Feminism Flashcards
Feminism in Political Science:
Interpretivist and Antifoundational Corner:
Feminism often defies clear ontological or epistemological categorization.
Focuses on understandings, aligning with a strand of constructivist thought typical in feminist perspectives.
What is Feminism?
Feminists share a common concern with women’s unequal position in society, challenging traditionally defended power relations between women and men.
Feminist approaches are explicitly political/normative, aiming not only to recognize and understand gender power relations but also to change them.
Human Rights = Women’s Rights:
Olympe de Gouges: Declaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (1791).
The idea that women should have the right to both the scaffold and the podium, linking criminal law liability to political eligibility.
Women’s Education and Socialization:
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792).
Critiques the socialization of women from infancy, emphasizing the need for equal education to reveal their full potential.
Feminism: First Wave:
Focused on equal legal and constitutional rights in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Continued relevance, as seen in issues like the gender gap in elected officials in countries like Switzerland.
Feminism: Second Wave:
Expanded focus on workplace and family equality, domestic violence, and reproductive rights.
Questioned the distinction between public and private spheres.
Feminism: Third Wave:
Critical of liberal feminism, emphasizing intersectionality and being generally sex-positive.
Challenges binary distinctions between men and women and explores nonbinary gender constructs.
Women in Politics:
Historically excluded from politics, women remain underrepresented in political leadership roles.
Gender disparity persists in political science disciplines.
Standard Sexist Frame: Female ‘Hysteria’:
Examines the historical theme of women’s hysteria, a sexist frame in understanding women’s behavior.
Feminist Critiques of ‘Malestream’ Polisci:
Challenges include fudging footnotes, assuming male dominance, accepting masculinity as the political ideal, explaining political behavior through stereotypes, and excluding traditional women’s roles from politics.
Is Sex/Gender Constructed?:
Influenced by constructivism, there’s a move to rethink gender as a socially constructed concept.
Questions the ‘natural’ sex/gender binary, suggesting that human bodies are constructed as male and female.
Positivism is Limited:
Positivism is seen as limited in observing objective facts, particularly in the context of feminist critiques in political science.
