Obstacles Facing Women in Society and Politics

Each student in the class is required to submit an essay, about 8-10 pages long (typed and double spaced), in which you use one of the major approaches to contemporary political philosophy to analyze an important issue. What kind of issues am I thinking of? It should be one that has been the subject of significant debate over the past few years – it can be a specific policy question – and is related to one of the fundamental problems that political philosophers have grappled with over the ages. The topic I want to work with is Obstacles facing women in society and politics (meaning of equality, sex and gender differences. ***Please select only one major issue or topic that has been debated by political philosophers and involves women and the obstacles they have faced in politics. Much of your paper will involve an analysis of the issue itself. But your analysis should be based on how one contemporary approach to political philosophy can contribute to the understanding of this issue, and an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of this approach as revealed in the analysis of the specific issue. Requirements for Assignment 1.) 1-2 Paragraph Prospectus, This “prospectus” should include the following – a paragraph or two explaining the topic and its significance, 2.) 1 page Tentative outline of the paper,following outline format I. II. A., B., C... etc. 3.A bibliography containing at least ten sources that you will use in your paper. The paper should be 9 pages. I am ordering 10 so that is enough for 1 paragraph prospectus, the outline, and a 9 page paper. You must cite in APA format. In addition, your ten sources can NOT include “pure” web pages. They must be substantial scholarly sources – books, journal articles, or professional analyses primarily. But it is acceptable to use the web to locate your sources (i.e. through the use of on-line searches and databases such as Ebsco, Academic Universe, CIAO) and to use studies or analyses posted on webpages. What you do not want to do is cite someone’s – an individual’s or a group’s – web page that claims something without any support. Gender Prejudices as the Main Obstacle Women Face in Politics Name Affiliation Gender Prejudices as the Main Obstacle Women Face in Politics Prospectus During the past several centuries women were not considered the part of political life of the majority of the countries: they did not have a right to vote and, furthermore, to be politicians. Only in the 20th century various movements which aimed to make women subjects of political discourse with full rights aroused. As a result, nowadays in most of the countries women are expected to face no obstacles while participating in politics of their homeland: it concerns both the ability vote and the possibility to be chosen to represent the will of the nation in the political aspect. However, this tendency by now exists only theoretically: although women have full political rights, they still face the problem of gender inequality while taking part in politics. In most of the cases, it is harder for women to become the head of the country as they face a wide range of regular gender prejudices such as female lack of rationality, orientation towards family and excessive sexualization of female politics. Outline Introduction 1. Gender inequality in politics has a long history, which is mostly influenced by the long period of absence of any political rights for women. 2. As a result, despite total theoretical equality between men and women, the latter still are in a minority even in the most gender liberalized countries. Body 3. Although women have already proved their ability to be as smart, serious, and rational as men, they are still considered those who are guided by their senses rather than by their intellect. A. It is widely accepted that women are guided by their senses. B. Politics is a sphere where pure rationality should be used to make decisions, so women are regarded as inappropriate people to create laws and rule the country. C. Political sphere is masculine and thus is alienated for women. 4. Women are usually more engaged into romantic and family relationship and hence unable to concentrate on the politics as much as it is needed. A. The traditional image of a woman does not include her political activity. B. Women are considered to have less time for political activity due to the family issues in which they are more concerned. C. In some countries, women have less access to leadership education and hence tend to be less professional in political field. D. Due to the image of housewives, women themselves lose the desire to be involved in politics. 5. Feminist ethics may become one of the theories which is able to contribute in solving the problem of gender inequality in politics. Conclusions 6. Despite the movement total general inequality women still face many prejudices, especially in politics. 7. Major changes of society perception should be taken in order to create gender equality in politics as the latter is must for a real equality between men and women. Gender Prejudices as the Main Obstacle Women Face in Politics Introduction Movement towards total gender equality does not have a long history: only during the 20th century women gained legal political rights, which now exist in the majority of countries. Although the majority of movements which demanded the bigger political rights of women existed even in the end of 19th century, only in the second half of the 20th century it became possible for women to become active participants of political life of their countries (Paxton et al., 2006). This tendency was the result of feminist philosophy, which took place in the 20th century, and so it can be expected that modern feminism can also help in solving the issue. However, less than a century of full political rights happened after several centuries of total political inequality between men and women. While men were mostly the rulers of countries and had the ability to take part in the politics (either by voting or by becoming involved in authorities), women had no abilities to make any actions of political character. Therefore, basic prejudices about female role in politics exist even nowadays. This leads to the usual effect: despite the theoretical and legal equality of women and men in political life of many developed countries, women still represent the minority in all kinds of authorities. By now, male