Sociology

project
Topic: Feminism

Submitted to: MS. BHARTI

Submitted by: sahil kakkar
BALLB(HONS)3RD SEMESTER
18203

RAYAT COLLEGE OF LAW

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Primarily I would thank God for being able to complete

this project with success. Then I would like to thank my
teacher MS. BHARTI mam whose valuable guidance has
been the ones that helped me patch this project and make
it full proof success her suggestions and her instructions
has served as the major contributor towards the
completion of the project. Then I would like to thank MY
PARENTS and FRIENDS who have helped me with their
valuable suggestions and guidance has been helpful in
various phases of the completion of the project. Last but
not the least I would like to thank my CLASSMATES
who have helped me a lot.

THANK YOU
The new critical insight such as feminism has expanded the horizon of
our understanding in political science. It offers crucial reflections and
new ways of looking and making sense of the world around us. It can be
observed that such developments have contributed to further evolution
of the discipline by making it more inclusive, accommodative and open
to new ideas and interpretations. Discourses such as feminism and
postmodernism carry great emancipatory potential and have redefined
the notion of freedom itself. Whereas feminist endeavours have radically
changed the lives of millions of women, postmodernism has unleashed a
new spirit to question the conventional ways of understanding and
revealing that there can be multiplicity of truths. The dominant
universalistic views as projected by white male, Christian, industrial
class has been negated. These critical perspectives can lead the effort to
dismantle conventional hierarchies and conceptualise a more plural and
equal world.
 Introduction
Women all over the world face inequality, subordination, and secondary
status compared to men. This subjugation very often results in the
oppression, marginalization and exploitation of women that are
characteristic feature of patriarchal societies. Patriarchy is a social
system marked by the rule of father or the eldest male member on the
family and property. It establishes male as the chief authority within the
family and society thus privileging them in all arena of life. At the same
time it disadvantages the women relegating them to the secondary status
and making them dependent on men in all possible ways. The institution
of patriarchy has thrived since long time in history and has percolated to
all societal structures and mechanism consequently reproducing the male
dominance and hegemony. Feminists believe patriarchy to be the prime
cause of misery of women’s lives. Consequently, they have challenged
this unjust and exploitative system. Feminism is an ideology as well as a
movement. As an ideology it believes and advocates equality between
men and women in all spheres of life. As a movement, it defies such
oppressive system by protesting and rejecting the patriarchal constructs
of the society and demands parity between both sexes in all avenues.
Feminism is a movement as well an ideology that represents efforts
to achieve the objective of equality, dignity, rights, emancipation
and empowerment of women by adopting various creative ways and
means. However, feminism cannot be seen as neatly packed coherent
philosophy as it has many streams representing different approaches,
orientations and aims. The fundamental idea that binds all streams
together is elimination of patriarchy and gender justice. Whilst feminists
are united in their concern for liberating women they adopt diverse
theoretical positions for diagnosing these injustices and thus different
prescriptions of what needs to be done to create a more equal society.
 Origin and Development
Even though the woman question has always been there, but feminism
as a separate, serious intellectual endeavour has been recent in origin. It
is paradoxical that all the canonical texts produced by leading
philosophers and theorists have always deliberately dismissed the
women, her role and relevance. It would not be farfetched to describe
the history of political philosophy and theory as a male bastion that
never allowed women to be part of the mainstream, thus debunking them
all together. From the time of Aristotle’s Politics to A Theory of Justice
by John Rawls, political scholarship has been highly limited for women.
Despite this resistance, societies at different point of time have produced
women with iron will of defiance and dissension that later on altered the
history itself. Generally the history of feminism is analysed by
categorising it into many successive waves that correspond to certain
basic tenets and objectives.

