Politics
This chapter traces the notion of 'agency' through a series of transformations: from its roots in the dominant ideology of early European capitalism and imperialism, through its appropriation by feminists in countering constructions of gender and race which denied women's ability to act, to the contemporary re-appropriation of women's 'agency' into neoliberal discourses of development. Moving beyond notions of 'equality' with men, socialist feminists sought to understand agency in relation to power and ideology, exploring the nature of the material structures of patriarchy and the construction of masculinity and femininity in the context of a commitment to social transformation. It can be argued that there is a basic contradiction in the notions of agency and 'empowerment' as they are applied within the context of development. On the one hand, empowerment is supposed to be achieved by women themselves through the exercise of agency.
Citizenship, perhaps more than any other political concept, was traditionally understood as 'just something for the boys'. This chapter starts by outlining briefly the feminist critique of traditional formulations of citizenship in the 'malestream'. This critique has led to a rich feminist literature, which has, in differing ways, attempted to 're-gender' citizenship so that it better fits the 'girls'. This re-gendering raises a number of dilemmas. The chapter focuses on two central ones: whether a woman-friendly model should be ostensibly gender-neutral or explicitly gender-differentiated; and the status of the private sphere in relation to citizenship. In terms of the impact of feminist analysis, the chapter concludes by arguing first, that it has contributed to a conceptualisation of citizenship that is more sensitive to difference and diversity; and second that, with some exceptions, it has influenced the mainstream debate.
This chapter focuses on democratisation, grounding this in an initial discussion of democratic theory. It begins by examining some key assumptions of democratic theory, albeit in a necessarily cursory fashion given the extensiveness of the field, and some of the now well-established feminist critiques of these assumptions. The chapter finds that although feminism has had some influence on democratic theory, this influence remains patchy and has not extended to the literature on democratisation. Despite the prolific nature of the democratisation literature, the dominant explanatory paradigms have virtually ignored the role of women in democratisation. The chapter redresses this balance by exploring what a feminist analysis of democratisation would entail. It argues that the voluntarist and positivist nature of the mainstream democratisation literature is not accidental but denotes a particular ontological foundation that tends at best to marginalise women's activism and, at worst, simply ignores it.
Development is a contested concept and is subject to multiple uses and definition in both academic and practitioner communities. This chapter explores the main feminist contributions to the study of development and assesses their impact on contemporary mainstream development practice and discourse. It begins by providing a brief review of the concept of development and some of the key themes that are considered within the field of development studies. The chapter then reviews the mainstream of development theory in the 1950s and 1960s, demonstrating that these were, by and large, focused primarily on the male experience of development. It considers the emergence of feminist development theory in the 1970s and 1980s, focusing in particular on the contribution of the 'Women in Development' (WID), Women and Development' (WAD) and 'Gender and Development' (GAD) approaches. The extent of feminist interventions' impact on the mainstream of development theory and practice has been uneven.
This chapter examines the concept of empowerment, in development/political discourse and practice, from the conventional 'malestream' conceptualisation to a feminist perspective on the term. Using Nigeria as a case study, it assesses some of the strategies that have been used to empower women. The chapter explores feminist contributions to the empowerment debate and the implementation of associated practices, and argues that the conventional approaches are inadequate because they often are too mechanistic and too focused on goals and not on the dynamics of the process. It takes as its starting point the conceptualisation of empowerment as a process of providing women with the tools and resources needed to live independent, productive and dignified lives. However, the chapter questions the notion of power as something to be given and it argues that the feminist perspective provides a more dynamic and effective approach to the understanding of empowerment.
This book examines a range of concepts in the light of feminist critiques, and considers whether they may need to be reconstituted in the light of these critiques. It assesses the impact of feminist debates on mainstream thought. The book provides a balance between 'classic' political concepts and those that are being currently developed by feminist theorists, and to reflect the interconnections between the various sub-fields of Politics as a discipline. Many chapters engage with the concept of politics itself and with the public/private dichotomy. Some chapters discuss issues around the state, power, care, difference and equality and the ways in which different aspects of inequality intersect. Others attempt to contextualise gender in relation to other structural inequalities such as class and 'race'. All the chapters engage in some way with feminist critiques of the dualistic thinking that underpins conventional and narrow understandings of the political, particularly in liberal thought. The book demonstrates that if feminist analysis is taken seriously, conventional patterns of thought and practice are significantly disrupted. It plays a role in encouraging all political theory students and academics to see that good, effective theory requires serious engagement with feminist ideas. As such, these ideas help lay the foundations for more genuinely inclusive political thought.
Until quite recently, Western political theory almost completely ignored women and gender issues; this neglect was largely unremarked, and there were few feminist academics in the discipline. This book aims to examine a range of concepts in the light of feminist critiques, to consider whether they may need to be reconstituted in the light of these critiques and to assess the impact of feminist debates on mainstream thought. It provides a balance between 'classic' political concepts and those that are being currently developed by feminist theorists, and to reflect the interconnections between the various sub-fields of politics as a discipline. Rationality, social contract and sovereignty were obvious choices as the starting point for much Western political thought since the Enlightenment. Citizenship, representation, democracy and democratisation and development were chosen not just for their centrality to political theorising and analysis but also for their centrality to the practice of politics today.
This chapter outlines the feminist contribution to an important part of the reconceptualisation of rationality. It describes the feminist critique of the mainstream conception of rationality. The chapter focuses on rethinking rationality in the context of the process and practice of theorising and what counts as philosophical knowledge, by challenging the malestream denial of a constructive link between reason and emotion, and by analysing the relation between them. It examines the range of meanings of the terms 'reason' and 'emotion' and demonstrates the wide and traditionally unacknowledged scope of the connections between them. The chapter also shows, on the basis of the feminist critique and perspective, three of the key ways in which emotions play an important role in the operation of the idea of rationality in knowledge and theorising.
From a feminist perspective, traditional conceptions of representation seem insufficient and unsatisfactory. This chapter begins with a discussion of Hanna Pitkin's The Concept of Representation (1967). This seminal book discusses and draws on the contributions of some of the 'great men' of political theory. Pitkin's work has structured subsequent mainstream and feminist discussions. In this chapter, Pitkin's ideas are subjected to the following question: what do her differing conceptions of representation, and especially her preferred definition, offer to discussions of women's political presence? The chapter then turns to feminist engagements with the concept of representation, with Anne Phillips's work without doubt the most influential contribution. It closes with a discussion of feminist political scientists' empirical research into the complicated relationship between women's descriptive and substantive representation in practice. The chapter advocates a shift away from a focus on when, to a focus on how, the substantive representation of women occurs.
The idea of a social contract as the source of legitimate political authority has played a key role in the development of liberal political thought since the seventeenth century. This chapter provides a brief overview of the social contract tradition and of feminist critiques, and explores the ambiguity of this tradition for feminist theory. In particular, it discusses how feminist theory might take the social contract seriously by analysing it in the multiple contexts of unequal power that derive not from an initial baseline of equality but from historical relations based on force and fraud. After a brief overview of social contract theory, the chapter focuses on Carole Pateman's influential feminist work The Sexual Contract and the debates which it has generated. It then considers the relationship between the sexual and racial contracts.