Democracy and civil society Essay PDF

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Question 10. The feminist critique has been essential to the development of modern democracy....

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SOC30470

Democracy and Civil Society

Question 10. The feminist critique has been essential to the development of modern democracy.

Throughout the century’s women have been the outliers and condemned to an everlasting silence, forbidden to be present in society. According to many accounts within the political sphere there is a clear divide between the public and private sphere[ CITATION Lan98 \l 6153 ]. The ambiguity remains within the division of confinement amongst the sexes. This was normalized for female’s adjoining to remain silenced, enforcing them to remain within the private sphere of the domestic institution. Their individual rights did not appeal within the domain of domestic field implying that there is a hierarchy within the private sphere, but they are still striped from their own privacy within their household[ CITATION Lan98 \l 6153 ]. Family is a major part within the private as well as public spheres, argued alongside the domestic sphere interlinking within specification implying dynasty is not very much not part of political theory and is still under the male rule[ CITATION Lan98 \l 6153 ]. Many theorists have touched on the topic of oppressing women, incidentally all being males, Locke, Rousseau and Hegel being the most prominently outspoken on this domain. The political issues of gender has been neglected as a whole throughout the documentations of all the theorists, the transition to gender neutral language is more or less quite new, since the mid-1970s theorist have tried to avoid the generic use of referring everything including the assertion of male prominence and domination within the sphere. This is a minor development in which it considerably driven by the feminist critique, assumptions have been formulated on family life, it is just assumed and never discussed. The whole point about feminism overall is to start a conversation regarding equalising sexual roles and remodel per assumptions to be up to date with modern democracy[ CITATION Phi98 \l 6153 ]. Meaning

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that the social vision needed to be resulted. This stems from the issues of the lack of discussion of family in political thought and moreover the misgenderfication including neglection of gender by mainstream theorists[ CITATION Phi98 \l 6153 ].

As women were being oppressed within the political field the main topical reason being based on gender. Feminists came to a realisation that males being dominant within the economical stance within politics greatly contributes to the liberal theory of economics being strictly political. Leaving females as outliers within the general political domain. Feminists accumulated a stance against this social oppression against women. This development is critical to aid development of modern democracy. Women's Movement theorists take a stance embedding the view of the greater importance of gender and arguing the correlation of economical power in the political sphere shows major similarities corresponding to the practices within the public and domestic sphere[ CITATION Phi98 \l 6153 ]. Implying their stance on the personal being political. The personal is political foundations the backgrounds of women becoming submissive and confined to the family role was never actually discussed or overviewed[ CITATION Lan98 \l 6153 ], the concept of division of labour between the sexes was viewed as natural and unchangeable[ CITATION Phi98 \l 6153 ]. Within the feminist community there has been an interlinkage between women’s domestic roles and their inequality and segregation within the workplace. Feminists unitedly argue the importance of total abomination of the distinction of the two spheres[ CITATION Lan98 \l 6153 ]. A challenge was opposed to the division of labour between the two sexes being unnatural. Family is not tied to gender structure moreover once this conversation was initiated it opened a new topic of conversation challenging this structure that openly oppressed women. This enabled the influence on women in proceeding in democratic

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transitions attracting adherents and help achieve movement goals within the feminist community. Family has remained as a central topic to the feminism critique and leading to the mobilisation of the feminist movement highlighting the significance of women’s domestic roles and the struggle of segregation in the workplace[ CITATION Hig97 \l 6153 ]. One of the major attributes that aided this movement is that what transpires in individual life, principally in relation to sexual category, is not exempt from the dynamic of power, which has been repeatedly seen as a differentiating element of the political. Stemming into the concept that was uncovered; that within the domestic division of labour female child-rearing is socially constructed, overall a gender constructed norm. this concept within feminist critique enables a movement towards a democratic transition. The feminists demands are slowly unveiling and breaking through the heavily stigmatized norms that have oppressed women confining them to their only role of being care givers within their home within the private sphere[ CITATION Lan98 \l 6153 ]. Furthermore they ironically do not attain any privacy within the private sphere are they are being confined and watched by the male superiors from the economical political sphere[ CITATION Lan98 \l 6153 ]. The topic of gender resurfacing throughout the emergence of feminism plays a major responsibility in perusing the breakdown of the spheres and encouraging many new movements such as post transition movements framing gender differences[ CITATION Lan98 \l 6153 ]. These pretransition mobilization movants by women we stifled by many governments trying to regain control and oppressing women[ CITATION Phi98 \l 6153 ].

