Feminist Perspectives on Politics

Chris Corrin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317880240
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Feminist Perspectives on Politics considers how feminist perspectives have considerably broadened the scope of what is considered 'political'. Themes and issues covered range from nineteenth century debates around women's equality and liberation, to twentieth century arguments and activities towards gaining a more nuanced understanding of women's differences and diversity. ' Difference' remains a key term in contemporary feminisms, and the author examines debates engendered from women's liberation politics to open up discussion of Black feminisms, lesbian politics and disabled feminist agendas. Formal political participation and the impact of women's movement politics are assessed in global comparisons as are the debates surrounding discourses on 'development' and transnational politics, and the influence of women at local, national and international levels. The book will be essential reading for students at all levels across the fields of Politics, Women's Studies, Sociology, History, Cultural Studies, Political Economy and 'Development' Studies more generally (such as in studies concerned with anti-racism, gender, social policy and the history of ideas within educational institutions, local government and voluntary organisations)

Chapter 1

Feminist perspectives on politics

Chapter outline

This chapter aims to introduce the reader to some of the main aspects of feminist thinking about politics, raising key issues which are explored throughout the book. The plurality of feminisms is highlighted throughout, recognising that there can be no unitary ‘feminism’ but rather feminist perspectives which aim to unify ways of thinking and actions towards social change:

• feminist perspectives consider how different ways of thinking can affect what we see, what we ‘know’ and how we consider ideas about social and political change;

• ideas about difference are discussed, with relations between difference and identity seen as significant in raising questions about what women share in common;

• terms such as social construction, essentialism and gender are considered in relation to notions of femininity and masculinity;

• feminist examinations of political analyses and activism raise questions about oppression and resistance within relations of power, and recognition is given to overcoming binary divisions;

Introduction

Acknowledging the old adage that ‘knowledge is power’ this book is an attempt to add to existing work on feminist thinking and politics. It is recognised that: ‘If knowledge and power go hand in hand, it is the responsibility of feminism both to acquire knowledge and to transform it’ (Cameron and Frazer 1992). I am aware of the breadth of subjects considered within this book and view this as one part of a larger process, rather than a completed project. This work does not aim to answer all questions regarding feminisms and politics, but considers how different ways of thinking can affect what we see and how we view ideas about social and political change. The ideas I discuss are not new but their incorporation within the frame of feminist perspectives on politics aims to make some useful connections. Audre Lorde long ago pointed out that: ‘there are no new ideas, just new ways of giving those ideas we cherish breath and power in our living’ (‘Sister Outsider’ [1984] in Lorde 1996: 181). In this vein, bringing together feminist perspectives on politics in a holistic manner, I attempt to overcome some of the divisions between theory and practice that seem to endure strongly within much work on politics.

I believe passionately in the importance of learning – not just within formalised institutional education – but within our lives. Since much feminist thinking focuses on the consciousness, of how our experience can be used as a basis for theorising, it asks questions concerning the construction of knowledge. This in turn raises questions about how such knowledge can be built upon in creating social and political change. There is not a strong focus within this book on Women’s Studies (WS). This is not because I do not consider WS an important area of feminist activism but because it is currently something of a ‘growth industry’ in terms of feminist publishing. As there are many comprehensive collections and anthologies on feminist perspectives in WS, I signal these, where relevant, in the text. As will be seen, feminisms challenge academic disciplines widely within an interdisciplinary context.

Considering feminist uses of the term difference, attention is paid to which groups are deemed to be different – who decides and why. It is necessary to be clear about which women are being considered, by whom and at which levels of political participation and activism. Obviously there are many differences among women in terms of age, class, non-disabled/disabled, ethnicity, race, sexuality, wealth and opportunity. Political analysts and policy-makers often do not make differentiations between women, so generalities in politics and policy literature have been challenged. Within academic thinking, understanding the relations between differences and identity has been significant in raising questions about what women share in common. This applies also to feminist theories, as some of the partial analyses of early feminist thinking labelled certain women as other, thereby centralising particular, essentialist notions of ‘women’. In deconstructing such partial thinking, recognition is given in feminisms to the range of oppressions faced by Black, lesbian, disabled women, and ‘Third World’ women (the uses of these terms are explained in the Glossary and later chapters). Questions have also been tied in with feminist ideas about belonging, to groups, communities, ‘sisterhoods’, in coalitions and in collective resistance. In the varying responses and reflections, feminist strategies for resistance are elaborated.

