Post by Islamic Revival on Jan 21, 2007 4:50:00 GMT -5
Due to the current controversy on the issue of the veil sparked by the comments of Jack Straw of the UK the issue of the position of women in Islam has again come to the fore.
The current debate on women's rights has until now been predominantly shaped by its progress in the west. Whilst attitudes towards women have changed significantly in the west through the endeavours of feminists and women's rights movements of different philosophical persuasions, this article questions some of the assumptions - and their universality - as well as the broader impact of their successes.
The treatment of women in any society has become, without doubt, a key marker in evaluating its progress. The accepted framework of the debate on women's rights has centred around the need for 'equality', to redress a historic imbalance that has empowered men considerably more than it has women, and to undermine patriarchy and societies modelled on its assumptions. It is without doubt that the perception, treatment and rights of women are now dramatically different to those of even the last century. But alongside the rapid changes that followed the 'domestic revolution', as some term it, a number of very key questions remain unanswered. While historical prejudices and assumptions may be slowly eroding in areas of opportunity, employment conditions, political rights, and marriage-particularly in the West-it would be difficult to argue that the debate on women's rights is now over. Many feminists and women's rights activists, while welcoming the changes of the last century, believe that there are many battles still to be fought, although they remain deeply divided on which battles they are.
These unanswered questions not only relate to the rights of women, but to the impact that the successes of women's movements have had on society as a whole. Their progress has fuelled increasingly complex dilemmas on issues such as the rights of children, relationships with the opposite sex, and the escalation of previously rare social problems. They have exposed shortcomings in the accepted framework and in its very assumptions, illustrated by the bitter divisions that plague post-feminist movements. Critically, one must ask if the discussions in the West-promoted as a template and international standard-have addressed the core issues of the debate. If, however, they have overlooked them we are in need of a new perspective.
The context
The currently accepted framework of debate on women's rights originated shortly after Europe's age of enlightenment. It was Mary Wollstonecroft, influenced by her company of liberal thinkers, who first applied the conclusions of the enlightenment to the issues of women in her 'Vindication of the Rights of Women' in 1792. It followed the publication of 'The Rights of Man' by her close friend Thomas Paine and challenged the 'domestic tyranny of men' as Paine had challenged the 'divine right of kings'. After nearly a century of campaigning, and through the turbulence of the French Revolution, another landmark work on the rights of women was the publication of 'The Subjugation of Women' by John Stuart Mill.
'Modern' perspectives on the rights of women are largely based on the liberal conclusions first articulated by Wollstonecroft and Mill. Also termed 'constructivism', liberal positions assert that men and women are fundamentally-'perfectly' as Mill puts it-equal. Accepting anything less is to promote the oppression of one sex over the other, rendering the other subordinate. Observed differences between men and women, they asserted, are neither biological nor innate but the product of centuries of conditioning. This is why feminists are keen to differentiate between 'gender' as a social construct and 'sex'. Simone De Beauvoir, one of the most significant voices after Wollstonecroft, famously remarked in her book 'The Second Sex': "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman". Equality translated to equal political, economic, and social rights and opportunities, such as those to independent education, employment and political representation. The 'division of labour', between housewife female and breadwinning male, was deplored as a symbol of subjugation and patriarchy (male dominated society) and a consequence of the growing injustices of the industrial revolution. Liberal individualism, therefore, was the bedrock on which classical theories of women's emancipation were founded and which now form the foundations of modern perceptions.
The traditionalists, or essentialists, who maintained that the differences between men and women were a biological fact and not a social construct, are now less prominent in the debate on women's rights. Advocates such as James FitzJames Stephen, a contemporary of Mill, in his book 'Liberty, Equality and Fraternity' held that differing political, social and economic rights should follow from these determined differences. The Victorians held that men and women should operate in two separate spheres (with the women confined to the home) based on the long-established belief of the world as a naturally ordered whole, in which all was harmonious as long as things stayed in their ordained places. This is the division of labour feminists deplored. Although conservatives and traditionalists still maintain similar arguments, the liberals have the victory in the debate thus far.
Equality: The European context
Great significance and importance has been assigned to the discussion of 'equality', and to the specific meaning it has come to assume, by western writers. But its symbolism as a key tenet in the debate on women's rights, such that it has become the very prism through which emancipation is measured, is largely because of its European context. Movements who championed women's emancipation were defined by their struggle against a distinctly European mindset and the inconsistency with which it treated women in relation to men, particularly during its medieval to post-industrial period. It is events in Europe and post-revolution America-both of whom share a common European tradition-which have defined the accepted framework of the debate on women.