Waves of Feminism

1.First-wave Feminism: The first wave of classical liberalism

focused primarily on the discourse of rights. Suffrage movement
encapsulated the demand for female enfranchisement and extension of
political and civil rights explicit in the works of feminists, such as
Emmeline Pankhrust and her daughters Sylvia and Christabel Pankhurst,
Mary Wollstonecraft, J. S. Mill, Harriet Taylor, Margaret Fuller,
Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton etc. 1 Farrelly, Colin (2004),
Introduction to Contemporary Political Theory, sage Publications,
London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi. 2 Historical writings by eminent
scholars display the belief that nature has created women such as she is
best suitable and capable of reproduction and caring the family and the
household. Examples could be the writings of Aristotle who excluded
women from political activity, Rousseau who supported women’
exclusion from citizenship, Nietzsche who ridiculed the notion of equal
rights of women, Sigmund Freud etc. The First wave is represented by
the liberal feminism of late 19th and early 20th centuries. The
Second wave is seen from 1960 onwards. Third wave of feminism is
represented by diverse modes of thoughts and expressions developed
specially after 1990s. The visible assertion of women’s rights can be
traced back to the 17th century and effects of French revolution. The
historic landmark has been the publication of A Vindication of Rights of
Woman in 1792 by Mary Wollstonecraft. Such is the historical
significance of this writing that it has been revered as the feminist
declaration of independence. Implying similar lines of arguments used
by philosophers of enlightenment Wollstonecraft produced first
systematic account of women’s rights and freedom. She questioned the
exclusion of women from the citizenship rights and fiercely advocated
similar and equal rights for men and women both. This initiated prolific
writings from many feminists of that time who started asserting equal
rational potential of women and men. The feminists of first wave
believed that attaining franchise rights will end all the problems. They
thought that slowly and gradually women will be able to enjoy equal
status leading to elimination of all discrimination and prejudices against
women. To their distress, they realised that nothing of that sort
happened. Mere extension of rights was not sufficient for women’s
emancipation. In fact, the dissatisfaction and disgruntlement made them
desperate. This dismay was best captured in Betty Friedan’s The
Feminist Mystique (1963). Thus, emerged Second wave of feminism
denoting its resurgence after the period of stagnancy from 1920 to 1960.
 2. Second wave of Feminism :
Cardinal works that defined the thrust of this period are Shulamith
Firestone The Dialectic of Sex (1970), Germaine Greer The Female
Eunuch (1970), Kate Millet The Sexual Politics (1970), Eva Figes’s
“Patriarchal Attitudes” (1970), Andrea Dworkin Pornography: Men
Possessing Women (1979), Mary Daly The Church and the Second Sex
(1968) . The second wave focused the personal, psychological and
sexual aspects of female oppression. Radical feminist focused on
sexuality and violence against women. The notion of female
supremacism, the moral superiority of women, the value of sisterhood,
political lesbianism and separatism from men were displayed in all these
writings. All institutions including family were identified as potential
sites of sexual oppression for women.
3. Third wave of Feminism : Recent times have witnessed the
fragmentation of women’s movement. There are newer
assertions coming from different quarters. Several autonomous
women’s movements have come up. These are characterised as
Third wave of feminism generally believed to have emerged
from 1990s and continuing till present. In a way it also
highlights the perceived failures and boundedness of the earlier
phases. The third wave stands for reckoning plurality based on
colour, ethnicity, nationality, religion, culture among women
and recognising the role of these identities in their lives.
Additionally third wave feminists believe in celebrating
sexuality in a positive way, in contrast to the second wave
radical feminists. Important issues addressed by this phase are
reproductive rights, sexual violence and sexual harassment in
workplace, rape, unfair maternity leave policies, and support for
single mothers etc. There is a dominant misconception about
feminism that it is western in origin. Such line of argument is
often taken by reactionary and conservative groups who contend
that ethos of feminism are antithetical to our culture and
sensibilities. After a close analysis we find that all societies
have their own legacies of assertion of equality by women and
other subaltern groups. Though substantial literature in this field
comes from western feminist scholars, however, notable
feminist accounts have been produced by scholars in post
colonial societies. The genealogy of feminist struggles may vary
in content and context, but adjoining all of them is the women’s
quest for emancipation.
 PERSPECTIVES
1. Liberal Feminism :
This school of thought has primarily employed the framework of rights,
mainly the political and civil rights to demand gender justice. The first
wave of feminists has been liberals. Applying the logistics of
enlightenment and inspired by French Revolution, liberal feminist
scholars stressed upon the idea of equality of men and women. The
philosophy of individualism and rationalism enabled them to project
women as independent and autonomous individual having her own
identity and interests. Till that time, women were never recognised as
separate being, capable of judgement and making choices. Always
treated as dependent on her male counterpart, rarely women of that time
enjoyed any liberty to express herself or to follow her vocation. Society
imposed upon her such norms that curtailed her freedom and restricted
her mobility. Intellectual developments have always dismissed the
women’s question as if she never existed. At the best women were
recognised in their role as good wives, mothers, daughters etc. All the
time carrying out other’s command women have never been allowed to
decide for themselves. It was against this frustrating existence that some
women dared to imagine beyond their time. In France, women’s
participation in the French Revolution helped them to think about their
problems and prospects in the society. Liberal feminists viewed
political rights, especially the right to vote as viable way to uplift
their status in the society. Therefore, the entire focus was on the
suffrage movement resulting in granting of franchise rights to
women, which is identified as the greatest accomplishment of liberal
feminists. Different women’s group in United States of America and
United Kingdom diligently mobilised and struggled to achieve this
objective. The Seneca Falls Convention (1848) was the earliest women’s
rights convention. It passed a list of resolutions for social, civil and
moral rights of women. The Declaration of Independence adopted in
Seneca Falls served as foundation of Suffrage Movements. In USA, the
suffrage movement aligned itself with the civil rights movement and
women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass, Susan B.
Anthony have played crucial role in this regard. The culmination was
US Constitution granting right to vote to American Women in 1920.8
Similarly in UK Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel have
been central in leading the suffrage movement. The right to vote was
extended to women in 1918 there though partially, later on fully after a
decade. Mary Wollstonecraft strongly advocated for education for
women to make them psychologically independent as indicated in her
book Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787). However the
limitation of the liberal feminism has been that it basically aimed for
educational, legal and political reforms that would produce women as
good companions, wives and mothers. Its strategy basically has been
reformist. Also, too much demand from the state has the hidden risk of
increased dependence on the patriarchal structure. As such liberal
feminism failed to fully address the root cause of gender inequality.
2. Marxist Feminism :
This school of thought derives from the class analysis of
Karl Marx and Frederick Engel’s by attacking the institution
of private property and capitalist mode of production. In his
work The Origin of Family, Property and the State (1884)
Engel’s elaborates on how physical and sexual labour of
women has been appropriated for reproductive and care
taking functions of private property and the family. The
subordination and suppression of women are not natural but
made to appear so in order to cater to patriarchy. The
emergence of the institution of private property pushes
women to the darkness of unrecognition, establishing
capitalism and ownership in the hands of men. He refers this
as ‘the final defeat of female sex’ in history. From then
onwards, all society have been made patrilineal, property
flowing from fathers to the sons. However, radical feminists
criticise Marxist feminist due to their omission of other vital
categories of gender analysis like race, ethnicity, sexual
orientations that are equally responsible repressive structures.
Marxist feminists think class exploitation under
capitalism is the root cause of women’s oppression. It
calls for a revolution and overthrow of capitalist order to
achieve freedom of women.