politicians are dominant in all countries, while in some countries women still do not take part in politics at all. Moreover, even the most liberal countries, which are characterized by willingness to overcome the gap between male and female representors in politics, have rather small percentage of women-politicians. In 2007, the biggest percent of female ministers was indicated on the level of 30% and appeared only in 5 countries. Additionally, only 10 countries had 20-29% of female ministers, while in 48 countries there were no female ministers at all. In general, the majority of countries which have a tendency to increase the percentage of female politicians are situated in Europe; conversely, in Asia this tendency is rather weak as the general mass of female ministers in Asian countries equals not more than 5% (A. Thanikodi and M. Sugirtha, 2007). There are many possible explanations of poor female representation in politics – one of the main factors is the lack of their social acceptance (Welch & Siegelman, 1982), the basis of which lies in the regular prejudices towards women such as their lack of rationality, family orientation, and sexualization. In addition, according to Gillespie & Spohn (1987), women are positively oriented towards female role in politics, while men are not. Although respondents agreed that women can be as qualified in ruling the country as man, they still did not see options for women to become the president of USA. Moreover, less people predicted for women to obtain less important political position (such as a member of parliament or a mayor) than to play the main role in the political life of the country. Female Sensitivity as a Prejudice and an Obstacle Although women have already proved their ability to be as smart, serious, and rational as men, they are still considered those who are guided by their senses rather than by their intellect. It is natural for women to be calm, kind, and peaceful – and these traits are not usually associated with rational qualities of a person. Instead, men are more rational and are usually guided by intellect, which makes them good strategists and effective rulers. Politics is usually considered a sphere in which intellect should be used as the main source of decision making. As a rule, women are expected to be ruled by their senses, not the rational basis. As a result, women are considered to be the politicians who risk making false and ineffective decisions based on their irrational senses. This prejudice results in the lack of female political leaders’ credibility, which leads to the poor support of women-politicians. Moreover, political sphere is considered to be purely masculine and thus more natural for male leaders. For women, politician sphere appears to be rather alienated as it is full of masculine patterns. First of all, men are the dominant in the politics of each country. Secondly, the general organization of political life is rather male-oriented: it is presupposed to be more of a battle than of collaboration. While it is natural for men to be involved in competition and winner-loser pattern, women are more presupposed to find compromises and the ways to solve the problems peacefully. As a result, they feel that regular political life is rather unnatural for them and try to avoid politics at all or to reject this masculine style. The latter may be considered too radical for the society and less effective; therefore, this initiative is rarely supported (A. Thanikodi and M. Sugirtha, 2007). Moreover, it is totally unacceptable for a woman to show her feminine traits, while it is more than natural to observe masculine behavior in man’s working environment. Therefore, the only type of female politician which can be approved by society is a woman without any feminine traits. In fact, the more masculine woman is, the easier it is for her to gain social recognition in a role of politician. In any case, woman should be as asexual in her speech, gestures, and look as possible. Traditional Vision of Woman Role and Female Position in Politics Even though modern society is largely liberal and tends to free itself from old traditions and ineffective canons, the image of typical woman is still widely accepted among many people. It is normal for women to be dependent on their husbands, to dedicate themselves to their families, and to be disconnected from more serious social affairs. Furthermore, in many countries such pattern is considered the only possible, while in others such image of a woman still stays socially accepted and celebrated. Therefore, the desire of women to take male roles can lead to the possible complications. As a rule, most of women are raised with the defined idea of their so-called normal future. In this future, they should marry a man, born children, and take care of household. It is obvious that political activity poorly engages with such lifestyle. In traditional societies, woman’s place is clearly defined: it is natural for women to be preoccupied with family and household issues and for a man to be concerned with more “serious” affairs. The woman’s intention to be the part of country’s political life may therefore be regarded as an attempt to take part in a masculine deal and to destroy the balance. At this point, such action can be considered inappropriate and hence unnatural for a woman. This leads to two consequences: on the one hand, it is psychologically hard for society to support female politicians; on the other hand, women themselves are not willing to take part in the country’s politics as feel themselves suitable for another social role – the role of the mother and a housewife. Therefore, women tend to be more preoccupied with their household and family routine, so they cannot have enough time for political activity. Conversely, men are usually free from such duties and hence are more willing to be engaged with their work. Therefore, it is regularly believed that male politicians are the ones who can make real changes, while female representation in politics can only complicate the issue (Hazarika, 2008). Rombough and Keithly (2010) state that it is commonly believed that women are more effective rulers when the problem which is close to them is involved. Therefore, women are more frequently elected in local authorities: it is believed that women are able to make minor changes on the local levels. However, when it concerns more general issues, it is expected for women to be less effective than the men. On