A number of contributions forged the historical context in which equality between the sexes was first suggested in Europe. Christian theology, a pillar of Europe's medieval monarchies, played a pivotal role in forming Europe's confused perspectives on women. The Decretum Gratiani, which formed the basis of Church law for nearly eight hundred years between 1140 and 1917, assigned roles and duties on the basis that "sin came into the world through them [women]" and that "because of original sin they [women] must show themselves submissive".i Apart from blaming Eve for original sin, and so condemning women, the belief that Eve was created out of the bent rib of Adam popularised their secondary nature. Indeed, even after the Reformation, the works of theologians that asserted women possessed an innately evil capacity, and that even their humanity was questionable convinced monarchs and senior clergy. Pope Innocent VIII's endorsement of the book 'The Hammer of the Witches' in 1484, which asserts: "What else is woman but a foe to friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil of nature, painted with fair colours",ii resulted in thousands of women being burned at the stake.
These theological traditions positioned women at the start of the industrial revolution. Industrialisation, however, did not liberate women from their historical treatment but merely compounded their subordination. The considerable wealth generated during the industrial age created a growing male middle class who increasingly disregarded women. Women either found themselves working for a pitiful wage in the large factories brought on by industrialisation or married to the expanding group of middle class industrialists to whom they deferred ownership of their property, control over wages they earned independently, and the major part of their marriage rights. Accompanying the increasing power middle class men enjoyed, was domestic abuse and violence. Women bemoaned their treatment at the hands of men, who justified their typically drunk and unruly behaviour on the pressures of increasing competition in commerce and industry and showed no interest in domestic matters other than to demand that their needs were met. Indeed, it was this situation in industrial Europe that formed the key notion of patriarchy, or male dominated societies, that feminists have opposed ever since.
Even the enlightenment's most eminent thinkers spoke of the subject in a manner reflective of more traditional attitudes. Rousseau in 'Emile', his seminal work on education, wrote: "Men and women are made for each other, but their mutual dependencies are not equal. We could survive without them better than they could without us. They are dependent on our feelings, on the price we put on their merits, on the value we set on their attractions and on their virtues. Thus women's entire education should be planned in relation to men. To please men, to be useful to them to win their love and respect…"iii
In this historical context, equality was significant and indeed very controversial when first suggested. The equality debate established the framework by which Europe dealt with the subjugation of its women, corrected perceptions of their inferiority and founded movements that worked for their emancipation. But if we separate the long history that formed the backdrop to the notion of equality, we find the assertion that neither men nor women are inferior to one another is a very simple, indeed obvious, truth. Correcting historical prejudice alone cannot be a basis for defining a relationship between people.
Evaluating the idea of equality
The simple assertion that men and women are equal-that women are not inferior to men-alone articulates very little if considered outside its historical context; it leaves a number of unanswered questions. It does not address how best men and women can cooperate to forge a socially cohesive society. In the wider context of human relationships, we are in need of more than just this simple assertion of equality to handle the disputes and organise the relationships that naturally arise between people. Indeed, we are in need of a body of additional ideas and principles.
Liberal individualism, however, may regard this an irrelevant criticism; it considers men and women as individuals and the unanswered questions justified because they represent the personal freedom for both men and women to conduct their lives in the way they see fit. The issue of social cohesion may, therefore, be of marginal importance if it means restricting the choices of individuals in the name of the health of the collective.
There are two important issues to consider in responding to liberal objections. Firstly, the need for a framework of additional ideas and principles arises from no more than human interactions that occur within families, social groups, and society as a whole. Liberal individualism, characterised sometimes as putting the 'individual before society', would articulate a deficient political theory if it were to ignore relationships that are often not a matter of much choice. Individuals could always choose to isolate themselves from family and society, but we are born with family and relatives and so naturally relate with them; we engage in social activity with friends, and relationships between men and women determine the very future of the human race through human reproduction. Some framework is needed to articulate rights, indeed responsibilities, that men, women and their offspring should be appropriated in order to produce a socially coherent society.
Secondly, the issue of difference. Differences between men and women can lead to specific needs and complex disputes, whose management is a key element of ensuring social cohesion. Any failure to acknowledge or manage them effectively in the name of equality can be just as oppressive and detrimental as believing they symbolise the superiority of one sex over the other. A simple assertion of human equality provides limited guidance on the issue of difference and gives rise to a need for additional, more elaborate, ideas and principles.
