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Essay on the liberal feminist approach
Essay on the liberal feminist approach
Essay on liberal feminism
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This is an immensely complex questions which deserves much more time and space than can be devoted in this essay. However I will endeavor to apply the theories of a number of authors to the problem and arrive at a reasonable conclusion based upon my analysis of them.
Throughout the course of the essay I will make reference to a number of authors, writing on subjects of Ethics, Philosophy and Feminism, with the intention of attempting to divine the validity to the claim of liberalism’s universality. To start of with there will be an examination of the theory of liberalism itself, with particular focus upon the notion of individuality and its conception of rights in accordance with it. Using the work of George Beiswanger and Bhikhu Parekh I will analyse the claims to universality and their shortcomings. Moving on from the ideal of individualism somewhat and into the arena of Feminism and the Liberal bias towards men over women. I will look at the work of Susan Moller Okin and her criticism of a number of non-liberal minority groups and their subjugation of women. With the intention of assessing whether it is correct to be using liberal ideals to judge and change the activities of culturally different groups. Finally using the origins of the current strain of liberalism which has its roots in the enlightenment period, I will attempt to assess whether the claims of universality are valid and therefore right to be exported and imposed on the decidedly non-liberal groups of the world.
Before I begin I feel it necessary to make my initial viewpoint clear on the subject. I firmly believe in the benefits of democracy and the liberal viewpoint of the world. I believe in individual rights and the sanctity of the individual regarding action...
... middle of paper ...
...t Good’, Ethics, Vol. 60, No. 2, (Jan., 1950), pp. 112-119
Bhikhu Parekh, ‘The Cultural Particularity of Liberal Democracy’, Political Studies, (1992), XL, Special Issue, pp.160-175
Susan Moller Okin, ‘Feminism and Multiculturalism: Some Tensions’, Ethics, Vol. 108, No.4, (July., 1998), pp. 661684
Answers.com, “Manifest Destiny” [Internet], The American heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004, Available from: , Accessed Date: 10/01/10
CNN.com, ‘Bush Pledges to spread Democracy’, [Internet] 20 Jan 2005, Available from: , Accessed Date: 10/01/10
Richard Hooker, Paul Brians., May 18 2000, [Internet], Available from: , Accessed Date: 10/01/10
America’s Manifest Destiny first surfaced around the 1840’s, when John O’Sullivan first titled the ideals that America had recently gained on claiming the West as their ‘Manifest Destiny.’ Americans wanted to settle in the West for multiple reasons, from the idea that God wanted them to settle all the way to the West co...
It is precisely this point, which proves the argument of this paper. The well intentioned attempt of Western feminist to write a feminist book in order to help, both women in the East in an exchange of ideas and stimulation of still more ideas and women in the West in providing knowledge with which to further aid the women of the East. On both counts it fails. In the West it gives further ground to the false generalizations and assumptions of women in the Muslim and more generally the developing world who are seen as oppressed and in need of “liberation” while in the East it serves to colonize and dehumanize the women. These good intentions did not create what can be construed as a positive contribution.
Feminist theory, which occurred from feminist doings, marks to twig the kind of masculinity disproportion by scrutinizing women's mutual roles and lived participation; it has industrialized patterns in a range of self-controls in mandate to answer to problems such as the mutual making of femininity and masculinity. Some of the past whereabouts of feminism have been scorned for fascinating into report only antediluvian, conventional, experienced evaluations. This operated to the contraption of genealogically limited or multiculturalist treatments of feminism.
(7) J.Habermas, "Three Normative Models of Democracy", in Constellation, Vol. I, No:1, 1994, p. 8
In the mid-19th century, the West drew increasing numbers of American settlers despite the hardships of the journey and the difficult living conditions that waited them at their journey’s end. Thus Americans were immediately sized on the phrase “ Manifest Destiny”- believing that United State’s destiny is manifest, inevitable, to expand to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican territory.
Typically Liberalism can be categorized into two different strands, Classical and Modern (yet some thinkers advocate a third strand that is referred to as Neo-Liberalism), each characterized by their differing and to some extent unavoidably overlapping attitudes regarding the theory behind the ideology and how it should be put into practice. Prior to examining how these relate to one another and before making any comparisons, it is important to give a definition, as best as possible, of Liberalism as a concept.