3. Socialist Feminism : Socialist feminists feel that

traditional Marxism is stuck with the complexity of class
analysis which is gender blind. They suggest that Marxist
class analysis can be supplemented by a feminist division
of labour analysis. Alison Jaggar and Iris Marion Young
applied Marxist categories like labour and economic
structures to address the question of gender inequality.
They find economic dependence of women on men as
main cause of their subordination. Resultantly, they call
for social and economic equality and financial
independence of women. For them, motherhood and
bondage of domesticity is liable for women’s servile
status. Women all over the world engage in unpaid
domestic labour yielding to the capitalist economy, neither
being recognised nor rewarded. Instead, she is slapped
with subjugation and state of perpetual dependence and
decadence. The traditional family structure, based on
sexual division of labour enables men to work for the
capitalist economy while all his needs and interests are
well taken care of by his wife. Socialist feminist like
Charlotte Perkins Gilman advises for professionalization
of domestic work as a solution to women’s woes.
Feminists like Gerda Lerner, Juliet Mitchell and others
believe that women must be emancipated from their
biological dispositions along with necessary changes in
society and economy. Mitchell emphasised the fact that
women’s status and function were jointly determined by
her role in production and reproduction and socialisation
on children and sexuality. Lerner believes that domination
of women by men is neither natural nor biological but is
historical and therefore can be ended by historical process.
Maria Mies, Zillah Eisenstein argue against the nexus of
capitalism and patriarchy. The subordination of women in
family is part of the economic foundation of society,
serving both men and capitalism.
4. Radical Feminism : Radical feminism that mostly
arose from second wave feminism of 1960s greatly
expanded our understanding of gender analysis. It
developed profound critique of patriarchy by analysing
power differentials and sexuality. Radical feminists
outlined sexual oppression and violence against women as
the dominant causes of women’s subordination and
depravation. Reproductive responsibilities and
motherhood were seen as holding women in perpetual
captivity. Emergence of radical feminism in late 1960s
and early 1970s had a profound influence on how politics
is defined by political scientists, as well as more diffuse
effect on cultural values throughout the western world.
The leading spark was provided by Simon de Beauvoir’s
work The Second Sex (1949) through her seminal
statement that women are not born but made. This text
offered radical understanding of gender, much before this
concept became fundamental to understanding of gender
oppression. It inspired a range of literature that offered
comprehensive critique of patriarchy. Kate Millett in her
book Sexual Politics explores the role of patriarchal
violence, dominance and power in moulding sexual
relations. She sees politics not as innocent but as mediated
by power relations and hierarchy that operates
everywhere. By implying examples from different religion
she shows how it plays predominant role in establishing
and sustaining the hegemony of males and inferiority of
females. She believes that women, who comprise half of
humanity, can change the value system by change in
consciousness. In the Dialectics of Sex Shulamith
 Firestone (1972) traces the biological root of patriarchy in
reproduction, child rearing. Such roles act as deterrent to
women’s capacity to free and autonomous individual.
Biological capability of women is construed as nature’s
sanction of sexual division of labour. She advocated for
contraception, right to abortion state support for child
rearing and dissolution of nuclear families. Shulamith’s
work is acknowledged as important radical work that
includes the dimension of class and race. All institutions
including family were identified as potential sites of
oppression. Many radical feminists denounced
heterosexuality that legitimised the sexual domination of
men over women. Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch
(1970) pressed the idea that the burdens of domesticity
and nuclear family deprive them from their capacity to
action. Women are made to cater to the needs and desires
of men’s world by separating themselves from their
sexuality, natural and political autonomy. Andrea Dworkin
and Catherine Mackinnon have come very strongly against
pornography, describing it as sex discrimination against
women. Feminist like Alison Jaggar thinks that radical
feminism is elitist movement represents the special