Differences between men and women
Elaborating on each of these points, let us briefly consider the issue of difference. Often received with scepticism, liberal and feminist thinkers asserted that perceived differences between men and women were a social construct, not biological fact, and that the discussion of differences had been used historically as a tool for condemning women to subordinate roles. Historically in Europe, there have been some perceived differences between men and women (whether or not women possessed deficient intelligence, reduced capability for sound verdicts, and a lower capacity to learn and reason) which were assumptions, not facts, about women. The distinction between gender and sex therefore appears justifiable and a helpful way to separate social construct from biological fact. But rejecting all differences by attributing them to the product of social conditions may equally result in a dishonest account of human nature.
There are observable differences between men and women, the nature of which have been the subject of many contemporary debates in science, indeed the themes of philosophical discourse over many millennia: from studies by evolutionary psychologists and neuroscientists, to the conclusions of Plato and Aristotle.iv In fact, among the increasingly fragmented post-feminist movements are those who assert, rather than deny, differences between men and women. They draw on differences between men and women to identify the uniqueness of women and refuse male assimilation that results from interpreting female characteristics in male terms. They assert femininity and characterise contemporary thinking in many ways.
The ‘Poet Psyche’ attempted to understand the uniqueness of women through the use of Freudian, amongst other, psycho-analyses. The early eighties saw the emerging popularity of the 'difference feminists', after the publication of Carol Gilligan's 'In a Different Voice' in 1982, following conclusions by Nancy Chodorow published in 'The Reproduction of Mothering'. Gilligan attempted to assert that women possessed a different type of intelligence, a more caring and emotionally sophisticated psyche that was uniquely different-although some went on to assert it more superior-to that of men.
The conclusions of these scientific and philosophical studies have been disparate and varied-some clearly disproved and erroneous, as have some of the methods used to understand them, particularly Freudian tools or Gilligan's surveys (as well as the questionable relevance of knowledge of the precise nature of differences in solving practical social problems). However, these discourses demonstrate that differences between men and women have been consistently observable and are not recent phenomena. It is crucial to note that unlike some conservative conclusions,v differences do not translate to the inferiority or superiority of either sex and must be considered in this context.
The current debate on women's rights has until now been predominantly shaped by its progress in the west. Whilst attitudes towards women have changed significantly in the west through the endeavours of feminists and women's rights movements of different philosophical persuasions, this article questions some of the assumptions - and their universality - as well as the broader impact of their successes.
The treatment of women in any society has become, without doubt, a key marker in evaluating its progress. The accepted framework of the debate on women's rights has centred around the need for 'equality', to redress a historic imbalance that has empowered men considerably more than it has women, and to undermine patriarchy and societies modelled on its assumptions. It is without doubt that the perception, treatment and rights of women are now dramatically different to those of even the last century. But alongside the rapid changes that followed the 'domestic revolution', as some term it, a number of very key questions remain unanswered. While historical prejudices and assumptions may be slowly eroding in areas of opportunity, employment conditions, political rights, and marriage-particularly in the West-it would be difficult to argue that the debate on women's rights is now over. Many feminists and women's rights activists, while welcoming the changes of the last century, believe that there are many battles still to be fought, although they remain deeply divided on which battles they are.
These unanswered questions not only relate to the rights of women, but to the impact that the successes of women's movements have had on society as a whole. Their progress has fuelled increasingly complex dilemmas on issues such as the rights of children, relationships with the opposite sex, and the escalation of previously rare social problems. They have exposed shortcomings in the accepted framework and in its very assumptions, illustrated by the bitter divisions that plague post-feminist movements. Critically, one must ask if the discussions in the West-promoted as a template and international standard-have addressed the core issues of the debate. If, however, they have overlooked them we are in need of a new perspective.
The context
The currently accepted framework of debate on women's rights originated shortly after Europe's age of enlightenment. It was Mary Wollstonecroft, influenced by her company of liberal thinkers, who first applied the conclusions of the enlightenment to the issues of women in her 'Vindication of the Rights of Women' in 1792. It followed the publication of 'The Rights of Man' by her close friend Thomas Paine and challenged the 'domestic tyranny of men' as Paine had challenged the 'divine right of kings'. After nearly a century of campaigning, and through the turbulence of the French Revolution, another landmark work on the rights of women was the publication of 'The Subjugation of Women' by John Stuart Mill.