Subordination of women

It is clear that images of women have been, and still are, very important in the development of feminist political thinking. Mary Wollstonecraft pointed out how stereotypical images, of women as weak and dependent, actively prejudiced women’s life chances. The madonna/whore images of Victorian times presented working-class women, when not viewed as weak or dependent, as having ‘unwomanly’ sexual appetites. Angela Davis, and other critics, argue that Black women were not viewed as women at all and were treated more like animals than property, were not theorised about as people or as citizens (Davis 1982; Collins 1990; hooks 1989; Guy-Sheftall 1995). In colonial situations, images of White women in need of ‘protection’ against constructed threats from ‘native’ men were put forward to uphold colonial power structures (Stoler 1997). In all, the construct ‘woman’ is seen to change over time and in different situations. Considering constructs such as woman, gender and race, it is important to remember that these are also lived experiences so are not abstract terms. These issues are explored in many ways throughout the book.

The term social construction of woman refers to the feminist belief that women are not oppressed by being female (biologically) but by the social and cultural powers which generate notions of femininity. As we see, ideas and ideologies about women have been manufactured by male theorists in support of supposedly ‘neutral’ arguments about why women should remain subservient and not become full citizens exercising power. In Chapter 2 we find women barred from voting for all sorts of ‘reasons’, ranging from their lack of intelligence, to the ‘fact’ that politics is a male preserve and to the belief that women are too good for politics. Many of these arguments can be termed essentialist, in that they categorise women on the basis of biological assumptions. The actions and arguments of suffragists and other feminists have challenged these notions of women as less than men.

Feminist thinking highlights the whys and wherefores of how women come to be subordinated. Anne Phillips notes that subordination identifies the agents in the process of forces that combine to oppress women: ‘Women don’t just happen to have less than men; they are actively subordinated by the holders of power’ (1987: 1). Feminisms considers the cultural, economic, social and political processes through which women’s subordination is established and reproduced. The relations of subordination and oppression have been given different emphases in debates over time as Stevi Jackson argues:

Certainly within Western societies, feminists have addressed three key questions: How is male dominance sustained? How are gender differences constituted? How do we make sense of the diversity of women’s experiences arising from differences of class, race or sexuality amongst us? These interrelated issues of dominance, difference and diversity have been the subject of considerable debate.

(Jackson 1993: 3)

Although much discussion has ensued in feminist circles regarding the term gender I use it to refer broadly to the social ‘roles’ that are overlaid on to biological attributes of men and women. One example is that while only women can bear and suckle children, men and women can care for children. However, women have generally been viewed as being childcarers, and the terms mother and father have different inscriptions of care, duty and responsibility. The stereotypes of ‘man the breadwinner’ and ‘woman the carer’ have proved very difficult to remove from much social and political thinking and policy-making. The legacies of such thinking can still structure many women’s opportunities today (see Chapters 8 and 9).

In considering feminist perspectives of women’s experiences and how such experiences have been constructed and reflected upon, recognising structural links between oppressions is significant. The term feminisms is also significant. As a plural term it shows that feminist thinking is not one body of thought. In the many strands of expression which make up feminisms lie much of the strength of the arguments. As Dale Spender recognises:

Feminists, therefore, have had to break with the conventions in which they were reared, and come to terms with the possibility that there is more than one truth. … it is one of the reasons why there are not – and cannot be – any ‘official’ explanations for feminism … Instead there is a multiplicity of interpretations … an acceptance – in varying degrees – of the coexistence of diverse and even contradictory explanations. A feminist framework which took women’s experience of the world as central could hardly go any other way.

