Post by tand on Mar 20, 2013 3:31:11 GMT -5
Philosophical trends in the Feminist movement (part 1) - Anuradha Gandhy
toanewdawn.blogspot.in/2013/03/philosophical-trends-in-feminist.html
(This article is available on the internet for the first time, please circulate widely.)
Internationally one of the most remarkable developments in the capitalist era has been the emergence and growth of the women's movement. For the first time in human history women came out collectively to demand their rights, their place under the sun. The emancipation of women from centuries of oppression became an urgent and immediate question. The movement threw up theoretical analyses and solutions on the question of women's oppression. The women's movement has challenged the present patriarchal, exploitative society both through its activities and through its theories.
It is not that earlier women did not realize their oppression. They did. They articulated this oppression in various ways - through folk songs, pithy idioms and poems, paintings and other forms of art to which they had access. They also raved against the injustice they had to suffer. They interpreted and re-interpreted myths and epics to express their viewpoint. The various versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharat for example, still in circulation among rural women through songs in various parts of India, are a vivid testimony of this.
Some remarkable women emerged in the feudal period who sought out ways through the means available at the time and became symbols of resistance to the patriarchal set-up. Meerabai, the woman saint is only one example among many such who left a lasting impact on society. This is time for all societies in the world. This was a counterculture, reflecting a consciousness of the oppressed. But it was limited by circumstances and was unable to find a way out, a path to end the oppression. In most cases they sought a solution in religion, or a personal God.
The development of capitalism brought about a tremendous change in social conditions and thinking. The concept of democracy meant people became important. Liberalism as a social and political philosophy led the change in its early phase; women from the progressive social classes came forward as a collective. Thus, for the first time in history a women's own movement emerged, that demanded from society their rights and emancipation. This movement has, like all other social movements, had its flows and ebbs. The impact of capitalism, however constricted and distorted in the colonies like India, had their impact on progressive men and women.
A women's own movement in India emerged in the first part of the 20th century. It was part of this international ferment and yet rooted in the contradictions of Indian society. The theories that emerged in capitalist countries found their way to India and got applied to Indian conditions. The same is true in an even more sharp way in the context of the contemporary women's movement that arose in the late 1960s in the West. The contemporary women's movement has posed many more challenges before society because the limits of capitalism in its imperialist phase are now nakedly clear. It had taken much struggle to gain formal legitimacy for the demand for equality. And even after that, equality was still unrealized not just in the backward countries, but even in advanced capitalist countries like U S A and France.
The women's movement now looked for the roots of oppression in the very system of society itself The women's movement analyzed the system of patriarchy and sought the origins of patriarchy in history. They grappled with the social sciences and showed up the male bias inherent in them. They exposed how a patriarchal way of thinking colored all analysis regarding women's role in history and in contemporary society. Women have a history, women are in history they said..(Gerda Lerner) From studies of history they retrieved the contributions women had made to the development of human society, to major movements and struggles. They also exposed the gender based division of labor under capitalism that relegated an overwhelming majority of women to the least skilled, lowest paid categories. They exposed the way ruling classes; especially the capitalist class has economically gained from patriarchy. They exposed the patriarchal bias of the State, its laws and regulations.
The feminists' analyzed the symbols and traditions of a given society and showed how they perpetuate the patriarchal system. The feminists gave importance to the oral tradition and thus were able to bring to the surface the voice of the women suppressed throughout history. The movement forced men and women to look critically at their own attitudes and thoughts, their actions and words regarding women. The movement challenged various patriarchal, anti-women attitudes that tainted even progressive and revolutionary movements and affected women's participation in them. Notwithstanding the theoretical confusions and weaknesses the feminist movement has contributed significantly to our understanding of the women's question in the present day world. The worldwide movement for democracy and socialism has been enriched by the women's movement.
One of the important characteristics of the contemporary women's movement has been the effort made by feminists to theorize on the condition of women. They have entered into the field of philosophy in order to give a philosophical foundation to their analysis and approach. Women sought philosophies of liberation and grappled with various philosophical trends which they felt could give a vision to the struggle of women. Various philosophical trends like Existentialism, Marxism, Anarchism, Liberalism were all studied and adopted by active women movement in US and then England. Thus feminists are an eclectic group who include a diverse range of approaches, perspectives and frameworks depending on the philosophical trend they adopt. Yet they share a commitment to give voice to women's experiences and to end women's subordination. Given the hegemony of the West these trends have had a strong influence on the women's movement within India too. Hence a serious study of the women's movement must include an understanding of the various theoretical trends in the movement.
Feminist philosophers have been influenced by philosophers as diverse as Locke, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Derida, Nietzsche, Freud. Yet most of them have concluded that traditional philosophy is male-biased, its major concepts and theories, its own self-understanding reveals "a distinctively masculine way of approaching the world." (Alison Jagger). Hence they have tried to transform traditional philosophy. Keeping this background in mind we have undertaken to present some of the main philosophical trends among feminists. One point to take note of is that these various trends are not fixed and separate. Some feminists have opposed these categories. Some have changed their approach over time, some can be seen to have a mix of two or more trends. Yet for an understanding these broad trends can be useful. But before discussing the theories we will begin with a very brief account of the development of the women's movement in the West, esp the US. This is necessary to understand the atmosphere in which the theoretical developments among feminists grew.
Overview of Women's Movement in the West
The women's movement in the West is divided into two phases. The first phase arose in the mid 19^^' century and ended by the 1920s, while the second phase began in the 1960s. The first phase is known for the suffragette movement or the movement of women for their political rights, that is the right to vote. The women's movement arose in the context of the growth of capitalism and the spread of a democratic ideology. It arose in the context of other social movements that emerged at the time. In the US the movement to free the black slaves and the movement to organise the ever increasing ranks of the proletariat were an important part of the socio-political ferment of the 19th century.
In the 1830s and 40s the abolitionists (those campaigning for the abolition of slavery) included some educated women who braved social opposition to campaign to free the Negroes from slavery. Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Anthony, Angeline Grimke were among the women active in the anti-slavery movement who later became active in the struggle for women's political rights.