experience of a relatively small group of predominantly
white, middle class, college-educated American women.
5. Psychoanalytic feminism : In the field of
Psychoanalytic feminism scholars like Alfred Adler,
Karen Horney and Clara Thompson tried to question the
Freudian explanation of essentialism and stressed that men
and women’s experience of sexuality has been socially
constructed. 10 Psychoanalysts like them tried to bring in
the role of our tradition, institutions, laws, morals, customs
in shaping our patriarchal conceptualisation of women’s
sexuality and characteristics. Juliet Mitchell in her work
Psychoanalysis and Feminism Freud, Reich, Liang and
Women (1974) depicted Freud’s analysis of masculinity
and feminity as the constructs of patriarchal culture. She
said that men exchange women for marriage rather than
vice-versa accounts for the patriarchal character of human
society. Psychoanalysis, in her views can be utilized by
feminists for containment of patriarchy. Similarly, Nancy
Chodorow in her book ThSimilarly, Nancy Chodorow in
her book The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis
and the Sociology of Gender (1978) finds exclusive
female mothering responsible for gendered role and
inferiority of women. Dorothy Dinnerstein and Nancy
Chodorow find source of all problems in the fact that
women do all the mothering. If the father and mother
contribute equally to mothering then perhaps boys and
girls would grow up realising that men and women both
are loving and autonomous. The system of dual parenting
will have more presence of father in home, can liberate a
woman who has a productive work outside and the male
child will not develop the fears the maternal power. Hence
he will not grow up rejecting the feminine feeling of
nurturance considered unworthy of real men. In her work
In a Different Voice (1982) Carol Gilligan argued about
gender difference in moral development and moral
decision making. She famously engaged in a debate with
Lawrence Kohlberg known as the Ethics of Care Debate.
Gilligan challenged the Freudian notion that men have a
 well developed sense of justice and morality whereas
women do not. She emphasised that the socialisation
process in the family and society inculcates different
methods of moral thinking between women and men.
Whereas women generally display orientation for care,
men follow the orientation for justice. This in no sense
proves that men’s conceptualisation and understanding is
better. It only means that men and women relate to the
world and their fellow beings differently. Lawrence
Kohlberg while celebrating the qualities that define the
masculine world underrates the care ethics of women. He
projects the universalistic idea of justice, rights based on
rationality as superior to care which is based on emotions.
Gilligan contends that ethics of care is based on
relatedness and responsiveness to others. Women’s world
is based upon care, concerns and connectness and may be
superior to justice. Feminists have reacted in mixed ways
to the ethics of care debate. Whereas some rejoice the
distinctiveness of women and her core values, others
denounce its essentialising assumptions. Martha
Nussbaum thinks that rights and justice discourse have
emancipatory potential for women therefore, should not be
undermined. The ethics of care proposition may strengthen
the stereotyping of sexual and domestic responsibilities of
women reinforcing patriarchy.
6. Black Feminism : Contemporary times have given rise
to new variants of feminism that see certain specific issue
central to their analysis. Black Feminism emphasises the
issue of racism as central to oppression of women of
colour. It has challenged the tendency within feminism
 ignore the racial differences and to suggest that women
endure a common oppression by virtue of their sex.
Calling the feminism of white women as exclusionary,
they say that black women face different forms of
oppression that is racist and sexist. Critical insights in this
regards has come from Alice Walker (The Colour Purple,
1982), Bell Hooks (Ain’t I a Woman? Black women and
Feminism (1981), Barbara Smith (Writings on Race,
Gender and Freedom: The Truth that Never Hurts 1998),
Angela Davis (Women, Race and Class, 1983), Patricia
Hill Collins (Black Feminist Thought 1990) etc. All these
writings show the intersectionality of racism, sexism and
class oppression. Combahee River collective was a Black
feminist lesbian organisation 1974-1980 that tried to
establish separate identity related to identity and sexuality
7. Postmodern Feminism : Unlike other perspectives on
feminism, Postmodern feminism has an uneasy
relationship with feminism. They find feminism as