(Spender 1985: 25–26)

Some feminists have argued against theory and rationality altogether, viewing them as masculine mechanisms used to oppress women (Daly 1978). Others propose that we need different tools and methodologies to deconstruct masculinist thought (Lorde 1996 [1984]). For some feminist thinkers, theory is viewed as unnecessary in mediating experience and knowledge, as women’s experience constitutes the most suitable basis for generated knowledge (Stanley and Wise 1983). Much feminist thinking has been constandy challenged by major debates between liberal, radical and socialist thinkers, between Black and Third World’ women and White feminists, lesbians and non-lesbians as well as by discussions between disabled and non-disabled feminists. These debates are explored throughout the book.

Feminist criticism

In aiming to provide an introduction to relationships between political thinking and social and political change, the emphasis is on how feminist considerations have criticised, and continued to develop, political writing and practices. From the early liberal and radical thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, examples of resistance to oppressive ways of thinking can be seen. It is within this context that aspects of conventional political debates are considered. In challenging the terms of debate, feminist critiques have broadened considerations of politics and political participation (Coole 1994 [1988]; Eisenstein 1984; hooks 1984; Hull et al 1982; Pateman 1988; Phillips 1987; Randall 1987). Feminist thinking and women’s political activities generate new perspectives on politics. By uniting feminist criticism of politics with instances of the practical involvement in groups, movements and societies, feminist analysts actively intervene to create change. Just as for Karl Marx: ‘Philosophers so far have only interpreted the world, the point is to change it’ (Tucker 1978), for feminists, praxis, the belief in uniting theory and practice through action, has significance. Kum-Kum Bhavnani defines politics as: ‘the means by which human beings regulate, attempt to regulate and challenge, with a view to changing unequal power relationships’ (Bhavnani 1993). Inevitably feminism involves thinking about women’s oppression and subordination and ways of creating change – individually, collectively and specifically.

In assessing the depth of men’s need to ensure their privileged position, it has been realised that some feminist analyses have only partially reflected upon the ways in which feminist thinking shared elements of privilege retention. In this way recognition of power imbalances in feminist thinking about who was naming whom as ‘different’ became evident. One consequence of partiality and prejudice within education can be that the ‘perceived problems’ are considered in such a way that they become ‘other’ and outside general academic discourse. The interdisciplinary impact of feminisms on the academic world is apparent in that ‘feminist enquiries into gendered power structures cannot be contained within any one traditional aspect of learning’ (Frazer et al. 1992: 3). In this connection Rossi (1974: 620) argues that one feature of the 1920–1960 period in the USA was the vast expansion of higher education and the professions in which: ‘a particular set of values was held among scholars and intellectuals. It was a period of academic specialization of knowledge … the underlying assumption in scholarship was one of value neutrality.’ It is precisely the assumed ‘neutrality’ and ‘objectivity’ of such values that feminist thinking critiques. Humm concludes that modern feminism: ‘dramatically reconceptualises knowledge itself, which academic feminism reflects in new institutional practices (women’s studies). Altered understanding about gender have emerged in a number of disciplines’ (1992: 56).

Viewing the politics of domination and resistance through the lens of feminist analysis widens the examination of political analysis and activism. By thinking through various relations of power, binary oppositions are recognised and contextualised within the systems of power which oppress individuals and groups. These binaries range from issues of male/female sexism, White/Black racism, straight/gay heterosexism to non-disabled/disabled prejudice and beyond. Such divisions are questioned by feminist analyses and the power politics within them are exposed. This has not been a linear progression as will be seen.

Power is an important concept in politics. Our experiences of power can be positive and negative, individual and systematic. It is useful to make distinctions between uses of power – to control others or to extend power and ‘empower’ people. Given the aims of feminisms in wishing to prevent particular misuses/uses of power and to end certain unbalanced power relations, concern with issues of how power is understood are central. In this context Anna Ye...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Series Editors’ Preface
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Feminist perspectives on politics
• 2 Liberal feminist debates and activism
• 3 Socialist thinking and women’s liberation
• 4 Feminist liberation politics
• 5 Black feminist thought
• 6 Lesbian politics
• 7 Disability, feminism and body politics
• 8 Political participation, representation and resistance
• 9 International and transnational feminisms
• 10 Conclusion
• Appendix 1: Women’s suffrage
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index