Chapter Info (Click Here)
Book No. – 4 (Political Science)
Book Name – Western Political Thought (Shefali Jha)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. CAROLE PATEMAN
1.1. DOMINATION THROUGH CONTRACT IN MODERN SOCIETY
1.2. FOR DEMOCRATIZATION AND AGAINST CONTRACT
2. MARTHA C. NUSSBAUM
3. JUDITH BUTLER
3.1. GENDER AS PERFORMATIVITY
3.2. GENDER AND THE HETEROSEXUAL MATRIX
3.3. FROM IDENTITY POLITICS TO QUEER POLITICS
4. CONCLUSION
Note: The first chapter of every book is free.
Access this chapter with any subscription below:
- Half Yearly Plan (All Subject)
- Annual Plan (All Subject)
- Political Science (Single Subject)
- CUET PG + Political Science
LANGUAGE
Carole Pateman, Martha C. Nussbaum, Judith Butler: Contemporary Feminist Theory
Chapter – 15
Table of Contents
- Western political thought examines the role of political power in regulating relationships between individuals in the public sphere.
- Gender identity has become crucial in political theory, questioning how women differ from men in social life and the implications of this differential incorporation in society.
- The first wave of feminism in the 1840s in the Anglo-American world focused on women’s entry into the public political sphere.
- Women demanded the right to vote, questioning why sex and race were used as exclusionary criteria when white menhad suffrage.
- Feminists contested arguments that women were emotional and irrational, physically weaker, and thus needed protection.
- The domestic sphere argument that women’s contributions were valuable in caregiving was debated, highlighting the contradiction of sexual violence and domination in women’s lives.
- The question arose: if modern political thought is centered on the individual, why was this not extended to women?
- Second-wave feminism after the 1960s brought attention to these issues, with feminist thought emerging in categories like liberal feminism, radical feminism, socialist feminism, black feminism, queer feminism, and post-colonial feminism.
- Some theorists reject these divisions, arguing that the feminist perspective reshapes any theory it is applied to, such as liberal or socialist political theory.
- Three important feminist thinkers: Carole Pateman, Martha C. Nussbaum, and Judith Butler, share a focus on gender effects but have differing approaches.
- Carole Pateman focuses on women’s political exclusion, the unacknowledged work women do in caregiving, and the sexual subordination of women in marriage contracts, prostitution, and surrogacy.
- Pateman emphasizes domination and subordination as central to women’s lives.
- Martha C. Nussbaum addresses material resource inequalities faced by women, questioning what political theory must do to redistribute resources and include women’s traditionally domestic roles in societal structures.
- Nussbaum’s work raises questions about how the concept of the individual in political theory should change when women’s contributions are recognized.
- Judith Butler critiques the sex/gender system and argues for destabilizing it, not just intervening at the level of its effects.
- Butler explores the formation of sexual and gender identity, focusing on repression mechanisms in identity formation.
- Feminist theory has evolved from focusing on women’s identities to questioning identity politics itself, advocating for freedom and challenging fixed categories like lesbian.
- The goal is to queer identity and resist categorizing individuals based on intersecting identities (e.g., middle-class, upper caste, Hindu, Indian, middle-aged, lesbian).