But opposition within the anti-slavery organizations to women representing them and to women in leadership forced the women to think about their own status in society and their own rights. In the US, women in various States started getting together to demand their right to common education with men, for manned women's rights to property and divorce.
The Seneca Fall Convention organized by Stanton, Anthony and others in 1848 proved to be a landmark in the history of the first phase of the women's movement in the US. They adopted a Declaration o f Sentiments modeled on the Declaration o f Independence, in which they demanded equal rights in marriage, property, wages and the vote. For 20 years after this Convention state level conventions were held, propaganda campaigns through lecture tours, pamphlets, signature petitions conducted.
In 1868 an amendment was brought to the Constitution (14th amendment) granting the right to vote to blacks but not to women. Stanton, Anthony campaigned against this amendment but were unsuccessful in preventing it. A split between the women and abolitionists took place. Meanwhile the working class movement also grew, though the established trade union leadership was not interested in organising women workers. Only the IWW supported efforts to organise women workers who worked long hours for extremely low wages. Thousands of women were garment workers. Anarchists, Socialists, Marxists, some of whom were women, worked among the workers and organised them. Among them were Emma Goldman, Ella Reevs Bloor, Mother Jones, Sojourner Truth. In the 1880s militant struggles and repression became the order of the day. Most of the suffrage leaders showed no interest in the exploitation of workers and did not support their movement.
Towards the end of the century and beginning of the 20th century a working class women's movement developed rapidly. The high point of this was the strike of almost 40,000 women garment workers in 1909. The socialist women were very active in Europe and leading communist women like Eleanor Marx, Clara Zetkin, Alexandra Kollantai, Vera Zasulich were in the forefront of the struggle to organise working women. Thousands of working women were organised and women's papers and magazines were published.
Alexandra Kollontai, a central leader of the Russian Revolution
It was at the Second International Conference o f Working Women in Copenhagen that Clara Zetkin, the German communist and famous leader of the international women's movement, inspired by the struggle of American women workers, moved the resolution to commemorate March 8 as Women's Day at the international level. By the end of the century, the women's situation had undergone much change in the US. Though they did not have the right to vote, in the field of education, property rights, employment they had made many gains. Hence the demand for the vote gained respectability. The movement took a more conservative turn , separating the question of gaining the right to vote from all other social and political issues. Their main tactics was petitioning and lobbying with senators etc. It became active in 1914 with the entry of Alice Paul who introduced the militant tactics of the British suffragettes, like picketing, hunger strikes, sit-ins etc. Due to their active campaign and militant tactics women won the right to vote in America in 1920.
The women's struggle in Britain started later than the American movement but it took a more militant turn' in the beginning of the 20th century with Emmeline Pankhurst, her daughters and their supporter^ adopting militant tactics to draw attention to their demands, facing arrest several times to press their demand. They had formed the Women's Social and Political Union (WPSU) in 1903 when they got disillusioned with the style of work of the older organisations. This WSPU spearheaded the agitation for suffrage. But they compromised with the British Government when the First World War broke out in 1914. Both in US and in England the leaders of the movement were white and middle class and restricted their demand to the middle class women. It was the socialists and communist women who rejected the demand for the vote being limited to those with property and broadened the demand to include the vote for all women, including working class women. They organised separate mass mobilisations in support of the demand for the women's right to vote.
The women's movement did not continue during the period of the Depression, rise of fascism and the world war. In the post Second World War period America saw a boom in its economy and the growth of the middle class. In the war years women had taken up all sorts of jobs to run the economy but after that they were encouraged to give up their jobs and become good housewives and mothers. This balloon o f prosperity and contentment lasted till the 1960s. Social unrest with the black civil rights movement gained ground and later the anti-war movement (against the Vietnam War) emerged.
It was a period of great turmoil. The Cultural Revolution that began in China too had its impact. Political activity among university students increased and it is in this atmosphere of social and political turmoil that the women's movement once again emerged, this time initially from among university students and faculty.
Women realized that they faced discrimination in employment, in wages, and overall in the way they were treated in society. The consumerist ideology also came under attack. Simone de Beauvoir had written The Second Sex in 1949 itself but its impact was felt now. Betty Friedan had written the Feminine Mystique in 1963. The book became extremely popular. She initiated the National Organisation of Women in 1966 to fight against the discrimination women faced and to struggle for equal rights amendment.
But the autonomous women's movement (radical feminist movement) emerged from within the student movement that had leftist leanings. Black students in the Student Non-violent Coordination Council (SNCC) (which campaigned for civil rights for blacks) threw out the white men and women students at the Chicago Convention in 1968, on the grounds that only blacks would struggle for black liberation. Similarly the idea that women's liberation is a women's struggle gained ground.
In this context, women members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) demanded that women's liberation be a part of the national council in their June 1968 convention. But they were hissed and voted down. Many of these women walked out and formed the WRAP (Women's Radical Action Project) in Chicago. Women within the New University Conference (NUC – a national level body of university students, staff and faculty who wanted a socialist America) formed a Women's Caucus. Marlene Dixon and Naomi Wisstein from Chicago were leading in this. Shulamith Firestone and Pamela Allen began similar activity in New York and formed the New York Radical Women (N YRW). All of them rejected the liberal view that changes in the law and equal rights amendment would solve women's oppression and believed that the entire structure of society has to be transformed. Hence they called themselves radical. They came to hold the opinion that mixed groups and parties (men and women) like the socialist party, SDS, New Left will not be able to take the struggle for women's liberation forward and a women's movement, autonomous from parties is needed. The NYRW's first public action was the protest against the Miss America beauty contest w^hich brought the fledgling women's movement into national prominence.