explanatory category that tries to explain the world
according to some order that they call phallologocentrism.
Post modernist scholars want to escape this approach of
explaining the world in terms of some natural symbolic
order, built up on grand stories of history or
metanarratives that has a drive to reach a single goal of
stability. Entire western philosophy and the knowledge
emanating from it from Plato to Sigmund Freud and
Jacques Lacan is a drive to search for sameness. Therefore
woman is seen as a reflection of a man, the same as man,
except in her sexuality. All these writers have tried to
suppress the difference in order to confirm to the natural
order constructed by man. This is the reason that novelist
Helene Cixous says that men’s writings are phallocentric,
always trying to affirm to the symbolic order in which
man is the master, the maker. Women exist in man’s world
on his term; man is the self, and woman is the other.
Cixous stresses that women must come out of the world
that men have constructed for them. Feminist writings are
identified as the potential source of liberation through
transformation of social and cultural standards by Cixous.
Feminist epistemology and stand point theory claim that
the dominant discourses of knowledge have always
excluded the women and marginalised so that their voices
have been rendered irrelevant. The true account of history
and reality will begin from the inclusion of their
experiences, perceptions and understandings. Similar
concerns have been displayed by Luce Irigaray. She
contends that masculine discourse has never been able to
understand women or the feminine or anything that is
other than masculine. As the female sexuality is not like
male’s, therefore is described as the absence or the lack. In
order to create a new meaning of feminine from women’s
perception, Irigaray suggests that the Oedipus complex has
to be exploded. Patriarchy is seen as manifestation of
masculine libidinal economy completely dismissive of
female sexuality. Like Cixous, Irigaray saw women’s
sexuality as very positive and liberating. It celebrated the
element of multiplicity in female’s sexuality and her
experiences. Julia Kristeva’s stand differs from Cixous
and Irigaray as she objects to the conceptualisation of idea
of ‘women’ or ‘feminine’ as essentialist philosophy and
hence must be deconstructed. She also discusses all other
groups that have been considered as misfits and whose
voices have not been part of the dominant discourse like
the homosexuals, Jews, racial and ethnic minorities. The
common thread between Julia Kristeva, Helene Cixous
and Luce Iriaray is that they stress the need to explore the
complex relationship between language, sexuality and
power to develop nonphallocentric ways of thinking.Post
Modern Feminism objects to the essentialist philosophy
of feminism. Its focus is more on the diversity that
marks the life and living of women across the societies
and cultures. It denies any pre defined parameters for
women’s movement and celebrates the heterogeneity
and subjectivity of women’s world. However one of the
critiques of postmodern feminists is that they have
withdrawn from the real revolutionary struggles and take
on only to elite intellectual engagements. Whereas
feminists all over the world are showing resistance in
concrete terms in form of protests, boycotts, marches,
campaigns, post modern feminists are still hooked to the
fancies of their intellectual abstraction. Others do not find
them easily comprehensible; resultantly they make no
sense to many. Eco-Feminists : Later on, other school of
thoughts such as Cultural feminism emerged that
celebrates the difference between man and woman. Eco-
feminists like Vandana Shiva hold that the qualities and
capabilities harboured by women like creation, nurturance,
sustenance and rootedness make them different and may
be better than men. In that sense ecofeminists celebrate the
feminine difference derided by patriarchy. Post-feminism
defies the ideas of second wave feminism or radical
feminism. Feminists such as Camille Paglia and Natasha
Walter stress that women should celebrate their sexuality,
projecting themselves not as victims but as agents.
Central Themes in Feminism
 Sex-Gender Differentiation : Sex is a fact that
one is born a male or a female. It refers to the
biological difference between the two sexes and
implies that men and women will be different in
some respect (for example in anatomy, task of
reproduction). However, gender distinction is a
social construction. This implies that the social and
cultural norms that women are assigned with are
result of this biological determinism and essentialism
that identify women and men with certain ‘essential’
