Cultural Feminismnew (2)

1www.helsinki.fi/yliopisto

FEMINIST JURISPRUDENCE

2013

19.04.2023 2Oikeus-tieteellinen tiedekunta / Henkilön nimi / Esityksen nimi

Carol GilliganRobin West Luce Irigaray Nancy Chodorow


EQUALITY VS DIFFERENCE

• Stage 1 Equality

• Men and women are equal • Rights for women • Law neutral

• Stage 2 Difference

• Women and men are different • Different starting point • Law does not include women experience

Radical sexuality – Cultural motherhood


Neutral law = bad for womenwomen experience and suffering is not portrayed in law

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It was growing cold, and a porcupine was looking for a home. He found a lovely cave, but it was occupied by a family of moles. "Would you mind if I shared your home for the winter?" the porcupine asked the moles.

The generous moles consented, but the cave was small and every time the moles moved around they were scratched by the porcupine's sharp quills. At last the moles gathered courage to approach their visitor. "Please leave," they said, "and let us have our cave to ourselves once again."

"Oh no!" said the porcupine. "This place suits me very well."

How would you solve this problem? Why is your solution a good one?

The Porcupine and the Moles


Porcupine and Moles: Example responsesLyons (1988) participants: 60 adolescents, aged 11 & 15 years

Justice "The porcupine has to go definitely. It's the mole's house." "It's their ownership and nobody else has a right to it."

Caring "Wrap the porcupine in a towel" (so he can stay but he won't

prick the moles). "The both of them should try to get together to make the hole

bigger." "There'd be times when the moles would leave or the

porcupine would stand still or they'd take turns doing stuff -- eating stuff and not moving."


Justice: Focusing on abstract moral principles such as fairness, equality under the law, the right to liberty, property, life

Caring: Focusing on how a decision would effect others around one. Would it promote harmony or dissention?

Carol Gilligan:Two Approaches to Moral Reasoning


Ethics of care

• Ethics of Justice

• Universal reasoning

• Rights and equity

• Éthics of care

• Each situation different answer (particularity)

• Care and relations


CARE ETHICS

• The philosophers who developed and write about care ethics describe it as a feminine ethic. Most of them are feminists.

• They claim that males see ethics as being about principles, whereas females see ethics as being about relationships.


Cultural feminism

Women and men differences biological or cultural.

• Women and men are different • Women culture is undervalue

Celebration of women's difference.


Gilligan’s theory of Ethics

• Men: Ethic of autonomy

• Women: Ethic of care


CULTURAL FEMINISM (RELATIONAL , DIFFERENT VOICE )

Carol Gilligan, “In a Different Voice”,

Ethics of justice vs Ethics of care


Women ”all” experience motherhood, pregnancy and childbirth

Reproduction as a commonality among all women

Women are coneccted to otheres , not independen not autonomous

Do all women …..? Same experience or at all


•EMPHASIZES “ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCES”(Essence of the feminim)

Robin West : formative events that creat connection

1. Pregnancy2. Heterosexual penetration, sometimes leading to pregnancy3. Menstruation (related to the potential for Pregnancy)4. Breast-feeding (after pregnancy)

“As mothers, we nurture the weak and we depend upon the strong. More than do men, we live in an interdependent and hierarchical natural web with others of varying degrees of strength”.

• Essentially connected and not essentially separate from others

• MOTHER (identity of women ) or potential mother (conection)

• Create a more female oriented culture


• Women have a different conection to the world due to pregnancy and breast feeding.

• Law does not address the world through care .

• Equality before the law can only be achieved through recognition of biological and cultural differences.


RADICAL FEMINISM

POWER Structures are male


CULTURAL FEMINISM

Feminine values undervalued

Womens experience


RADICAL FEMINISM

POWER Structures are male

Sexual violence – motherhood


CULTURAL FEMINISM

Feminine values undervalued

Womens experience


Differences - Experience - Universal approach


Is women experience include in the law /norm?

Does the law /norm /policy adrees only one sex experience ?

Different starting point – structural discrimination – direct /indirect discrimination


Contrasted with Other Theories

• Ch. 1 Formal Equality: to the extent men & women are similarly situated, should be treated the same. Primary focus of 2d wave. Equality

• Ch. 2 Substantive Equality: where not similarly situated, provide remedies for past discrimination, recognize sex-linked average differences, outlaw pregnancy discrimination. Statutory remedies evolution of family law to provide substantive equality.


Contrasted with Other Theories

Ch. 3 substantive equality -Nonsubordination

• Leading theorists: MacKinnon, Millet

• Issues: Actionable sexual harassment dealing with domestic violence, criminal law (rape, sexual assault, provocation, battered women’s syndrome), pornography, sexual orientation discrimination,

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