Rosa Luxemburg
A year later N Y W R divided into Redstockings and WITCH (Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell). The Red Stockings issued their manifesto in 1969 and in this the position of radical feminism was clearly presented for the first time. " . . we identify the agents o f our oppression as men, Mal e supremacy is the oldest, most basic form of domination. All other forms of exploitation and oppression (racism, capitalism, imperialism etc) a r e extensions of male supremacy: men dominate women, a few men dominate the rest,,,.'' Sisterhood is powerful, and the personal is political became their slogans which gained wide popularity. Meanwhile the SDS issued its position paper on Women's Liberation in December 1968. This was debated by women from various points of view. Kathy McAfee and Myrna Wood wrote Bread and Roses to signify that the struggle cannot be only against economic exploitation of capitalism (bread) but also against the psychological and social oppression that women faced (Roses).
These debates carried out in the various journals produced by the women's groups that emerged in this period were taken seriously and influenced the course and trends within the women's movement not only in the US but in other countries as well. The groups mainly took the form of small circles for consciousness raising. It must be noted that all of these were following either the Trotskite or Cuban socialism within the left movement. They opposed all types of hierarchical structures. In this way the socialist feminist and the radical feminist trend within the women's movement emerged. Though it had many limitations i f seen from a Marxist perspective, it raised questions and brought many aspects of women oppression out into the open.
In the later 1960s and early 70s in the US and Western Europe ‘‘different groups had different visions of revolution . There were feminist, black, anarchist , Marxist - Leninist and other versions of revolutionary politics , but the belief that revolution of one sort or another was round the corner cut across these division s . ''(Barbara Epstein)
The socialist (Marxist) and radical feminists shared a vision about revolution. During this first period the feminists were grappling with Marxist theory and key concepts like production, reproduction, class consciousness and labor. Both the socialist feminists and radical feminists were trying to change Marxist theory to incorporate feminist understanding of women's position. But after 1975 there was a shift. Systemic analysis (of capitalism, of the entire social structure) was replaced or recast as cultural feminism.
Cultural feminism begins with the assumption that men and women are basically different. It focused on the cultural features of patriarchal oppression and primarily aimed for reforms in this area. Unlike radical and socialist feminism, it adamantly rejects any critique of capitalism and emphasises patriarchy as the roots of women's oppression and veers towards separatism. In the late 1970s and 1980s, lesbian feminism emerged as one current within the feminist movement. At the same time women of color (Black women, third world women in the advanced capitalist countries) raised criticisms about the ongoing feminist movement and began to articulate their versions of feminism. Organizations among working class women for equal treatment at the workplace, childcare etc also started growing. That the feminist movement had been restricted to white, middle class, educated women in advanced capitalist countries and was focusing on issues primarily of their concern had become obvious. This gave rise to global or multicultural feminism.
In the third world countries women's groups also became active, but all the issues were not necessarily 'purely' women's issues. Violence against women has been a major issue, esp rape, but alongside there have been issues that emerged from exploitation due to colonialism and neo-colonialism, poverty and exploitation by landlords, peasant issues, displacement, apartheid and many other such problems that were important in their own countries. In the early 1990s post-modernism became influential among feminists. But the right-wing conservative backlash against feminism grew in the 1980s, focusing opposition to the feminist struggle for abortion rights. They also attacked feminism for destroying the family, emphasizing the importance of women's role in the family.
Yet the feminist perspective spread wide and countless activist groups, social and cultural projects at the grasroots grew and continued to be active. Women's studies too spread widely. Health care and environment issues have been the focus of attention of many of these groups. Many leading feminists were absorbed in academic jobs. At the same time many of the major organisations and caucuses have become large institutions, absorbed by the establishment, run with staff and like any established bureaucratic institution. Activism declined.
Women hold up half the sky!
In the 1990s the feminist movement is known more from the activities of these organisations and the writings of feminists in the academic realm. ''Feminism has become more an idea than a movement, and one that lack the visionary quality it once had'' wrote Barbara Epstein in Monthly Review (May 2001). In the 1990s the increasing gap between the economic condition of working class and oppressed minorities and the middle classes, the continuing gender inequality, increasing violence on women, the onslaught of globalization and its impact on people, esp women in the third world has led to a renewed interest in Marxism.
At the same time the participation of Women, esp. young women, in a range of political movements, as evident in the anti-globalisation and anti-war movements, has further helped the process of awakening. With this brief overview of the development of the women's movement in the West we will analyse the propositions of the main theoretical trends within the feminist movement.
1) Liberal Feminism
Liberal feminist thought has enjoyed a long history in the 18th and 19th centuries with thinkers as Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 to 1797), Harriet Taylor M i l l (1807 to 1858), Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815 to 1902) arguing for the rights of women on the basis of liberal philosophical understanding. The movement for equal rights to women, esp the struggle for the right to vote was primarily based on liberal thought.
Earlier liberal political philosophers, like John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau who had argued for the rule of reason, equality of all, did not include women in their understanding of those deserving of equality, particularly political equality. They failed to apply their liberal theory to the position of women in society. The values of liberalism including the core belief in the importance and autonomy of the individual developed in the 17th century.
It emerged with the development of capitalism in Europe in opposition to feudal patriarchal values based on inequality. It was the philosophy of the rising bourgeoisie. The feudal values were based on the belief of the inherent superiority of the elite — esp the monarchs. The rest were subjects, subordinates. They defended hierarchy, with unequal rights and power. In opposition to these feudal values liberal philosophy advanced a belief in the natural equality and freedom of human beings. ''They advocated a social and political structure that would recognize equality of all individuals and Provide them with equality of opportunity. This philosophy was rigorously rational and secular and the most power full and progressive formulation of the Enlightenment period . It was marked by intense individualism. Yet the famous 18th century liberal philosophers like Rousseau and Locke did not apply the same principles to the patriarchal family and the position of women with in it . This was the residual patriarchal bias of liberalism that applied only to men in the market.’’ — Zillah Eisenstein.
