20th c. liberal feminism
- 1960’s
women need economic opportunities as well as civil liberties
·
National Organization for Women
- Betty
Friedan
- civil
rights movement for women.
- NOW
Bill of Rights
- Equal
employment opportunity
- child
care
- Education
- Control
over reproduction.
·
Sameness-difference debate
- “Is
gender equality best achieved by stressing women’s “oneness” as a gender
or their “diversity” as individuals, the “sameness” between women and men
or the “differences” between them?”
- liberal
feminism is critiqued from both ends
- radicals
à
liberal feminism is co opted by the male establishment
- conservativesà
most women are keen on mothering and marriage and family
Betty Friedan
- Feminine
Mystique (1974)
- Women
spend too much time in trivial traditional pursuits
- Meaningful
fulltime work in the public sphere
- Woman’s
partial absence would make men and children more self sufficient
- The
problem was valuing marriage and motherhood too much, they are OK when
they are valued as a part of an otherwise fulfilling life.
- Women
can become men’s equals when woman become the same as men
- Problem
it is hard for women to combine a career and a family with out there
being major
- The
Second Stage (1981)
- Noted
that “super women” were as oppressed as their stay at home mothers.
- There
are two standards of perfection one at work set by men with wives and one
set at home by full time wives
- again
pick both work and family or you will be unhappy.
- Men
and women need to work together to make this happen.
- Ex.
flex time
- Problem
- This
made it easier for women to do too much work.
- Women
and men both need to be liberated.
- As
women enter the public world, men need to enter the private world.
- Women
can be men’s equals only when society values that which is feminine as
well as that which is masculine.
- Need
to pay attention to actual rather than abstract women when we are trying
to figure what equality means
- This
means that women may need special benefits such as maternity leave.
- “different
but equal.”
- The
Fountain of Age (1993)
- People
need to move beyond polarized sex roles human wholeness is the goal of
feminism and therefore feminist should move beyond women’s issues to
person’s issues
- Attack:
so long as our culture’s understanding of what it means to be a human
being remains androcentric (male-centered), it is premature for feminists
to become humanists.”
- The
biggest issue is sexual equality or gender justice
- Free
women from gender roles that stop them from being fully able to
participate in a human life
- Patriarchy
conflates sex and gender
- De
jure vs. de facto discriminations
- Men
suffer from this too i.e. it is not easy to be a male nurse. But it is
more systematic for women
- Classical
liberal feminist think that all we can do is to get rid of the bad
laws.
- Welfare
liberal feminists we should
get rid of socioeconomic as well as legal impediments to women’s success
(Affirmative action).
Return
to Lecture Notes