Some Notes on Feminist Theory
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Mary Day, Some Notes on Feminist Theory, bahai-library.com.
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Some Notes on Feminist Theory

Mary Day

1997

The following is an introduction to feminist theory and
some implications for Bahai thinking about these issues. My apologies to
anyone who finds the following explanatory notes patronising but from what I
have read so far in this group the level of understanding and knowledge of
feminist theory is not very sophisticated. Before any kind of meaningful
scholarship can be approached on this list in this area a few concepts basic to
feminist theory need to be clarified.

The first is the distinction between gender and sex. In developing the concept
of gender, feminist theorists have enabled a much deeper level of understanding
of the position of women to be achieved. `Sex' refers to the biological
differences between men and women. It would be very difficult to dispute that
there are such differences. But many of these differences which we assume to
be natural have been and are subject to considerable change as the position of
women in society has changed. For instance, the physical strength of women has
improved as women have had more equitable access to basic food requirements;
have been less restrained from taking part in physical exercise and have had
greater control over the number and spacing of the children they bear. So
biology too is influenced by the social and material conditions of women's
lives.

Gender refers to the social construction of women, the ways in which women and
men live out these differences, the meanings that are attributed to them, the
roles they take up. ie the consequences of these biological differences in the
reproductive functions. Gender is understood differently in different cultures
and different historical moments. As Arash has pointed out so clearly the
context is necessary to appreciate the meaning.

One could argue loud and long about what `feminism' is but I don't think that
would be very helpful to my purpose here so perhaps we can accept that it
encompasses movements for social change that will lead to greater equality
between men and women. Ill founded views that `feminist' is equivalent to `man
hating, lesbian, family destroying...' reflect ignorance and prejudice rather
than adding to our understanding but sadly are very prevalent within some
sections of the Bahai community.

`Radical feminism' has a populist interpretation as very outrageous, the far
side of the pendulum swing, almost a swear word or insult. This is not the
meaning understood within feminist theory. Radical feminism represents a body
of theoretical work where the hierarchy of the binary opposition male/female is
reversed ie the female is privileged. From this theoretical base we see
political action in areas such as rape crisis centres, women's refuges, anti
pornography groups and an emphasis on `women's culture'. The logical extension
of radical feminism is separatism. It also relies on essentialist and
universalist and ahistorical concepts of `woman' ie that women possess some
quality of femaleness that is unchanged across race, culture and history. We
see some parallels in Bahai circles eg when women are valorised for being more
nurturing, tenderhearted and compassionate and this is then extended to imply
that all women have these qualities and all men don't. Readers not familiar
with scholarly work in feminist theory may be familiar with names like Andrea
Dworkin, Dale Spender, Mary Daly and Catherine MacKinnon as writers who have
popularised this theoretical position. Radical feminists would often
characterise `reason' as a construct of masculine oppression and inferior to
women's intuition.

Another area of feminist theory that has been popularised is `Liberal
Feminism'. In this theoretical work the binary oppositions of Enlightenment are
accepted but attempts are made to move women to the other side. The `rational
man' of the Enlightenment is extended to include women. This leads to an
emphasis on demands for equal rights and EEO legislation and Affirmative
Action. There are parallels here too in the Bahai Writings with the emphasis
placed on girls and women's education and explanations of women's inequality
being caused by a denial of education and opportunity. There are difficulties
here too. Of course the simplest of these being that there is an implication
that women can be treated the same as men and that this leads to equality. It
doesn't therefore allow for differences such as women's role as biological
mothers. Writers like Betty Friedan and more recently Naomi Wolfe are informed
by this theoretical base.

Socialist feminism has attempted to extend the categories of socialist theory
to include an analysis of gender. This has lead to important advances in
understanding the material conditions relevant to the oppression of women. An
extremely useful theoretical tool emerging out of this has been the concept of
the `sexual division of labour' and how this affects women' position in the
home and the workplace, the kinds of work they get to do and the rewards for
that work. eg women do not need to be recompensed financially for doing what
comes `naturally'. We can see implications in Bahai practice where women get
to do the caring, mothering work and the cleaning, cooking and caring for
children and taking children's classes especially for young children. I am not
implying these are not valuable services but rather that they are not valued
in communities and that men too would benefit from participating.

Postmodern/poststructuralist theories have moved the feminist project way
beyond some of the theoretical impasses of other theories but once again there
are problems. Perhaps one of the most important contributions here has been the
deconstruction of the fundamental categories of men and women. What is a woman?
What would constitute equality with men? Often the immediate response to the
question `what is a woman?' meets the response `We all know what a woman is'
Well I am not so sure we do. Deconstructing this term involves an examination
of the power structures involved in establishing an understanding of this term,
a historicising of this concept { Do I hear three cheers from the historians in
our midst} and of the social location of women across class, race, ethnicity
and sexuality. The Bahai writings do not assign essential gendered qualities
to either men or women other than the biological reproductive functions.
Nobody asked Abdul Baha what the differences between women and men are. A
great contribution to these theoretical debates has come from the work of women
of colour emerging from their discomfort with radical and liberal notions as
they experience racist oppression from women and as liberal reforms do not meet
their needs. For example while white middle class women might be arguing for
abortion law reform, women of colour might be more interested in preventing any
more black women being subject to involuntary abortions and
sterilisations.(This is just an example, I know the Bahai position on abortion
very well).

Postmodern feminism has also lead to important developments in the study of
language and how that is gendered and how other supposedly fundamental
categories such as reason and science are gendered, both in the sense of being
founded on those binary oppositions and by solidifying our notions of gender.
Important theoretical areas here are in looking at such concepts as `women's
experience' and `identity', both of which are important in my own work with
women mathematicians. Poststructuralist feminism provides useful tools for
thinking about `the equality of men and women' in the Bahai teachings because
we have to go beyond attributing an essential female essence to women. We have
to ask ourselves what `equality' means. and most importantly to me we have to
move beyond thinking of this principle merely in relation to the social
position of women within and without the Faith. we have to look at how the
denial of this principle informs the fundamental categories of knowledge and
how our knowledges could be transformed to the betterment of all if they were
founded on the spiritual principle of the equality of men and women and
consequently the valuing of the feminine and the masculine. I can't write a
lot more about this now because I need to bounce ideas around with Bahais
about this. The kinds of discussion taking place here about science and
religion need to be held about the equality of men and women.

Post feminism is a term that has appeared here lately and again has a
popularised meaning [or misreading in my opinion] and another meaning in
feminist theory. Postfeminism in the popular press means post in the sense of
after, ie now that we don't need feminism anymore because women have got it
made. {If you subscribe to this view ask yourself why the illiteracy rate
amongst women in the world is rising while we are communicating globally}
Postfeminism in a feminist theory context means post/after the fundamental
categories of feminism have been deconstructed., ie now that we know that
`woman' is a category defined by history, culture. language, and class. Now
that we know that white middle-class tertiary educated feminists cannot speak
for the interests of all women across time and culture and class and that
feminists have to look at how women have exploited and oppressed other women.
Of course the other logical consequence is that the category `man' is also
deconstructed and this has lead to some very interesting work on
masculinities.

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-- Some Notes on Feminist Theory (Used by permission of the curator)