Mary Wollstonecraft belonged to the radical section of the intellectual aristocracy in England that supported the French and American Revolutions. She wrote ' A Vindication of the Rights of Women' in 1791 in response to Edmund Burke's conservative interpretation of the significance of the French Revolution. In the booklet she argued against the feudal patriarchal notions about women's natural dependence on men, that women were created to please men, that they cannot be independent. Wollstonecraft wrote before the rise of the women's movement and her arguments are based on logic and rationality. Underlying Wollstonecraft's analysis are the basic principles of the Enlightenment: the belief in the human capacity to reason and in the concepts of freedom and equality that preceded and accompanied the American and French revolutions. She recognized reason as the only authority and argued that unless women were encouraged to develop their rational potential and to rely on their own judgment, the progress of all humanity would be retarded. She argued primarily in favor of women getting the same education as men so that they could also be imbibed with the qualities of rational thinking and should be provided with opportunities for earning and leading an independent life. She strongly criticised Rousseau's ideas on women's education.
According to her, Rousseau's arguments that women's education should be different from that of men have contributed to make women more artificial weak characters. Rousseau's logic was that women should be educated in a manner so as to impress upon them that obedience is the highest virtue. Her arguments reflect the class limitations of her thinking. While she wrote that women from the ''common classes" displayed more virtue because they worked and were to some extent independent, she also believed that the most respectable women are the most oppressed."
Her book was influential even in America at that time. Harriet Taylor, also part ot the bourgeois intellectual circles of London and wife of the well known Utilitarian philosopher James Stuart M i l l , wrote " On the Enfranchisement of Women " in 1851 in support of the women's movement just as it emerged in the US. Giving stark liberal arguments against opponents of women's rights and in favor of women having the same rights as men, she wrote, ''We deny the right of any portion of the species to decide for another portion , or any individual for another individual , what is and what is
not their '' proper sphere". The proper sphere for all human beings is the largest and highest which they are able to attain to ..." Noting the significance of the fact that she wrote 'The world is very young, and has but Just begun to cast off injustice. It is only now getting rid of Negro slavery, Can we wonder it has n o t yet done as much for women? “In fact the liberal basis of the women's movement as it emerged in the mid 19^'^ century in the US is clear in the Seneca Falls Declaration (1848). The declaration at this first national convention began thus: "We hold these truths to be self -evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain in alienable rights ; that among these are life , liberty and pursuit of happiness...."
In the next phase of the women's movement in the late 1960s among the leading proponents of liberal ideas was Betty Friedan, Bella Abzzug, Pat Schroeder. Friedan founded the organisation National Organisation of Women (NOW) in 1966. The liberal feminists emerged from among those who were working in women's rights groups, government agencies, commissions etc. Their initial concern was to get laws amended which denied equality to women in the sphere of education, employment etc. They also campaigned against social conventions that limited women's opportunities on the basis of gender. But as these legal and educational barriers began to fall it became clear that the liberal strategy of changing the laws within the existing system was not enough to get women justice and freedom. They shifted their emphasis to struggling for equality of conditions rather than merely equality of opportunity.
This meant the demand that the state play a more active role in creating the conditions in 22 which women can actually realise opportunities. The demand for childcare, welfare, healthcare, unemployment wage, special schemes for the single mother etc have been taken up by liberal feminists. The struggle for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has also been led by this section among feminists. The work of the liberal section among feminists has been through national level organisations and thus they have been noticed by the media as well. A section among the liberal feminists like Zillah Eisenstein argue that liberalism has a potential as a liberating ideology because working women can through their life experiences see the contradiction between liberal democracy as an ideology and capitalist patriarchy which denies them the equality promised by the ideology. But liberalism was not the influential trend within the movement in this phase.
Critique
Liberalism as a philosophy emerged within the womb of feudal western society as the bourgeoisie was struggling to come to power. Hence it included an attack on the feudal values of divinely ordained truth and hierarchy (social inequality). It stood for reason and equal rights for all individuals. But this philosophy was based on extreme individualism rather than collective effort. Hence it promoted the approach that if formal, legal equality was given to all, and then it was for the individuals to take advantage of the opportunities available and become successful in life.
The question of class differences and the effect of class differences on opportunities available to people was not taken into consideration. Initially liberalism played a progressive role in breaking the feudal social and political institutions. But in the 19th century after the growth of the working class and its movements, the limitations of liberal thinking came to the fore. For the bourgeoisie that had come to power did not extend the rights it professed to the poor and other oppressed sections (like women, or blacks in the US). They had to struggle for their rights. The women's movement and the Black movement in that phase were able to demand their rights utilising the arguments of the liberals. Women from the bourgeois classes were in the forefront of this movement and they did not extend the question of rights to the working classes, including working class women.
But as working class ideologies emerged, various trends of socialism found support among the active sections of the working class. They began to question the very bourgeois socio-economic and political system and the limitations of liberal ideology with its emphasis on formal equality and individual freedom. In this phase liberalism lost its progressive role and we see that the main women's organisations both in the US and England fighting for suffrage had a very narrow aim and became pro-imperialist and anti-working class. In the present phase liberal feminists have had to go beyond the narrow confines of formal equality to campaign for positive collective rights like welfare measures for single mothers, prisoners etc and demand a welfare state.
Liberalism has the following weaknesses:
1. It focuses on the individual rights rather than collective rights
2. It is ahistorical. It does not have a comprehensive understanding of women's role in history nor has it any analysis for the subordination (subjugation) of women.
3. It tends to be mechanical in its support for formal equality without a concrete understanding of the condition of different sections/classes of women and their specific problems. Hence it was able to express the demands of the middle classes (white women from middle classes in the US and upper class, upper caste women in India) but not those of women from various oppressed ethnic groups, castes and the working, labouring classes.
4. It is restricted to changes in the law, educational and employment opportunities, welfare measures etc and does not question the economic and political structures of the society which give rise to patriarchal discrimination. Hence it is reformist in its orientation, both in theory and in practice.
5. It believes that the state is neutral and can be made to intervene in favour of women when in fact the bourgeois state in the capitalist countries and the semi-colonial and semi-feudal Indian state are patriarchal and will not support women's struggle for emancipation. The State is defending the interests of the ruling classes who benefit from the subordination and devalued status of women.
6. Since it focuses on changes in the law, and state schemes for women, it has emphasised lobbying and petitioning as means to get their demands. The liberal trend most often has restricted its activity to meetings and conventions and mobilising petitions calling for changes. It has rarely mobilised the strength of the mass of women and is in fact afraid of the militant mobilisation of poor women in large numbers.
toanewdawn.blogspot.in/2013/03/philosophical-trends-in-feminist.html
(This article is available on the internet for the first time, please circulate widely.)