Feminists are accused of taking the perspective of a woman who is a product of Western ideology. Which is to say that feminists ‘assume that all women have similar attributes and experiences and ignore the impact of other variables such as race, class, wealth, and sexual preferences on the position of women’(Chalesworth in Nayak 2013, 86). That in doing so, they have effectively excluded other women of different culture, class, and religion. What I would like to emphasize here is that in pursuing equality, feminists have become the very ‘”elite” they criticizes. Feminists’ claims for human rights are Western based, as simultaneously feminists are claiming that human rights are
"Manifest Destiny - US History." . N.p., 1 Jan. 2013. Web. . . (Manifest Destiny - US History)
While at first blush the protection of cultural diversity seems like a worthy cause to support for many of us, there are much deeper implications than the prima facie façade multiculturalism suggests. Instead, there is a “deep and growing tension” (Okin,1999; p10) between the ideals of feminism and those concerned with the protection of cultural rights. This tension is exacerbated when the protection of those rights safeguards the continuation of practices such as female genital cutting (FGC) in the name of ‘culture’ and ‘tradition.’ Every culture is dynamic, complex, and rich in its own ways. However when cultures come together and interact there are inevitably tensions and one such tension is centred on gender and gender norms. In this paper I hope to explore the question “what should be done when the claims of minority cultures or religions clash with the norm of gender equality that is at least formally endorsed by liberal states (however much they continue to violate it in their practices)?” (Okin,1999; p9) Answering this question will allow us to look at the inconsistencies between women’s rights and cultural rights.
Since its inception, and for the two centuries that followed, feminism has been engaged in what might be seen as a critical endorsement of Enlightenment principles of universal rights, equality, and individual freedoms. Universal principles of citizenship were generally considered fairer and more inclusive, having been developed in opposition to particularist rights such as those invested in castes, estates, or ethnic groups. While feminists have long sought to expose what in recent debates has been identified as the ‘false universalism’ of an exclusionary, androcentric liberalism, this critique informed a strategy that sought not to dispense with universalism but to ensure that it was consistently applied. Along with other disadvantaged social groups, women have demanded recognition as moral and juridical equals, and have deployed egalitarian arguments to advance claims on the rights associated with citizenship. However, while they claimed that they had the same entitlements to justice and political representation as men, they also insisted that women's ‘difference’ be recognized as...
Feminists are accused of taking the perspective of a woman who is a product of Western ideology. Which is to say that feminists ‘assume that all women have similar attributes and experiences and ignore the impact of other variables such as race, class, wealth, and sexual preferences on the position of women’(Chalesworth in Nayak 2013, 86). That in doing so, they have effectively excluded other women of different culture, class, and religion. What I would like to emphasize here is that in pursuing equality, feminists have become the very ‘”elite” they criticizes. Feminists’ claims for human rights are Western based, as simultaneously feminists are claiming that human rights are
It is defined by a distinctive focus on these issues, rather than by a set of doctrine or common ideology among feminists, many of whom many disagree on the nature of feminist ethics or on particular moral issues ” (46). For an action for to morally correct or incorrect social realities must be considered. The text states this, “ many feminists think that the familiar principles of Western ethics- autonomy, utility, freedom, equality, and so forth- are too broad and abstract to help us make moral judgements about specific persons who are enmeshed in concrete social situations” (46). Many feminists support the ethics of care theory which they often practice.
To define any perspective in International Relations, one must understand its’ origin and primary authors, including the context in which they were writing in. Liberalism is one of the more loosely defined perspectives as it has had a number of authors throughout history. Primarily, liberalism relies on the positive aspects of human nature. One of the most prominent liberal authors was Kant- who often wrote of the anarchical nature of international relations- referring to it as “the lawless state of savagery.” He also wrote of three primary routes to obtaining peace within this system, namely treating all aspects of human life with humanity, allowing for a federation of states and most importantly republican constitutionalism.
Liberalism and democracy are closely tied together in international politics. They have a central bond which brings out the notion of democratic peace. Today much of Latin America and the European Union practices democracy. The chances of these nations getting into an armed conflict are very scarce in today’s standards. Liberalism promotes the idea of human security and equality and democracy reinforces that idea into the political framework of governing bodies and their higher authorities. Liberalism leads to democracy which promotes democratic peace preventing conflict between nations. This article will look at how liberalism leads to democratic peace through the process of creating democracy.
Modern day society is engrossed in a battle for protection of individual rights and freedoms from infringement by any person, be it the government or fellow citizens. Liberalism offers a solution to this by advocating for the protection of personal freedom. As a concept and ideology in political science, liberalism is a doctrine that defines the motivation and efforts made towards the protection of the aforementioned individual freedom. In the current society, the greatest feature of liberalism is the protection of individual liberty from intrusion or violation by a government. The activities of the government have, therefore, become the core point of focus. In liberalism, advocacy for personal freedom may translate to three ideal situations, based on the role that a government plays in a person’s life. These are no role, a limited role or a relatively large role. The three make up liberalism’s rule of thumb. (Van de Haar 1). Political theorists have