'Modern' perspectives on the rights of women are largely based on the liberal conclusions first articulated by Wollstonecroft and Mill. Also termed 'constructivism', liberal positions assert that men and women are fundamentally-'perfectly' as Mill puts it-equal. Accepting anything less is to promote the oppression of one sex over the other, rendering the other subordinate. Observed differences between men and women, they asserted, are neither biological nor innate but the product of centuries of conditioning. This is why feminists are keen to differentiate between 'gender' as a social construct and 'sex'. Simone De Beauvoir, one of the most significant voices after Wollstonecroft, famously remarked in her book 'The Second Sex': "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman". Equality translated to equal political, economic, and social rights and opportunities, such as those to independent education, employment and political representation. The 'division of labour', between housewife female and breadwinning male, was deplored as a symbol of subjugation and patriarchy (male dominated society) and a consequence of the growing injustices of the industrial revolution. Liberal individualism, therefore, was the bedrock on which classical theories of women's emancipation were founded and which now form the foundations of modern perceptions.
The traditionalists, or essentialists, who maintained that the differences between men and women were a biological fact and not a social construct, are now less prominent in the debate on women's rights. Advocates such as James FitzJames Stephen, a contemporary of Mill, in his book 'Liberty, Equality and Fraternity' held that differing political, social and economic rights should follow from these determined differences. The Victorians held that men and women should operate in two separate spheres (with the women confined to the home) based on the long-established belief of the world as a naturally ordered whole, in which all was harmonious as long as things stayed in their ordained places. This is the division of labour feminists deplored. Although conservatives and traditionalists still maintain similar arguments, the liberals have the victory in the debate thus far.
Equality: The European context
Great significance and importance has been assigned to the discussion of 'equality', and to the specific meaning it has come to assume, by western writers. But its symbolism as a key tenet in the debate on women's rights, such that it has become the very prism through which emancipation is measured, is largely because of its European context. Movements who championed women's emancipation were defined by their struggle against a distinctly European mindset and the inconsistency with which it treated women in relation to men, particularly during its medieval to post-industrial period. It is events in Europe and post-revolution America-both of whom share a common European tradition-which have defined the accepted framework of the debate on women.
A number of contributions forged the historical context in which equality between the sexes was first suggested in Europe. Christian theology, a pillar of Europe's medieval monarchies, played a pivotal role in forming Europe's confused perspectives on women. The Decretum Gratiani, which formed the basis of Church law for nearly eight hundred years between 1140 and 1917, assigned roles and duties on the basis that "sin came into the world through them [women]" and that "because of original sin they [women] must show themselves submissive".i Apart from blaming Eve for original sin, and so condemning women, the belief that Eve was created out of the bent rib of Adam popularised their secondary nature. Indeed, even after the Reformation, the works of theologians that asserted women possessed an innately evil capacity, and that even their humanity was questionable convinced monarchs and senior clergy. Pope Innocent VIII's endorsement of the book 'The Hammer of the Witches' in 1484, which asserts: "What else is woman but a foe to friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil of nature, painted with fair colours",ii resulted in thousands of women being burned at the stake.
These theological traditions positioned women at the start of the industrial revolution. Industrialisation, however, did not liberate women from their historical treatment but merely compounded their subordination. The considerable wealth generated during the industrial age created a growing male middle class who increasingly disregarded women. Women either found themselves working for a pitiful wage in the large factories brought on by industrialisation or married to the expanding group of middle class industrialists to whom they deferred ownership of their property, control over wages they earned independently, and the major part of their marriage rights. Accompanying the increasing power middle class men enjoyed, was domestic abuse and violence. Women bemoaned their treatment at the hands of men, who justified their typically drunk and unruly behaviour on the pressures of increasing competition in commerce and industry and showed no interest in domestic matters other than to demand that their needs were met. Indeed, it was this situation in industrial Europe that formed the key notion of patriarchy, or male dominated societies, that feminists have opposed ever since.