Internationally one of the most remarkable developments in the capitalist era has been the emergence and growth of the women's movement. For the first time in human history women came out collectively to demand their rights, their place under the sun. The emancipation of women from centuries of oppression became an urgent and immediate question. The movement threw up theoretical analyses and solutions on the question of women's oppression. The women's movement has challenged the present patriarchal, exploitative society both through its activities and through its theories.
It is not that earlier women did not realize their oppression. They did. They articulated this oppression in various ways - through folk songs, pithy idioms and poems, paintings and other forms of art to which they had access. They also raved against the injustice they had to suffer. They interpreted and re-interpreted myths and epics to express their viewpoint. The various versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharat for example, still in circulation among rural women through songs in various parts of India, are a vivid testimony of this.
Some remarkable women emerged in the feudal period who sought out ways through the means available at the time and became symbols of resistance to the patriarchal set-up. Meerabai, the woman saint is only one example among many such who left a lasting impact on society. This is time for all societies in the world. This was a counterculture, reflecting a consciousness of the oppressed. But it was limited by circumstances and was unable to find a way out, a path to end the oppression. In most cases they sought a solution in religion, or a personal God.
The development of capitalism brought about a tremendous change in social conditions and thinking. The concept of democracy meant people became important. Liberalism as a social and political philosophy led the change in its early phase; women from the progressive social classes came forward as a collective. Thus, for the first time in history a women's own movement emerged, that demanded from society their rights and emancipation. This movement has, like all other social movements, had its flows and ebbs. The impact of capitalism, however constricted and distorted in the colonies like India, had their impact on progressive men and women.
A women's own movement in India emerged in the first part of the 20th century. It was part of this international ferment and yet rooted in the contradictions of Indian society. The theories that emerged in capitalist countries found their way to India and got applied to Indian conditions. The same is true in an even more sharp way in the context of the contemporary women's movement that arose in the late 1960s in the West. The contemporary women's movement has posed many more challenges before society because the limits of capitalism in its imperialist phase are now nakedly clear. It had taken much struggle to gain formal legitimacy for the demand for equality. And even after that, equality was still unrealized not just in the backward countries, but even in advanced capitalist countries like U S A and France.
The women's movement now looked for the roots of oppression in the very system of society itself The women's movement analyzed the system of patriarchy and sought the origins of patriarchy in history. They grappled with the social sciences and showed up the male bias inherent in them. They exposed how a patriarchal way of thinking colored all analysis regarding women's role in history and in contemporary society. Women have a history, women are in history they said..(Gerda Lerner) From studies of history they retrieved the contributions women had made to the development of human society, to major movements and struggles. They also exposed the gender based division of labor under capitalism that relegated an overwhelming majority of women to the least skilled, lowest paid categories. They exposed the way ruling classes; especially the capitalist class has economically gained from patriarchy. They exposed the patriarchal bias of the State, its laws and regulations.
The feminists' analyzed the symbols and traditions of a given society and showed how they perpetuate the patriarchal system. The feminists gave importance to the oral tradition and thus were able to bring to the surface the voice of the women suppressed throughout history. The movement forced men and women to look critically at their own attitudes and thoughts, their actions and words regarding women. The movement challenged various patriarchal, anti-women attitudes that tainted even progressive and revolutionary movements and affected women's participation in them. Notwithstanding the theoretical confusions and weaknesses the feminist movement has contributed significantly to our understanding of the women's question in the present day world. The worldwide movement for democracy and socialism has been enriched by the women's movement.
One of the important characteristics of the contemporary women's movement has been the effort made by feminists to theorize on the condition of women. They have entered into the field of philosophy in order to give a philosophical foundation to their analysis and approach. Women sought philosophies of liberation and grappled with various philosophical trends which they felt could give a vision to the struggle of women. Various philosophical trends like Existentialism, Marxism, Anarchism, Liberalism were all studied and adopted by active women movement in US and then England. Thus feminists are an eclectic group who include a diverse range of approaches, perspectives and frameworks depending on the philosophical trend they adopt. Yet they share a commitment to give voice to women's experiences and to end women's subordination. Given the hegemony of the West these trends have had a strong influence on the women's movement within India too. Hence a serious study of the women's movement must include an understanding of the various theoretical trends in the movement.
Feminist philosophers have been influenced by philosophers as diverse as Locke, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Derida, Nietzsche, Freud. Yet most of them have concluded that traditional philosophy is male-biased, its major concepts and theories, its own self-understanding reveals "a distinctively masculine way of approaching the world." (Alison Jagger). Hence they have tried to transform traditional philosophy. Keeping this background in mind we have undertaken to present some of the main philosophical trends among feminists. One point to take note of is that these various trends are not fixed and separate. Some feminists have opposed these categories. Some have changed their approach over time, some can be seen to have a mix of two or more trends. Yet for an understanding these broad trends can be useful. But before discussing the theories we will begin with a very brief account of the development of the women's movement in the West, esp the US. This is necessary to understand the atmosphere in which the theoretical developments among feminists grew.
Overview of Women's Movement in the West
The women's movement in the West is divided into two phases. The first phase arose in the mid 19^^' century and ended by the 1920s, while the second phase began in the 1960s. The first phase is known for the suffragette movement or the movement of women for their political rights, that is the right to vote. The women's movement arose in the context of the growth of capitalism and the spread of a democratic ideology. It arose in the context of other social movements that emerged at the time. In the US the movement to free the black slaves and the movement to organise the ever increasing ranks of the proletariat were an important part of the socio-political ferment of the 19th century.
In the 1830s and 40s the abolitionists (those campaigning for the abolition of slavery) included some educated women who braved social opposition to campaign to free the Negroes from slavery. Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Anthony, Angeline Grimke were among the women active in the anti-slavery movement who later became active in the struggle for women's political rights.
