer 113

• Some feminists fear that references to ‘men’ and ‘women’ merely reinforce the patriarchal claim that ‘Woman’ is a natural and timeless category, defined by certain innate, biological characteristics. To talk about Woman, however, is not at all the same thing as talking about women. ‘The eternal Woman’ is a figment of the patriarchal imagination.

This idea of the “eternal Woman” suggests that there are inherent and fixed characteristics that define what it means to be a woman, regardless of historical or cultural context. It implies that women share certain essential traits or qualities that distinguish them from men, and that these traits are universal and unchanging across time and space.

he category of “woman” is socially constructed and historically contingent, shaped by power relations, cultural norms, and social institutions.

Question 114

Pateman - what modern patriarchy is

Answer 114

• modern patriarchy is not, first and foremost, about women’s familial subjection. Women engage in sexual relations with men and are wives before they become mothers in families. The story of the sexual contract is about (hetero)sexual relations and women as embodied sexual beings. The story helps us understand the mechanisms through which men claim right of sexual access to women’s bodies and claim right of command over the use of women’s bodies

Question 115

Pateman - how social contract stems from inequality

Answer 115

• The classic social contract, patriarchal system places women in a subordinate position, both within the family and broader civil society. This subordination is justified through notions of ‘natural’ differences and capabilities between men and women, which are often vague and unsubstantiated.
• Women, their bodies and bodily passions, represent the ‘nature’ that must be controlled and transcended if social order is to be created and sustained. In the state of nature, social order in the family can be maintained only if the husband is master.

Unlimited feminine desire must always be contained by patriarchal right

Question 116

Pateman - social contract as self perpetuating

Answer 116

• Civil individuals form a fraternity because they are bound together by a bond as men. They share a common interest in upholding the original contract which legitimizes masculine right and allows them to gain material and psychological benefit from women’s subjection.

Question 117

Pateman - public private divide and link

Answer 117

• The concept of the ‘civil individual’ is formed within a framework that upholds masculine dominance and benefits from women’s subjection - The civil sphere gains its universal meaning in opposition to the private sphere of natural subjection and womanly capacities. The ‘civil individual’ is constituted within the sexual division of social life created through the original contract. The civil individual and the public realm appear universal only in relation to and in opposition to the private sphere, the natural foundation of civil life
  o societal structures and norms are shaped by and reinforce the division between the civil and private spheres. This division, rooted in gendered roles and patriarchal systems, influences the formation and understanding of the “civil individual” and the broader public realm. The seemingly universal nature of the civil sphere is thus intricately linked to its contrast with the private sphere, which is often relegated to the background despite its foundational role in shaping societal dynamics and individual identities.

Question 118

Pateman’s marriage contract

Answer 118

The institution of marriage, as it has historically existed, serves to reinforce gender hierarchy and subordination.

In Pateman’s view, the marriage contract is not a neutral agreement between equal partners but rather a mechanism through which men assert control and domination over women. She contends that marriage has traditionally been structured in a way that grants men power and authority over their wives, relegating women to subordinate roles within the household and broader society.

Question 119

Pateman on sex work

Answer 119

She argues that sex work, like marriage, is a manifestation of the patriarchal social order that subordinates women and perpetuates gender inequality

Pateman challenges the notion that sex work can be understood simply as a matter of individual choice or agency. Instead, she contends that the economic and social conditions that lead women to engage in sex work are shaped by larger structural forces, including gender norms and economic inequality.

Pateman critiques the way in which society often stigmatizes and marginalizes sex workers, contributing to their further vulnerability and oppression. She argues that the moral condemnation of sex work serves to reinforce patriarchal norms and perpetuate the subordination of women.

Question 120

issue with Pateman

Answer 120

too historical - abuse taken seriosuly, sex work can involve 2 men as can marriage - about power relations not gender.

contracts as a zero sum game with only one winner

Question 121

Pateman on public private split

Answer 121

Rather than advocating for the eradication of public private concepts, Pateman calls for their transformation to better reflect principles of equality, democracy, and social justice. She argues for a reconfiguration of the public-private distinction to challenge gendered hierarchies and recognize the importance of care work and reproductive labor within society. Similarly, she suggests reconceptualizing the social contract to incorporate the perspectives and experiences of all individuals, particularly those historically excluded from political decision-making processes.

Question 122

Okin on public private split

Answer 122

Instead of advocating for the eradication of the public-private distinction, Okin calls for its reconceptualization to address gender inequality and promote women’s rights and equality. She emphasizes the importance of challenging traditional gender roles and norms that assign women primary responsibility for domestic and caregiving duties, while men are expected to engage in paid work and participate in public decision-making.

Okin’s work suggests transforming the public-private distinction to create more opportunities for women’s participation and agency in both spheres. This includes advocating for policies and practices that support work-life balance, affordable childcare, and equal access to education and employment opportunities.