Even the enlightenment's most eminent thinkers spoke of the subject in a manner reflective of more traditional attitudes. Rousseau in 'Emile', his seminal work on education, wrote: "Men and women are made for each other, but their mutual dependencies are not equal. We could survive without them better than they could without us. They are dependent on our feelings, on the price we put on their merits, on the value we set on their attractions and on their virtues. Thus women's entire education should be planned in relation to men. To please men, to be useful to them to win their love and respect…"iii
In this historical context, equality was significant and indeed very controversial when first suggested. The equality debate established the framework by which Europe dealt with the subjugation of its women, corrected perceptions of their inferiority and founded movements that worked for their emancipation. But if we separate the long history that formed the backdrop to the notion of equality, we find the assertion that neither men nor women are inferior to one another is a very simple, indeed obvious, truth. Correcting historical prejudice alone cannot be a basis for defining a relationship between people.
Evaluating the idea of equality
The simple assertion that men and women are equal-that women are not inferior to men-alone articulates very little if considered outside its historical context; it leaves a number of unanswered questions. It does not address how best men and women can cooperate to forge a socially cohesive society. In the wider context of human relationships, we are in need of more than just this simple assertion of equality to handle the disputes and organise the relationships that naturally arise between people. Indeed, we are in need of a body of additional ideas and principles.
Liberal individualism, however, may regard this an irrelevant criticism; it considers men and women as individuals and the unanswered questions justified because they represent the personal freedom for both men and women to conduct their lives in the way they see fit. The issue of social cohesion may, therefore, be of marginal importance if it means restricting the choices of individuals in the name of the health of the collective.
There are two important issues to consider in responding to liberal objections. Firstly, the need for a framework of additional ideas and principles arises from no more than human interactions that occur within families, social groups, and society as a whole. Liberal individualism, characterised sometimes as putting the 'individual before society', would articulate a deficient political theory if it were to ignore relationships that are often not a matter of much choice. Individuals could always choose to isolate themselves from family and society, but we are born with family and relatives and so naturally relate with them; we engage in social activity with friends, and relationships between men and women determine the very future of the human race through human reproduction. Some framework is needed to articulate rights, indeed responsibilities, that men, women and their offspring should be appropriated in order to produce a socially coherent society.
Secondly, the issue of difference. Differences between men and women can lead to specific needs and complex disputes, whose management is a key element of ensuring social cohesion. Any failure to acknowledge or manage them effectively in the name of equality can be just as oppressive and detrimental as believing they symbolise the superiority of one sex over the other. A simple assertion of human equality provides limited guidance on the issue of difference and gives rise to a need for additional, more elaborate, ideas and principles.
Differences between men and women
Elaborating on each of these points, let us briefly consider the issue of difference. Often received with scepticism, liberal and feminist thinkers asserted that perceived differences between men and women were a social construct, not biological fact, and that the discussion of differences had been used historically as a tool for condemning women to subordinate roles. Historically in Europe, there have been some perceived differences between men and women (whether or not women possessed deficient intelligence, reduced capability for sound verdicts, and a lower capacity to learn and reason) which were assumptions, not facts, about women. The distinction between gender and sex therefore appears justifiable and a helpful way to separate social construct from biological fact. But rejecting all differences by attributing them to the product of social conditions may equally result in a dishonest account of human nature.
There are observable differences between men and women, the nature of which have been the subject of many contemporary debates in science, indeed the themes of philosophical discourse over many millennia: from studies by evolutionary psychologists and neuroscientists, to the conclusions of Plato and Aristotle.iv In fact, among the increasingly fragmented post-feminist movements are those who assert, rather than deny, differences between men and women. They draw on differences between men and women to identify the uniqueness of women and refuse male assimilation that results from interpreting female characteristics in male terms. They assert femininity and characterise contemporary thinking in many ways.
The ‘Poet Psyche’ attempted to understand the uniqueness of women through the use of Freudian, amongst other, psycho-analyses. The early eighties saw the emerging popularity of the 'difference feminists', after the publication of Carol Gilligan's 'In a Different Voice' in 1982, following conclusions by Nancy Chodorow published in 'The Reproduction of Mothering'. Gilligan attempted to assert that women possessed a different type of intelligence, a more caring and emotionally sophisticated psyche that was uniquely different-although some went on to assert it more superior-to that of men.
The conclusions of these scientific and philosophical studies have been disparate and varied-some clearly disproved and erroneous, as have some of the methods used to understand them, particularly Freudian tools or Gilligan's surveys (as well as the questionable relevance of knowledge of the precise nature of differences in solving practical social problems). However, these discourses demonstrate that differences between men and women have been consistently observable and are not recent phenomena. It is crucial to note that unlike some conservative conclusions,v differences do not translate to the inferiority or superiority of either sex and must be considered in this context.