But opposition within the anti-slavery organizations to women representing them and to women in leadership forced the women to think about their own status in society and their own rights. In the US, women in various States started getting together to demand their right to common education with men, for manned women's rights to property and divorce.
The Seneca Fall Convention organized by Stanton, Anthony and others in 1848 proved to be a landmark in the history of the first phase of the women's movement in the US. They adopted a Declaration o f Sentiments modeled on the Declaration o f Independence, in which they demanded equal rights in marriage, property, wages and the vote. For 20 years after this Convention state level conventions were held, propaganda campaigns through lecture tours, pamphlets, signature petitions conducted.
In 1868 an amendment was brought to the Constitution (14th amendment) granting the right to vote to blacks but not to women. Stanton, Anthony campaigned against this amendment but were unsuccessful in preventing it. A split between the women and abolitionists took place. Meanwhile the working class movement also grew, though the established trade union leadership was not interested in organising women workers. Only the IWW supported efforts to organise women workers who worked long hours for extremely low wages. Thousands of women were garment workers. Anarchists, Socialists, Marxists, some of whom were women, worked among the workers and organised them. Among them were Emma Goldman, Ella Reevs Bloor, Mother Jones, Sojourner Truth. In the 1880s militant struggles and repression became the order of the day. Most of the suffrage leaders showed no interest in the exploitation of workers and did not support their movement.
Towards the end of the century and beginning of the 20th century a working class women's movement developed rapidly. The high point of this was the strike of almost 40,000 women garment workers in 1909. The socialist women were very active in Europe and leading communist women like Eleanor Marx, Clara Zetkin, Alexandra Kollantai, Vera Zasulich were in the forefront of the struggle to organise working women. Thousands of working women were organised and women's papers and magazines were published.
Alexandra Kollontai, a central leader of the Russian Revolution
It was at the Second International Conference o f Working Women in Copenhagen that Clara Zetkin, the German communist and famous leader of the international women's movement, inspired by the struggle of American women workers, moved the resolution to commemorate March 8 as Women's Day at the international level. By the end of the century, the women's situation had undergone much change in the US. Though they did not have the right to vote, in the field of education, property rights, employment they had made many gains. Hence the demand for the vote gained respectability. The movement took a more conservative turn , separating the question of gaining the right to vote from all other social and political issues. Their main tactics was petitioning and lobbying with senators etc. It became active in 1914 with the entry of Alice Paul who introduced the militant tactics of the British suffragettes, like picketing, hunger strikes, sit-ins etc. Due to their active campaign and militant tactics women won the right to vote in America in 1920.
The women's struggle in Britain started later than the American movement but it took a more militant turn' in the beginning of the 20th century with Emmeline Pankhurst, her daughters and their supporter^ adopting militant tactics to draw attention to their demands, facing arrest several times to press their demand. They had formed the Women's Social and Political Union (WPSU) in 1903 when they got disillusioned with the style of work of the older organisations. This WSPU spearheaded the agitation for suffrage. But they compromised with the British Government when the First World War broke out in 1914. Both in US and in England the leaders of the movement were white and middle class and restricted their demand to the middle class women. It was the socialists and communist women who rejected the demand for the vote being limited to those with property and broadened the demand to include the vote for all women, including working class women. They organised separate mass mobilisations in support of the demand for the women's right to vote.
The women's movement did not continue during the period of the Depression, rise of fascism and the world war. In the post Second World War period America saw a boom in its economy and the growth of the middle class. In the war years women had taken up all sorts of jobs to run the economy but after that they were encouraged to give up their jobs and become good housewives and mothers. This balloon o f prosperity and contentment lasted till the 1960s. Social unrest with the black civil rights movement gained ground and later the anti-war movement (against the Vietnam War) emerged.
It was a period of great turmoil. The Cultural Revolution that began in China too had its impact. Political activity among university students increased and it is in this atmosphere of social and political turmoil that the women's movement once again emerged, this time initially from among university students and faculty.
Women realized that they faced discrimination in employment, in wages, and overall in the way they were treated in society. The consumerist ideology also came under attack. Simone de Beauvoir had written The Second Sex in 1949 itself but its impact was felt now. Betty Friedan had written the Feminine Mystique in 1963. The book became extremely popular. She initiated the National Organisation of Women in 1966 to fight against the discrimination women faced and to struggle for equal rights amendment.
But the autonomous women's movement (radical feminist movement) emerged from within the student movement that had leftist leanings. Black students in the Student Non-violent Coordination Council (SNCC) (which campaigned for civil rights for blacks) threw out the white men and women students at the Chicago Convention in 1968, on the grounds that only blacks would struggle for black liberation. Similarly the idea that women's liberation is a women's struggle gained ground.
In this context, women members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) demanded that women's liberation be a part of the national council in their June 1968 convention. But they were hissed and voted down. Many of these women walked out and formed the WRAP (Women's Radical Action Project) in Chicago. Women within the New University Conference (NUC – a national level body of university students, staff and faculty who wanted a socialist America) formed a Women's Caucus. Marlene Dixon and Naomi Wisstein from Chicago were leading in this. Shulamith Firestone and Pamela Allen began similar activity in New York and formed the New York Radical Women (N YRW). All of them rejected the liberal view that changes in the law and equal rights amendment would solve women's oppression and believed that the entire structure of society has to be transformed. Hence they called themselves radical. They came to hold the opinion that mixed groups and parties (men and women) like the socialist party, SDS, New Left will not be able to take the struggle for women's liberation forward and a women's movement, autonomous from parties is needed. The NYRW's first public action was the protest against the Miss America beauty contest w^hich brought the fledgling women's movement into national prominence.
Rosa Luxemburg
A year later N Y W R divided into Redstockings and WITCH (Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell). The Red Stockings issued their manifesto in 1969 and in this the position of radical feminism was clearly presented for the first time. " . . we identify the agents o f our oppression as men, Mal e supremacy is the oldest, most basic form of domination. All other forms of exploitation and oppression (racism, capitalism, imperialism etc) a r e extensions of male supremacy: men dominate women, a few men dominate the rest,,,.'' Sisterhood is powerful, and the personal is political became their slogans which gained wide popularity. Meanwhile the SDS issued its position paper on Women's Liberation in December 1968. This was debated by women from various points of view. Kathy McAfee and Myrna Wood wrote Bread and Roses to signify that the struggle cannot be only against economic exploitation of capitalism (bread) but also against the psychological and social oppression that women faced (Roses).
