# Some Notes on Feminist Theory

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-20 — 1 clipping.*

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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.
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views18860 views since posted 1997; last edit 2012;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../day_feminist_theory;
> URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
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> — *Some Notes on Feminist Theory (Used by permission of the curator)*