Moving toward critical analysis on the basis of gender and power relations signaled a shift of focus from the methodological to the epistemological concerns for the feminists. The questions raised were about the source of the behavior and experiences. Even within this view of gendered relation two different types permeated the feminist community – those that subscribed to an essentialist view held that women’s development is uniquely different from that of men and they are much better than men; those that adhered to the social constructionist view took the position that true natures of men and women are unknowable, i.e. the characteristics attributed to males and females are not intrinsic but socially and situationally created. Gilligan (1982) …show more content…
The distinction between sex and gender are differences in assumptions about causality, extent of similarity or difference between the sexes and on the covert political agendas in sex differences. Epistemological reflections like how gender is constructed and maintained in social practices were research concerns to Unger. Her book, The Lenses of Gender, is worth mentioning for its radical rethinking of the importance and possibility of transforming cognitive structures that hold gender in place. Oliva Espin gave another important addition to the feminist perspective through her articles focused on feminist therapy with women of colour. She raised the concern for including diversity among women into the feminist perspective. Her contribution was to “distill he significance of gender in the psychological development of women who are twice or sometimes thrice ‘othered’ by ‘mainstream’ psychology” (Espin, 1997). Stephanie Riger (2000), regarding how misguided efforts to empower women in individualistic ways might undermine the community connections and the larger picture of feminist efforts, took up a critique of feminist efforts. The emphasis on all power hierarchies, not just limited to gender was seen in the works of feminist psychologists of the late 90s. The topics researched were social class and education (Ostrove & Cole, 2003), low-income women’s perceptions of status and opportunity (Bullock & Limbert, 2003), beliefs about social class and caste (Mahalingam, 2003). Related research explicitly challenges the essentialist notions like women are ‘the non-aggressive sex’ and that aggression among females are ‘in competition for men’ (Day, Brandon, & McFadden,
The idea and characteristics of gender, relate to the specific differences men and women deliver to society and the unique qualities and roles each demonstrate. The term ‘Femininity’ refers to the range of aspects and womanly characteristics the female represents. The foundation of femininity creates and brings forth many historical and contemporary issues. According to Mary Wollstonecraft in ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’, women’s femininity is considered a flaw of nature. Throughout the paper, history indicates how women are viewed and looked upon in a male dominated world which hinders a woman’s potential, her character, her mind, her dreams, her femininity. The paper particularly stresses the idea of power, the power of man. The historical argument leans towards man’s desire to treat women as inferior to them.
My original concepts of feminism were that it was a theory that denounced men and elevated women beyond a fair or equitable place in society. I recognize now the stereotyping that I inadvertently allowed myself to feel. "Equating feminist struggle with living in a counter-cultural, woman-centered world erected barriers that closed...
Monique Wittig, a radical feminist, illuminates, “For what makes a woman is a specific social relation to a man, a relation that we call servitude”. The concept of justifying the female inferior image based on biology and the ‘w...
Throughout history our understanding of the world has been manufactured through the judgment of human beings. The overall change and shift in paradigms can be explained by social construction theory. An article written by Carole S. Vance discusses the topic of social construction theory and illustrates how it impacts gender roles. Social construction can be defined as: a critical subject of reality that analyzes the ideas of a particular group or culture based on society and the aspects of society (education, religion, government etc.) Another article “Feminist Critiques of the Public/Private Dichotomy” written by Carole Pateman explains how men had placed women in a hypothetical bubble that is dominated by men. Men have always been looked
In “Gender as a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with Activism”, the author Barbara Risman explains her theory to readers about how gender should be thought of as a social structure. Thinking of it as such would allow people to examine how gender is ingrained in almost every part of society, thus putting gender on an equal level of importance with economics and politics. In society, gender dictates many of the opportunities and limitations that an individual may face in his or her lifetime. Barbara Risman points out the three aspects of the gender structure that happen at an individual, interactional, and institutional level (Risman, pg. 446). First, gender contributes to how a person will develop themselves in life. This is the “individual level”. At an interactional level, men and women face different expectations that are set by society. The individual and interactional level are linked because sometimes, changes to one level can affect the other. The third level, the institutional level, notes that gender is affected by laws, rules, and organizational practices that dictate what
Patricia Hill Collins outlines the existence of three different dimensions of gender oppression: institutional, symbolic, and individual. The institutional dimension consists of systemic relationship of domination structured through social institutions, such as government, the workplace or education institutions. In other words, this dimension explains “who has the power”. This is completely related to a patriarchal society. Patriarchy is the manifestation and institutionalism of male dominance. This means that men hold power in all institutions, while women are denied the access to this power. The symbolic dimension of oppression is based on widespread socially sanctioned ideologies used to justify relations of domination. It reflects inequality
Feminist Theory is an aspect of considering feminism as having been based on socio-phenomenon issues rather than biological or scientific. It appreciates gender inequality, analyzes the societal roles played by feminists in a bid to promote the interests, issues and rights of women in the society. It is also based on the assumption that women play subsidiary roles in the society. The whole idea of feminism has however experienced hurdles in the form of stereotyping by the wider society. This paper tries to examine some of the effects of stereotypes that feminism goes through, what other philosophers say and the way forward towards ending stereotyping.