These debates carried out in the various journals produced by the women's groups that emerged in this period were taken seriously and influenced the course and trends within the women's movement not only in the US but in other countries as well. The groups mainly took the form of small circles for consciousness raising. It must be noted that all of these were following either the Trotskite or Cuban socialism within the left movement. They opposed all types of hierarchical structures. In this way the socialist feminist and the radical feminist trend within the women's movement emerged. Though it had many limitations i f seen from a Marxist perspective, it raised questions and brought many aspects of women oppression out into the open.
In the later 1960s and early 70s in the US and Western Europe ‘‘different groups had different visions of revolution . There were feminist, black, anarchist , Marxist - Leninist and other versions of revolutionary politics , but the belief that revolution of one sort or another was round the corner cut across these division s . ''(Barbara Epstein)
The socialist (Marxist) and radical feminists shared a vision about revolution. During this first period the feminists were grappling with Marxist theory and key concepts like production, reproduction, class consciousness and labor. Both the socialist feminists and radical feminists were trying to change Marxist theory to incorporate feminist understanding of women's position. But after 1975 there was a shift. Systemic analysis (of capitalism, of the entire social structure) was replaced or recast as cultural feminism.
Cultural feminism begins with the assumption that men and women are basically different. It focused on the cultural features of patriarchal oppression and primarily aimed for reforms in this area. Unlike radical and socialist feminism, it adamantly rejects any critique of capitalism and emphasises patriarchy as the roots of women's oppression and veers towards separatism. In the late 1970s and 1980s, lesbian feminism emerged as one current within the feminist movement. At the same time women of color (Black women, third world women in the advanced capitalist countries) raised criticisms about the ongoing feminist movement and began to articulate their versions of feminism. Organizations among working class women for equal treatment at the workplace, childcare etc also started growing. That the feminist movement had been restricted to white, middle class, educated women in advanced capitalist countries and was focusing on issues primarily of their concern had become obvious. This gave rise to global or multicultural feminism.
In the third world countries women's groups also became active, but all the issues were not necessarily 'purely' women's issues. Violence against women has been a major issue, esp rape, but alongside there have been issues that emerged from exploitation due to colonialism and neo-colonialism, poverty and exploitation by landlords, peasant issues, displacement, apartheid and many other such problems that were important in their own countries. In the early 1990s post-modernism became influential among feminists. But the right-wing conservative backlash against feminism grew in the 1980s, focusing opposition to the feminist struggle for abortion rights. They also attacked feminism for destroying the family, emphasizing the importance of women's role in the family.
Yet the feminist perspective spread wide and countless activist groups, social and cultural projects at the grasroots grew and continued to be active. Women's studies too spread widely. Health care and environment issues have been the focus of attention of many of these groups. Many leading feminists were absorbed in academic jobs. At the same time many of the major organisations and caucuses have become large institutions, absorbed by the establishment, run with staff and like any established bureaucratic institution. Activism declined.
Women hold up half the sky!
In the 1990s the feminist movement is known more from the activities of these organisations and the writings of feminists in the academic realm. ''Feminism has become more an idea than a movement, and one that lack the visionary quality it once had'' wrote Barbara Epstein in Monthly Review (May 2001). In the 1990s the increasing gap between the economic condition of working class and oppressed minorities and the middle classes, the continuing gender inequality, increasing violence on women, the onslaught of globalization and its impact on people, esp women in the third world has led to a renewed interest in Marxism.
At the same time the participation of Women, esp. young women, in a range of political movements, as evident in the anti-globalisation and anti-war movements, has further helped the process of awakening. With this brief overview of the development of the women's movement in the West we will analyse the propositions of the main theoretical trends within the feminist movement.
1) Liberal Feminism
Liberal feminist thought has enjoyed a long history in the 18th and 19th centuries with thinkers as Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 to 1797), Harriet Taylor M i l l (1807 to 1858), Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815 to 1902) arguing for the rights of women on the basis of liberal philosophical understanding. The movement for equal rights to women, esp the struggle for the right to vote was primarily based on liberal thought.
Earlier liberal political philosophers, like John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau who had argued for the rule of reason, equality of all, did not include women in their understanding of those deserving of equality, particularly political equality. They failed to apply their liberal theory to the position of women in society. The values of liberalism including the core belief in the importance and autonomy of the individual developed in the 17th century.
It emerged with the development of capitalism in Europe in opposition to feudal patriarchal values based on inequality. It was the philosophy of the rising bourgeoisie. The feudal values were based on the belief of the inherent superiority of the elite — esp the monarchs. The rest were subjects, subordinates. They defended hierarchy, with unequal rights and power. In opposition to these feudal values liberal philosophy advanced a belief in the natural equality and freedom of human beings. ''They advocated a social and political structure that would recognize equality of all individuals and Provide them with equality of opportunity. This philosophy was rigorously rational and secular and the most power full and progressive formulation of the Enlightenment period . It was marked by intense individualism. Yet the famous 18th century liberal philosophers like Rousseau and Locke did not apply the same principles to the patriarchal family and the position of women with in it . This was the residual patriarchal bias of liberalism that applied only to men in the market.’’ — Zillah Eisenstein.
Mary Wollstonecraft belonged to the radical section of the intellectual aristocracy in England that supported the French and American Revolutions. She wrote ' A Vindication of the Rights of Women' in 1791 in response to Edmund Burke's conservative interpretation of the significance of the French Revolution. In the booklet she argued against the feudal patriarchal notions about women's natural dependence on men, that women were created to please men, that they cannot be independent. Wollstonecraft wrote before the rise of the women's movement and her arguments are based on logic and rationality. Underlying Wollstonecraft's analysis are the basic principles of the Enlightenment: the belief in the human capacity to reason and in the concepts of freedom and equality that preceded and accompanied the American and French revolutions. She recognized reason as the only authority and argued that unless women were encouraged to develop their rational potential and to rely on their own judgment, the progress of all humanity would be retarded. She argued primarily in favor of women getting the same education as men so that they could also be imbibed with the qualities of rational thinking and should be provided with opportunities for earning and leading an independent life. She strongly criticised Rousseau's ideas on women's education.