The design of democracy and representation was sculpted around males being superior and very much excluded women. Gender roles stem back from ancient Greece when originally

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social contract was formulated. The major theorists that portray this social domain are; Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. This was all portrayed throughout the centuries and vividly presented through the various revolutions; the two major ones being the French revolution and the American revolution. This was generated by gender to form the gender parity. Females remained seen as care givers and subordinates within the household. multiple factors have influenced the expansion of gender inequality especially in politics and democracy[ CITATION Hig97 \l 6153 ]. Cultural, socio-economic and political aspects have determined the involvement of females in democracy especially admittance to dominance. Culturally females were not granted permission to access tertiary level education, varying throughout religions, predominantly within Catholicism and Protestantism. Within Ireland during the 19th and 20th century females predominantly stayed at home to care for the children, housework and to care for the husband who was the breadwinner of the household[ CITATION Phi98 \l 6153 ]. Women were predominantly tied to the gender responsibility of providing care for the husband and being unable to peruse or continue their tutelage[ CITATION Lan98 \l 6153 ]. These norms were enforced within Ireland prominently but the catholic church, once you are married you are committed to your husband in every aspect. If a married woman tried to peruse a tertiary education, she would be sent to one of the “Magdalene Laundries” just because they deviated from social norms. These laundries were known as asylums for women that presented societal debilitation in society in the present era.

This cultural aspect clearly inhibited women from entering the democracy field as they were bound to family life and providing total family care. The pivotal point in the development of modern democracy, in Ireland, by the influence of the feminist critique was the campaign by the suffragettes enabling a conversation to women having the right to vote in 4

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parliamentary elections. The 1918 act provided a regulated regiment of women to take part in parliamentary election[ CITATION Kel96 \l 6153 ]. This was one of the greatest human rights achievements in Ireland and a milestone for the achievement of suffrage for women. This had a lead on effects throughout Ireland and Britain. One of the first feminist’s texts was published in 1792 by Mary Wollstonecraft, ‘Vindication of the Rights of Women’. Highlighting the importance of education for women in especially achieving the advance for women [ CITATION Wol97 \l 6153 ]. This was the breakthrough that formulated the women’s revolution in the west. Wollstonecraft’s critique is a discourse on the oppression of womanhood within the populace and their aptitude in her epoch. The reason as to why this dissertation became so promenade in aiding women’s revolution was that Wollstonecraft wrote the treaties on women’s oppression in society was as a rebuke to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution, in which he advocates for traditional structures in society for total prosperity. The publishing of a book retaliating against burke, by Thomas Paine, this fuelled Wollstonecraft to go a step further and formulate a dissertation on the argument for women’s rights to be on the same footing as men. Urging the reform of female’s education in order to collectively be able to work in synchronicity with men to further befit society as a whole and thus implying that there is a need for a new reformed democracy, modern democracy. For the late 18th century this was deemed as complete deviation from society as no one dared to speak out about gender equality. Many more women and men engaged and embraced Wollstonecraft’s message and embarked on the feminist journey. Anna Doyle Wheeler and William Thompson were feminists of the 19 th century in Ireland, they perhaps aided the transition of gender equality, attempting to voice the conditions married women were living in at home. So, in hindsight the change in participation in deliberation amalgamated the proportion of males to equal the proportion of females leading to

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conceivably the development of justice in society and development in the economical perspective. Socio economic shaped the conditions in which lead to the development of democracy and excluding women. It has aided the development of modern democracy once women rebuked ageist the norms within society, they attained secondary and tertiary education. Enabling them to seek and attain work. This helped them to formulate new standards in society; women can and are entitled to seek work within the economical and political fields.

