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LIBERAL FEMINISM: NUSSBAUM, WOLF & OTHERS

Liberal Feminism is one of the strongest Modernist Feminist approaches and it share some of the features with othermodernist viewpoints (Radical Feminism, Liberal Feminism, Marxist, Socialist feminism etc) and simultaneouslydiffers from them in other points.

COMMON FEATURES FOR ALL LIBERAL FEMINISM APPROACHES:

1. Reason as the foundation of the Universal Human2. Focus on the womens status relative to mens as a measure of the society3. The immediate importance of practical social reform.

Liberal Feminism is a BROAD CHURCH include different approaches, but it is NOT HOMOGENOUS. Its historicalperspective is founded on THREE WAVES that need not to be considered chronological, as they coexist, overlap andinteract one with another.

1ST WAVE OF LIBERAL FEMNINISM

BEGINNING Arose as a critical response to the development of LIBERALISM a XVIIIth century theorywhere the individual (full, adult citizen) should be left to decide without any interferencefrom governments or external authorities.

DID NOT LIKE The fact that in those Liberalist universal metanarratives (huge-size theories) neither womennor some men (slaves) were included, and consequently lacked the freedom and status of FULL & ADULT CITIZEN.

CLAIMED FOR Full citizenship for women and the possibility of an active participation in public life that wasdenied to them for ages

BY MEANS OF Right to vote, civil rights, individual developmentREPRESENTED BY Wollstonecraft ?

2nd WAVE OF LIBERAL FEMNINISM

BEGINNING Followed the 1 st wave, very active in the 1960s 1970s due to all the Civil Rights revolts andFeminist activism.

DID NOT LIKE The discrimination of WOMEN AS A GROUP by men AS A GROUP, criticizing the excessiveindividualism of the 1 st wave

CLAIMED FOR Creation of a collective identity, hoping that by more collective political method individualcoals can be achievedVery welfarist, as well as concentrated on LEGAL, POLITICAL, INSTITUCIONAL REFORMS andsocial justice for WOMEN AS A GROUP.Women to be like men

BY MEANS OF Social reforms and political projectsREPRESENTED BY Gloria Steinem, Beatrice Faust

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3rd WAVE OF LIBERAL FEMNINISM

BEGINNING XXth century mainlyDID NOT LIKE 2nd waves collectivist approach and its focus on obstacles that women have to overcome in

order to become full citizens. They claim it reinforce the status of victims and the identityof powerlessness that is not what women should seek.

CLAIMED FOR Individual responsibility for womens lives and statusEmpowering individuals and seizing the power conceived more as a matter of will, attitudeand ambition /POWER FEMINISM/Achieving any collective result by empowering personal changes

BY MEANS OF Introducing feminism into the capitalist marketing structure, turning it into a well-sellingproduct

REPRESENTED BY Naomi Wolf, primarily concerned with women like herself: white, middle-class, educatedetc. Not too much of attention is paid to REI (common feature for all Modernist approaches)

WOLLSTONECRAFT (1792)REJECTION OF THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS AND HEREDITARY POWERREINTERPRETATION OF CLASSIC LIBERAL ARGUMENTS FORMED BY JOHN LOCKEDIFFERENCES BETWEEN MEN & WOMEN DO NOT EXCLUDE THE LATER FROM REASON OR RIGHTS

WOMEN ARE INCLUDED IN THE NOTION OF AN UNIVERSALISED REASONING HUMAN BEING AND THEETHERNAL RULE OVER THEM IS REJECTEDFIGHT AGAINST DOUBLE STANDARTS APPLIED TO WOMEN IN ENLIGHTMENT AND LIBERAL THOUGHTMEN & WOMEN SHARE THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN CAPABILITY OF REASON, SO THEY SHOULD HAVE THESAME RIGHTS AND OPPORTUNITIESREASON = UNIVERSAL HUMAN ESSENCE, LINKED TO POLITICAL EQUALITYREASON= A MEAN TO RIGHT, JUSTICE AND SOCIAL FAIRNESSWOMENS CASE IS A LACMUS TRIAL FOR ANY SOCIETY. IF YOU HAVE A LOOK ON THE SITUATION OFWOMEN IN A SOCIETY IT WILL INFORM YOU ABOUT THE SOCIETY YOU ARE OBSERVING.

REFORMS: It is for mens sake to give womens rights. They are the main responsible for the training andnourishing of the young citizens. If the trainers (mothers) are not empowered to exercise reason (byhaving rights, take choices etc) they can not give a valid example and therefore the entire society will beaffected.

NUSSBAUMAGAINST CONVENTION AND FOR REASONREASON= OVERCOMES THE EXISTING FORMS OF POWER AND THEREFORE IS AN ALLY FOR WOMENREASON= CAN PERSUADE PEOPLE TO ACT AGAINST THEIR OWN INTERESTS, TO GIVE UP POWERREASON= IS BEYOND SOCIAL CONTEXT, BEYOND SELF-INTEREST ANTAGONIST TO THE POSTMODERNOUTLOOK THAT WOULD REJECT ANY OBJECTIVE POSITION OUTSIDE THE SOCIAL CONTEXTWOMENS CASE: Gender equality must precede multiculturalism. Strongly Modernist in i ts belief thatthere has to be a universal truth, model that can be put into practice. Consider that Postmodern writersare not involved enough in the fight for an universal cit izenship with its universal point of view, neutralperspective, beyond loyalties and power or any particular time or cultureREFORM: Rather critical towards what can be achieved by the meaning of reforms. Considers that the fruitof the reform improve opportunities of middle class, white, educated women but do not really challengeany real social injustice or inequality in Western Societies.