the other hand, according to Welch and Studlar (1986), women are more oriented towards common good than on their personal profit. As a result, women actually are able to govern on any level. In less developed countries, the problem of poor access to the political education tends to be the reason of small quantity of female politicians. In such countries, women are not only busy with their daily routine, but also may have not enough knowledge in order to be attached to the political sphere. This tendency is typical for the countries with strong patriarchal mode where it is more important for women to become good wives and mothers rather than activists; moreover, such intention can be strongly criticized by the society of such countries. As a rule, such women are illiterate or simply not prepared for any kind of political activity and hence are not represented greatly in political sphere (Thanikodi and Sugirtha, 2007). The only appropriate social role of successful woman is a so-called “working mother” – a woman with rather underpaid occupation which does not involve total working engagement (Thanikodi and Sugirtha, 2007). However, such distinction leads to the poor support of such women by other women because of their different perception of the world and female position in it. According to Gruenebaum (1981), although women are considered more willing to make coalitions, their social background and roles usually prevent them from cross-class effective communication. The problem is that women from different classes have different issues of interests: for instance, a working woman would be more preoccupied with reforms in working sphere, while family-oriented women would be concerned with taking care of housewives and mothers. This tendency makes communication between different women more complicated, while such problem does not exist in masculine society at all. Because of such prejudice, it is considered that it is much simpler and more effective to provide political communication in masculine society. It should also be mentioned that in many cases women themselves do not wish to become engaged into any type of political activity (A. Thanikodi and M. Sugirtha, 2007). One of the reasons for such unwillingness is a prevalent among women prejudice that politics is a complicated, uneven, and dishonest affair, and that women should not be engaged in such types of dirty game. However, there are other reasons for poor desire of women to be engaged in politics. According to MacKerras et al. (1977), women are afraid of political activities due to the discrimination they can face. First of all, their ambitions can be criticized by society. Secondly, it is safer for them to stay on secondary positions, as it is believed that female candidates are more able to lose votes. The reason for this lies in uncertain desirable image of a woman-politician: on the one hand, citizens do not like women who show their femininity; on the other hand, woman free of her family roles can seem strange and insincere. Feminist Ethics as a Possible Way of Fighting Gender Inequality in Politics Among the modern philosophical approaches, the feminist one can be considered one of the most effective and narrow. Despite nowadays tendency to eliminate ethics at all in philosophy, feminist ethics may be the key which can benefit greatly in the process of overcoming the gap between men and women in politics. Moreover, with the use of feminist ethics it is possible to reorganize usual pattern of modern politic by fulfilling it with new concepts: for example, cooperation, trust, peace, and sharing (Jaggar, 1992). Therefore, feminine concepts which are usually criticized and considered inappropriate for politics, conversely, can bring its own profit and reform the system. In this way, the perception of politics as a dirty game can be changed in its basis as the whole sphere would be changed. The conception of motherhood, which is one of the dominant in feminist ethics, can be used in order to solve many problems faced by modern politics. For example, it can prevent politicians from excessive competitions, which tend to distract their attention form the real problems. It is expected that women are able to care for community rather than for personal interest, so it can be stated that female-oriented politics would be more productive and effective. In addition, such approach can solve the problems which could not be solved by the politicians for decades. For example, as feminist ethics corresponds tightly with the concept of peace, the conflict situations and wars can be expected to be eliminated. In addition, the peacekeeping would focus not only on disarming and masculine ways of solving the problems but also on the minor scales of the hostility and violence in general. With such an approach, it would be possible finally to pay attention on marginalized group and to destroy the basis of large conflicts (Puechguirbal, 2009). Conclusions It is obvious that nowadays gender inequality in politics remains the problems despite the legal and theoretical attempts to overcome the gap between female and male roles in this sphere. Even though women can be elected in many countries, they lack social support due to the basic prejudices, which are still widespread even in the most liberal and progressive countries. The biggest percentage of women in authorities is not bigger than 30%, which means that modern politics is still far from fighting gender inequality. However, with the help of feminist ethics politics can not only overcome the issue of inequality and destroy the regular prejudices, but also use feminine concepts and paradigms with the benefits to it. First of all, the female traits which were previously considered odd and ineffective can turn into the positive experience for politics. Secondly, the new concepts can lead to the reorganization of political system and thus to the more effective authorities and less aggressive politics in general. Therefore, the theories of feminist ethics should be applied in order to cure modern politics from the problem of gender inequality. References Gillespie, D., & Spohn, C. (1987). Adolescents' attitudes toward women in politics: The effect of gender and race. Gender and Society 1 (2), 208-218. Gruenebaum, J. (1981). Women in politics. Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science 34 (2), 104-120. DOI: 10.2307/1173794 Hazarika, S. D. (2008). 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