The piece, “From Ways of Seeing” by John Berger, describes how a man’s actions are perceived and always focused on showing power. However a woman’s presence is opposite and that everything she does determines how people see her. Her choices and actions are what we go by to determine who the woman is. Whereas men want to be seen but women just want to be accepted (4). Aaron H. Devor in, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender” argues that men and women both strive to obtain power (112). Devor shows how the means of how they obtain said power are vastly different and mirror the statements that Berger claims (114). Devor helps further our understanding of how we come to act the specific ways that are customary by divulging the ongoing thought process toward gender of children (109). Berger as well as Devor seem to agree on the topic of how the members of a gender act in society, the motive behind these actions are where differences between the writers
Feminist sociology focuses on examining and understanding gender in its relation to power within society as well as individuals. The fundamental principle of feminist sociology is the idea that in most societies, women have been oppressed and that men have been more dominant throughout history. Feminist theory directly relates to feminist sociology. According to the Introduction to Sociology 2e textbook, “feminist theory is a type of conflict theory that examines inequalities in gender-related issues. It uses the conflict approach to examine the maintenance of gender roles and inequalities” (Openstax 261). This paper aims to analyze feminist theory, discuss its history, as well as emphasizing a current social
Women – beautiful, strong matriarchal forces that drive and define a portion of the society in which we live – are poised and confident individuals who embody the essence of determination, ambition, beauty, and character. Incomprehensible and extraordinary, women are persons who possess an immense amount of depth, culture, and sophistication. Society’s incapability of understanding the frame of mind and diversity that exists within the female population has created a need to condemn the method in which women think and feel, therefore causing the rise of “male-over-female” domination – sexism. Sexism is society’s most common form of discrimination; the need to have gender based separation reveals our culture’s reluctance to embrace new ideas, people, and concepts. This is common in various aspects of human life – jobs, households, sports, and the most widespread – the media. In the media, sexism is revealed through the various submissive, sometimes foolish, and powerless roles played by female models; because of these roles women have become overlooked, ignored, disregarded – easy to look at, but so hard to see.
Among the many subjects covered in this book are the three classes of oppression: gender, race and class in addition to the ways in which they intersect. As well as the importance of the movement being all-inclusive, advocating the idea that feminism is in fact for everybody. The author also touches upon education, parenting and violence. She begins her book with her key argument, stating that feminist theory and the movement are mainly led by high class white women who disregarded the circumstances of underprivileged non-white women.
Gender stratification is the cuts across all aspects of social life and social classes. It refers to the inequality distribution of wealth, power and privilege between men and women at the basis of their sex. The world has been divided and organized by gender, which are the behavioural differences between men and women that are culturally learnt (Appelbaum & Chambliss, 1997:218). The society is in fact historically shaped by males and the issue regarding the fact has been publicly reverberating through society for decades and now is still a debatably hot topic. Men and women have different roles and these sex roles, defined to be the set of behaviour’s and characteristics that are standard for each gender in a society (Singleton, 1987) are deemed to be proper in the eyes of the society. They are as a matter of fact proper but as time move on, the mind-set of women changes as well, women also want to move on. However the institutional stratification by the society has become more insidious that the stereotypical roles have created a huge barrier between men and women. These barriers has affected women in many aspects such as minimizing their access on a more superior position in workforce organization, limits their ownership of property and discriminates them from receiving better attention and care.
West, Candace, and Sarah Fenstermaker. Doing Gender, Doing Difference: Social Inequality, Power and Resistance. New York; London: Routledge, 2002.
Feminists believe that education is an agent of secondary socialization that helps to enforce patriarchy. Cultural transmission has made known the way culture and precisely expectations of the genders can be transmitted from one generation to another. While Sylvia Walby’s ‘‘triple system theory’’ argues that experiences of ethnicity and class complicate what it means to be a female so we have to combine patriarchy with capitalism and
Wharton (2005:21) views gender as a ‘system of social practices’ which gives rise to gender distinctions and maintains it. What Wharton wants to say is that gender involves the creation of both diffe...