nature. The biological function of reproduction of
women has come to characterise her rest of role and
responsibilities in family and society. The
reproductive and care ethics of bearing and rearing
of children has been projected as essence of
women’s life. Such constructions of gender
stereotypes create hierarchy with men at the top and
women at the bottom.17 Feminist scholars have
challenged these perceived ‘natural’ differences
between men and women. Historical literatures have
always projected the primacy of male and pushed
women to the backyards of anonymity. This
misogynist approach is pervasive in all the canonical
texts. The form and matter relation outlined by Plato
 and Aristotle compared the knowable form, - the
mind, the rational to the male and non-rational,
disorderly and unknowable to female. Therefore,
they believe, the rightful dominance of mind over the
body, man over nature, male over female. This
mindset has cultivated our knowledge, formed our
value system and became an inherent part of our
culture, traditions, and institutions. Through the
ages, such deliberate constructions have been
invented to assign the subjugated and secondary
position to women.
 Nature/Culture : The idea of binary oppositions
such as reason/emotion, mind/body,
universal/particular,and objectivity/subjectivity
nature/culture are informed by patriarchal constructs.
In that sense, modern science also has been
consciously gendered, andocentric activity as
pointed by feminists such as Donna Harraway, Nelly
Oudshoorn, Evelyn Fox Keller, Dorothy Smith and
many others. All these ideological moorings and
inappropriate account of identity of male and female
guided the philosophical imagination in later
developments of the traditions. Gender differences as
typically imposed through contrasting stereotypes of
masculinity and feminity. The idea of maleness has
been identified with a clear determinate mode of
thought, femaleness with the vague and
indeterminate. Femaleness has been linked with
passivity. In her outstanding work The Second Sex
Simone de Beauvoir has illustrated our biased
understanding of sexual reproduction. She observed,
where as male gamete ‘sperm’ has been seen as
active and agile, the female gamete ‘egg’ is
superficially passive; its compact mass sealed up
within itself, evokes natural darkness and inward
repose. Devoid of motility, the egg waits while the
sperm, free, slender and agile penetrates it. This
natural biological phenomenon has been generalized
and seen as an exact reflection of the microcosm.
Resultantly we have biological determinism and
essentialism that defines these realms of activities as
‘authentic’ engagements of women. The identity of
male is thus derived from the agility, vividness,
restlessness of the spermatozoon, while female has
been typified as passive and inert recipient. It is
interesting to note that new research has suggested
that the sperm’s motion is not strong enough to
propel it forward, and that, in fact the egg’s surface
exudes as energy that actively draws the sperm
towards itself. This identity has been carried on
down the ages and even the modern biology
confirms with medieval symbolism. Sexual relation
is basically seen as the relation between the gametes.
However, most feminists have vehemently
repudiated the concept that biology is destiny.
Margaret mead in her work Sex and Temperament in
Three Primitive Societies questioned thenaturalistic
assumption about sex differences saying that gender
is always a constructed category, not a natural one.
The Sex- Gender Debate State the fact that sex is
 biological given category where as gender is the
identity that is produced by the society and its
institutions by constantly mediating and
moulding women’s lives. The Patriarchal social
order rears the female mind, body and her entire
life in manners that are conducive to its norm of
centrality of male and subordination of female in
all possible forms. Examples are many of those that
we call women lack capacity to give birth, many are
sexually attracted to other women, some feel like
they are men trapped in female bodies, and some
have indeterminate sexual organs or male
chromosomes.25 Judith Butler contends the notion
that sex is pre given where as gender is cultural
inscription of the society. In fact gender as a way of
thinking and as a concept, pre-exists the body; it is
gender that produces the category of biological sex
as a series of performance. Post modern feminists
clearly reject understanding of the world in terms of
binary opposites. This connotes that sex cannot be
merely seen as dichotomous category or of binary
opposites, but needs a larger canvas for
understanding.

