Women, Politics, and the State: Feminist Perspectives
Women, Politics, and the State
State: A New Form of Patriarchy?
- The modern state has taken control of systems traditionally controlled by religion, custom, and male-dominated social groups.
- While sometimes beneficial, this can be offset by restructuring frameworks that perpetuate women’s unequal status.
- Feminist debate: The welfare state can be beneficial if it includes a complete restructuring of funding, working hours, and domestic roles for both sexes. The opposing view argues that the state is central to maintaining gender inequality, and state intervention requires women to surrender control to state institutions.
Given the Odds: A Great Advance (Stacy and Price)
- Optimistic about women’s progress in the last 200 years, but argue that women must become involved in the public political sphere to influence society.
- What stance should they take? What sort of power do they seek? There is a strong link between capitalism and patriarchy.
Policing: The Under-Representation of Women’s Interests (Edwards)
- Violence against women is under-policed due to the patriarchal nature of law, which also results in a disproportionate number of women being prosecuted for prostitution and allied offenses.
- The right to expect equal treatment under the law.
- Policing methods insensitive to women’s issues.
- Legislation perpetuating inequality reflects the patriarchal interests of society.
The Birth Limitation Program: Family vs. State (Wolf)
- Argues that the birth control program in China in the 1980s was carried out at the expense of women. They were held responsible for conception, sanctions were directed only against women, and women without sons continued to suffer.
- Inefficient government propaganda.
- Women faced violence for bearing female children, as well as penalties for “extra-legal” pregnancies, including forced abortion.
- The onus of birth control falls upon women.
Women in the Miner’s Strike (Evans, Hudson, and Smith)
- Describes the involvement of women in South Wales in the miner’s strike of 1984-85. Collections of money and food by women against pit closures and the support systems provided constituted an “alternative welfare state.” Women’s participation in picketing and male opposition are also described.
- Women’s involvement in unions, violent picketing, and the parallel welfare state.
- Perception of changing gender roles.
Body and Politics: Our Bodies Triumphed (Young)
- Draws on poststructuralist and postmodern ideas to explore the political activity of the women protesters at Greenham Common. Discusses the employment of the “protesting body” and suggests that in recuperating the repressed body and redefining the meaning of the female body, a ‘truly transformative’ form of political protest has been discovered.
- The body as social, physical, and emotional.
- Innovative nature of the protest:
- Vigil, carnivalesque, symbolism.
- Assimilation into bourgeois culture through licensing.
- Powerful use of the female body as imagery.
Conclusion
The articles range in spectrum from Marxist to Radical, and it’s interesting to note that the violent South Wales mining pickets ran in parallel with predominantly peaceful female-only protests in the UK, which spanned nearly 20 years. Another common theme is the concept of ownership and application of the female body and self as viewed by women and as it relates to patriarchal societies and their legal constructs.