Constitutional factors contributed to the slow development of introducing women into democracy and participation in politics worldwide, bearing in mind there is still a long way to achieving total equality amongst both genders. The main aspects however did influence female involvement in the political environment, alongside women gaining the right to vote, but

also

being

able

and

encouraged

to

attain

secondary

and

ternary

level

education[ CITATION Kel96 \l 6153 ]. This took a knock-on effect of a larger percentage of females entering the workforce, furthermore women’s intelligence brought light on the aspect of the gender pay gap and still in the 21st century females are trying to achieve equal pay between both genders. Historic enablement of attaining education fed females striking power to enter the parliament and raise impressive question of equal distribution of gender in the interior tense workplace[ CITATION Phi98 \l 6153 ]. This accomplishment opened a conversation concerning political affairs for women to gain a seat within parliament and contribute to modern democracy and shaping a more sustainable and equal society worldwide[ CITATION Lan98 \l 6153 ]. The first female Prime Minister in the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher, was elected in 1979, just forty years ago. Only three years ago Hillary Clinton was the first 6

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female to obtain a presidential nomination. In retrospect these accomplishments may seem minimal but are pivotal moments for any woman. This is considered in a positive light within the feminist community, all the small achievements add up to generate a profound moment for women, giving them the courage, they need to conquer and accomplish even mover. It used to be a silent battel for feminists but now with internet access alongside social media the feminist group is growing at a profound rate, expanding with support from both genders. New forms of energy womankind add as a political strategy breaking down the differences between women and men and thus improving mainstream political practice and thought by feminism support formation of new ideas in democracy and in society[ CITATION Phi98 \l 6153 ]. This led to social norms against women to slowly disassemble in society, the stigma that women are not as smart as males, they are incompetent, and too sensitive to cooperate in a political environment and not being able to physically and mentally cope with the real world politics as they lack experience. However, all these characterises that were forced upon women have more or less been broken and proven wrong as women have shaped a new modern democracy that is more focused on quality amongst gender.

In conclusion to how literature interlinking with culture has reinforced or undermined economic, political, societal oppression of women and how has it been essential to the development of modern democracy[ CITATION Lan98 \l 6153 ]. There are aspects that are pivotal to the acceleration of women’s movements and some aspects are not as grand comparable to the major achievements. However, each achievement obtained by any feminist to better society and democracy is deemed important, meaning even the mediocre achievements are very valuable in the long run. Such as women overcoming subtle forms of power honoured by men leading to the great discussion of gender parity in politics, as feminists argued that the personal is the political[ CITATION Lan98 \l 6153 ]. Concerning 7

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alignment with the social sphere interlinking majorly with domestic role females were oppressed to, breaking these norms what is more bridging the gender gap concerning democracy by rebuking against men who oppress womankind, enforcing their views on maintaining traditional roles in order to maintain society and build a better society[ CITATION Wol97 \l 6153 ]. For the reason women had the courage to voice their opinion during a time of oppression, it has led to milestones in modern democracy. Gender gaps closing within democracy and politics, enforcing and standing by their views led feminists to achieve in the minimisation of the gender pay gap, still fighting for equal pay. All of this would not be possible if women did not fight from the start; the breakdown of Male monopoly; men monopolize representation is beginning to deteriorate, gender parity has progressed in a positive light. Gender quota for companies at the end of each tax year have to be submitted published or else the company face a fine if they do not meet the quota or do not want to sublet/ publish the results.

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Bibliography Higgins, T. E., 1997. Democracy and Feminism.. Harvard Law Review, 110(8), p. 1657–1703. Kelly, V., 1996. Irish Suffragettes at the Time of the Home Rule Crisis. History Ireland, 4(1), pp. 3338. Landes, J. B., 1998. Feminism, the public and the private. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Phillips, A., 1998. Feminism and politics. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. Wollstonecraft, M., 1759-1797. A Vindication of the Rights of Women: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects. 1972 ed. London: Printed for J. Johnson.

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