 The Public/Private Divide : The public/private

dichotomy is central to feminist movement
expressed in the slogan ‘The personal is Political’. It
is scathing critique of the traditionally forged wall of
separation between the political or the public sphere
consisting of state, government and the personal and
private sphere comprised by the family and personal
relationships. Feminists accuse classical liberal
philosophers and scholars of deliberately out casting
the private or domestic sphere from their indulgence.
Whereas the state has been sanctioned the authority
and legitimacy to interfere and legislate on the
subjects that fall under the public sphere, the private
has been left untouched, therefore warding off any
responsibility towards the private sphere. Public-
Private divide is one of the fundamental issues in
feminism. It stands for the deliberate attempt of
the patriarchal societies to exclude women from
the public sphere, the site of power and authority
by restricting them to the walls of domesticity.
Feminists identify this divide as the root cause of
most of the gender troubles and gender
inequality. Feminists argue that most of the
injustices, crimes and violence occur against women
within the confines of four walls. Relegating the
domestic world outside of the state purview can be
seen as the act of collusion in patriarchy by the state.
The conventional understanding of family life as
non-political is misleading. Feminists have widened
the definition of politics itself by asserting that if
politics is about power and domination, than
potentionally all relations including that between
spouses are political. Politics is not just confined to
the public bodies and governments, but governs all
aspect of our existence, including our personal lives.
This was the time, when family was out lined as the
 primary site of oppression of women. Many
feminists stressed the exigency to democratise the
private sphere, by bringing it in the mainstream
politics.

