FEMINISM AND FEELING
M. N. Babu
Feminism is a type of ethics regarding sex
and gender issues. Feminists are associated with “the women’s rights movement”.
They held the view that the existing inequality between women and men is unjust
and must be corrected. Feminism raises questions about the meaning of equality,
the nature of the family, and the ethical obligations of women and men.
Society claims to offer “liberty and justice
for all” in a context in which “all men are created equal”. Feminists, allege
that this second statement is taken literally in the Indian society, which
grants liberty, justice, and equality to men but has failed to extend them to
women. Feminists of women’s lives provide evidence of women’s subordinate
status. They have pointed out that although women constitute half of the work
force outside the home, they earn only two-thirds of what men earn and are
overwhelmingly concentrated in low-wage jobs. They see this as lack of equality
for women.
The latest statistics shows that women are
the targets of violence and harassment by men both inside and outside the home
and they are often subjected to further harassment when they report the initial
abuse. Rightly they see this as lack of justice for women. Feminists see women
as having minimal control over their reproductive capacities, since the
availability of birth control is decided by legislators and pregnancy, labour
and birth are managed largely by male physicians. This is lack of liberty for
women.
Furthermore, feminists believe that media
portrayals of women as mindless bodies available for sexual use by men
perpetuate the view that women need not be regarded as persons. The reason for
the commodification of women by the business people is that women are
considered as the symbol of beauty and elegance. So with this they want to
build up their trade brands. The American Psychological Association’s
Commission on “violence and assault” on women considered last year that “there
is absolutely no doubt that higher level of viewing violence and sex on
television are correlated with increased acceptance of aggressive attitudes and
increased aggressive behaviour”. It may be the reason for the increasing rate
of child prostitution.
Actually “Feminism” is the name for a variety
of views about what constitutes a just society, what is inequitable and unjust
in the relationship between women and men in society, and what are the ethical
methods for achieving justice and equality. The different feminist views inform
the various agendas for change pursued by feminists in the United States and
other countries. Their views have been articulated clearly by feminist scholars
in philosophy, sociology and political science. The three views that inform
most feminist thought and action are called “liberal feminism”, “socialist
feminism” and “radical Feminism”.
Liberal Feminism
According to liberal
feminists, in a just society, women and men would have equal opportunities to
compete in the educational, economic and political market places. Given this
opportunity, women would reach high levels of achievement. According to liberal
feminists, women have been denied opportunities for achievement because
practices that discriminate against themes such as unequal pay, sexual
harassment on the job, inadequate family, leave policies, and different career
tracks for women and men, are not made illegal and punished. Just laws would
promote the equality of women by prohibiting practices that impede women’s
climb to success.
Socialist Feminism
According to Socialist
feminists, in a just society, the relationship between women and men would be
regulated by respect and love rather than by their reactions to economic
forces. Because the capitalist economic system concentrates wealth in the hands
of a few large business owners, the vast majority of women and men are low-wage
workers in factories or service jobs. Men who are at the bottom of a hierarchy
in the workplace compensate by asserting their dominance over women at home.
Women are forced to marry and, sometimes, to remain in abusive marriages in
order to support themselves and their children financially. Because the
inequality of women is caused by an unjust economic system, the way to bring
about equality, according to socialist feminists, is to reform the economic
system. This justifies women’s empowerment.
Radical Feminism
Radical feminists
believe that the men who hold power in society abuse that power by consciously
and deliberately blocking women’s access to it. One way to do this is to portray
women as unsuitable for the exercise of power. Radical feminists believe that
in a just society, individuals and groups would have both the power to define
themselves and the freedom not
to arrange their lives in conformity with culturally accepted stereotypes. For
example, men may feel that they must be aggressive to be masculine and women
may feel that they must be passive to be feminine beliefs that perpetuate
problems of domestic violence. Radical feminists distrust reforms that come
through established social institutions such as the law or the economy. They
believe that such reforms can easily be co-opted by selfish individuals or
groups so that changes that appear to serve women may in the long nm oppress
them further.
Nowadays we find that
many women who consider themselves feminists have challenged the three
main-stream feminist’s views on the ground that they do not aim adequately at
the goal of liberty, justice and equality for all women. The study concludes
that exploitation and, commodification of women should be curbed. There should
be perfect equality without gender discrimination in all respects.