FEMINISM AND LIBERALISM Essay. AIP 116 \2\

FEMINISM AND LIBERALISM
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This paper is based on the following thesis: feminism is not fundamentally opposed to liberalism; feminists merely seek a more consistent application of liberal principles.
A brief overview of Feminism
The history of feminism is the history of feminist movement as well as its origins. The feminist movement emerged at the turn of the nineteenth century, with the beginnings of the first wave of feminism. Feminism, as a whole, came in three waves, each dealing with different aspects of the same issue. The first wave being the feminism movement which began in the 19th to the early 20th century, dealt mainly with the suffrage movement (Mills 1986). Feminism refers to “a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women” (Snitow & Plessis 1998, p.23). On top of that, feminists’ aims at ensuring women get equal opportunities in both education and employment. Feminists “campaign for women rights such as in contract law, property and voting, while also promoting bodily integrity, autonomy and reproductive rights for women” (Snitow & Plessis 1998, p.23). Feminism has revolutionized societies across the globe by achieving reproductive rights for women, suffrage equal pay for women, gender neutrality in English, and the rights to enter into contracts and own property (Young 1990). Most importantly, feminism plays a pivotal role in protecting women and girls from sexual assault and domestic violence. Feminists also fight for the rights of women in work place such as maternity leave. In general, feminism fights and advocates for the rights of women in the society (Yurcko 2003).
A brief overview of Liberalism
The term liberalism comes from a Latin word ‘liber’ meaning free, and it originally referred to the philosophy of freedom (Smith 1990). However, in the recent decades, liberalism has become to mean something different. The word has been taken over, especially in the United States, by philosophical socialists and used by them to refer to their government intervention and warfare state programs. A liberal is seen as one who believes in utilizing the full force of government for the advancement of social, political, and economic justice at the municipal, national and international levels (Smith 1990). Liberals believe that the government is a proper tool to use in the development of a society which attempts to carry Christian principles of conduct into practical effect (Fullinwider 1986).
Feminism and liberalism
Over the past thirty years, Western political philosophy has been enriched by renewed interest in liberalism and by the development of feminism. Although liberalism is one of the important roots of feminism, many contemporary feminist political philosophers reject liberal political theory (Pateman 1988). However, by looking at the definitions and practices of feminism and liberalism, it is evident that feminism is not fundamentally opposed to liberalism; feminists merely seek a more consistent application of liberal principles.
Smith (1990) argues that essentialist theories of sex difference attempt to show that certain social and psychological characteristics are fundamental for being either male or female involve unwarranted generalizations and are the enemy of equality. Smith (1990) discusses three influential contemporary theories; Carol Gilligan’s ethics of care, the men are from Mars, women are from Venus, thesis from popular psychology and sociology, she believes they are essentialist, and shows that each fails as a descriptive account of sex difference, among other things because it fails to handle counter examples. In effect, rather than being accounts of what social roles and psychological traits are necessary for being male of female, Smith (1990) shows that essentialist theories of sex difference are actually normative accounts of what social roles and psychological traits are necessary to being female or male, respectively, should take on. This philosophical sleight of hand, passing a normative theory off as descriptive one, can make sex discrimination look like women preference (Mackenzie 2000).
Liberal feminists have long argued that women should be able to live accruing to their own preferences (MacKinnon 1989). Hence smiths’ project of distinguishing women’s real preferences from stereotypes about them is vital to liberal feminism. But according to Ann Cudd (1996) in the paradox of liberal feminism: preference, rationality and oppression, this liberal concern is a tension with the feminist insight that women’s preferences are sometimes the result of oppression and that many preferences, when acted on, create oppression. Using John Stuart Mill’s liberalism as a model, Cudd (1996) proposes a solution to this paradox. Her solution involves developing an account of oppression as harm and ...