 Patriarchy and Violence : Patriarchy has

pervaded mostly all human societies. It is hierarchal
unequal system that oppresses and exploits women
making them subordinate. It propagates gendered
division of labour and sexism. Whereas men are
privileged and immune, women work hard to cater to
family without being recognised or thanked.
Patriarchy is game of power in which men enjoy the
advantages at the cost of the freedom, health and
happiness of women. Gerda Lerner in her analysis of
patriarchy observes that the subordination of women
started with the appropriation of women’s sexual and
reproductive capacities. There is nothing natural
about it and therefore it must be challenged.
Patriarchy shapes our understanding and
interpretations. As outcome we witness rampant
sexist and andocentric bias in our understanding of
social life. It is a world where male is measure of all
things and female amounts to nothing. However, this
social order that is heavily inclined in favour of man
is deliberately made to appear as natural so that
women must affirm to it and assimilate themselves
in this permanent state of subordination. This can be
best explained with the description of patriarchy as
nude make up, where this social order is maintained
by faithful performance of prescribed rituals over
and over again throughout one’s lifetime. Just like in
case of nude make up, one spends hours painting the
face to appear as if it has not been touched, similarly
patriarchy is made to appear natural but there has
been centuries invested in construction of masculine
universe that always keeps women at the periphery.
In such societies family, religion, media, laws act as
the structures of patriarchy that legitimise and
perpetuate its androcentric ethos. As result, the
dominant social order gets reflected in cinema,
literature, painting, fashion, philosophy and religion
thus reinforcing and reproducing gender stereotypes
and sexist culture. Patriarchal societies engage in
violence of several kinds and degrees towards
women. There are gender specific crimes like sexual
harassment, molestation, rape, marital rape, domestic
violence, trafficking, forced prostitution etc. Crimes
such as rape are more about power and domination
of man over woman than it is about sex. It is
deliberate attempt to severely restrict women’s
access to public spaces. The violence against
women and the gender specific crimes reiterates
the inequality and subordination of women in all
spheres of life. All patriarchal societies indulge in
violence against women in various forms and
degrees. Similarly there is no element of honour in
the honour crimes widely prevalent in parts of
South-Asia in which young women are tortured and
killed for following their decisions in their life
regarding whom they want to marry. Similar is the
case with female genital mutilation, or practice of
veil or purdah in some part of the world justified on
the name of cultural rights.

Conclusion
Many contend that we have arrived a post feminist
era and feminism has declined in its role and
relevance. However feminists like Sylvia Walsby in
her book, the Future of Feminism emphatically
asserts that feminism is pulsating and taking new
forms. It will remain viable as long as gender
inequality and patriarchy persist. In fact, new
feminist insights are addressing local issues, forming
global coalitions and aiming at complete
emancipation. Women’s movement today is the most
dynamic and progressive of all social movements in
many countries. Women have had many great
breakthroughs with their protest, but many still turn a
blind eye to the fact that there is sexual
discrimination. Men are still more respected than
women in our society. Not only do they receive
higher pay but the products that are marketed toward
them are less than those marketed for women.
However, new generations are taking the movement
by storm with even males supporting women in their
fight. The problem of women rights at hand is not
going away anytime soon, but its growing popularity
gives hope to all those fighting for equality.