According to her, Rousseau's arguments that women's education should be different from that of men have contributed to make women more artificial weak characters. Rousseau's logic was that women should be educated in a manner so as to impress upon them that obedience is the highest virtue. Her arguments reflect the class limitations of her thinking. While she wrote that women from the ''common classes" displayed more virtue because they worked and were to some extent independent, she also believed that the most respectable women are the most oppressed."
Her book was influential even in America at that time. Harriet Taylor, also part ot the bourgeois intellectual circles of London and wife of the well known Utilitarian philosopher James Stuart M i l l , wrote " On the Enfranchisement of Women " in 1851 in support of the women's movement just as it emerged in the US. Giving stark liberal arguments against opponents of women's rights and in favor of women having the same rights as men, she wrote, ''We deny the right of any portion of the species to decide for another portion , or any individual for another individual , what is and what is
not their '' proper sphere". The proper sphere for all human beings is the largest and highest which they are able to attain to ..." Noting the significance of the fact that she wrote 'The world is very young, and has but Just begun to cast off injustice. It is only now getting rid of Negro slavery, Can we wonder it has n o t yet done as much for women? “In fact the liberal basis of the women's movement as it emerged in the mid 19^'^ century in the US is clear in the Seneca Falls Declaration (1848). The declaration at this first national convention began thus: "We hold these truths to be self -evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain in alienable rights ; that among these are life , liberty and pursuit of happiness...."
In the next phase of the women's movement in the late 1960s among the leading proponents of liberal ideas was Betty Friedan, Bella Abzzug, Pat Schroeder. Friedan founded the organisation National Organisation of Women (NOW) in 1966. The liberal feminists emerged from among those who were working in women's rights groups, government agencies, commissions etc. Their initial concern was to get laws amended which denied equality to women in the sphere of education, employment etc. They also campaigned against social conventions that limited women's opportunities on the basis of gender. But as these legal and educational barriers began to fall it became clear that the liberal strategy of changing the laws within the existing system was not enough to get women justice and freedom. They shifted their emphasis to struggling for equality of conditions rather than merely equality of opportunity.
This meant the demand that the state play a more active role in creating the conditions in 22 which women can actually realise opportunities. The demand for childcare, welfare, healthcare, unemployment wage, special schemes for the single mother etc have been taken up by liberal feminists. The struggle for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has also been led by this section among feminists. The work of the liberal section among feminists has been through national level organisations and thus they have been noticed by the media as well. A section among the liberal feminists like Zillah Eisenstein argue that liberalism has a potential as a liberating ideology because working women can through their life experiences see the contradiction between liberal democracy as an ideology and capitalist patriarchy which denies them the equality promised by the ideology. But liberalism was not the influential trend within the movement in this phase.
Critique
Liberalism as a philosophy emerged within the womb of feudal western society as the bourgeoisie was struggling to come to power. Hence it included an attack on the feudal values of divinely ordained truth and hierarchy (social inequality). It stood for reason and equal rights for all individuals. But this philosophy was based on extreme individualism rather than collective effort. Hence it promoted the approach that if formal, legal equality was given to all, and then it was for the individuals to take advantage of the opportunities available and become successful in life.
The question of class differences and the effect of class differences on opportunities available to people was not taken into consideration. Initially liberalism played a progressive role in breaking the feudal social and political institutions. But in the 19th century after the growth of the working class and its movements, the limitations of liberal thinking came to the fore. For the bourgeoisie that had come to power did not extend the rights it professed to the poor and other oppressed sections (like women, or blacks in the US). They had to struggle for their rights. The women's movement and the Black movement in that phase were able to demand their rights utilising the arguments of the liberals. Women from the bourgeois classes were in the forefront of this movement and they did not extend the question of rights to the working classes, including working class women.
But as working class ideologies emerged, various trends of socialism found support among the active sections of the working class. They began to question the very bourgeois socio-economic and political system and the limitations of liberal ideology with its emphasis on formal equality and individual freedom. In this phase liberalism lost its progressive role and we see that the main women's organisations both in the US and England fighting for suffrage had a very narrow aim and became pro-imperialist and anti-working class. In the present phase liberal feminists have had to go beyond the narrow confines of formal equality to campaign for positive collective rights like welfare measures for single mothers, prisoners etc and demand a welfare state.
Liberalism has the following weaknesses:
1. It focuses on the individual rights rather than collective rights
2. It is ahistorical. It does not have a comprehensive understanding of women's role in history nor has it any analysis for the subordination (subjugation) of women.
3. It tends to be mechanical in its support for formal equality without a concrete understanding of the condition of different sections/classes of women and their specific problems. Hence it was able to express the demands of the middle classes (white women from middle classes in the US and upper class, upper caste women in India) but not those of women from various oppressed ethnic groups, castes and the working, labouring classes.
4. It is restricted to changes in the law, educational and employment opportunities, welfare measures etc and does not question the economic and political structures of the society which give rise to patriarchal discrimination. Hence it is reformist in its orientation, both in theory and in practice.
5. It believes that the state is neutral and can be made to intervene in favour of women when in fact the bourgeois state in the capitalist countries and the semi-colonial and semi-feudal Indian state are patriarchal and will not support women's struggle for emancipation. The State is defending the interests of the ruling classes who benefit from the subordination and devalued status of women.
6. Since it focuses on changes in the law, and state schemes for women, it has emphasised lobbying and petitioning as means to get their demands. The liberal trend most often has restricted its activity to meetings and conventions and mobilising petitions calling for changes. It has rarely mobilised the strength of the mass of women and is in fact afraid of the militant mobilisation of poor women in large numbers.