Strategic Essentialism In Reducing Gender Inequalities Sociology Essay

Strategic Essentialism In Reducing Gender Inequalities Sociology EssayA position of strategic essentialism is principal(prenominal) in ensuring that sex activity inequalities are reduced. Discuss with reference to the evolution of womens rightist theory and action in the orbicular South.A central guinea pig in womens sackfulist debates over essentialism is whether there are any circumstancesd out characteristics common to alone women that unify them as a social assemblage diametric than their biological and physiological predispositions. Many womens liberationist theorists of the 1980s and nineties (Scott, 1988 Fraser, 1989 Spelman, 1990) rejected essentialism on the grounds that human phenomena cannot be reduced to essentialist massive categories, and that universal claims about women presuppose an essential womanness (Spelman, 1990) that all in all women share, despite the racial, class, religious, paganalal and ethnic differences among them, emphasizing kind of questions of difference and identity. Essentialism was presumed to be a ban aspect of feminismOne use of a theory of cover for libber politics, then, is in apprehensiveness social identities in their full socio-cultural complexity, thusly in demystifying static, single variable, essentialist views of gender identity. (Fraser, 1991, p. 99).To maintain that femininity predisposes women to certain (nurturing) jobs or (collaborative) styles of work is to naturalize complex economic and social helpes and, once again, to compound the differences that keep characterized womens occupational histories. An insistence on differences undercuts the take to the woodsency to absolutist and essentialist categories. (Scott, 1988, p. 47).At the same term, an anti-anti-essentialist line of merchandise was raised (Stone, 2004), arguing that anti-essentialist claims denied women the motivation to work in concert as a collectivity. Within this current, strategic essentialism has been an influe ntial strand. While it recognizes that essentialism is descriptively false as it denies the real diversity of womens lives and social situations, it defends essentialist claims in the instinct that they are semipolitically useable (multilateral organizations such as the United Nations tend to treat women as if they comprise a unitary group) and socially influential. This argument is especially relevant regarding (womens) social accomplishments, which many believe require a deep notion of shared position and identity. Oppressed groups can position essentialism strategically as it enables them to organize common forms of identity and sustain a sense of solidarity. Throughout this essay I forget use scale studies from the Global South to argue that the emphasis on commonalities is especially useful when tackling gender inequalities, solely that the possible solutions must adapt to local conditions (taking into reckon a countrys history and culture), and that the ideological neo liberalism has played an important role in fragmenting the representation of women as a homogenous unit of analysis.Mohanty (1998) argues that western feminist scholarship has produced an image of third world women as a akin and powerless group, often represented as victims of particular socio-economic systems (women as victims of warfare crimes, women as refugees), on the basis of a shared oppression. The focus should instead be on the common differences (the common experience of social exclusion, for instance) as the basis for solidarity and corporate mobilization, which are achieved by means of an active engagement with diversity. Issues akin poverty and (gender) inequality require collective bargaining despite the exponentiation of actors polarized along caste, class, gender, linguistic and ethnic lines (Emmerij et al, 2009), as is the field in the wooing study that follows. The Sangtin (literally meaning friendship in Awadhi, a language verbalise in parts of Uttar Prade sh) writers, a group of seven female village-level nongovernmental organization activistics from the hierarchical utter of Uttar Pradesh, in India, put forward a collective critique against institutional patriarchies, thus enacting a politics of solidarity among themselves, despite the differences inwardly womens collectives the activists come from diverse caste and religious backgrounds. Their critiques are directed at Nari Samato Yohana (NSY), a donor-funded NGO and a human beings Bank Initiative that kit and caboodle to empower abject pastoral women. The writers highlight the paradoxes of NGO politics as these organizations can be both empowering in theory (through the encouragement of basic activism) and elitist in practice (in the form of donor-driven priorities and evaluations). They analyze processes of hierarchical character of donor-driven womens dominance organizations that often disregard rural womens knowledge and expertise. Womens NGOs in Uttar Pradesh are wo rld increasingly pressured by funding agencies, which attach no value to grassroots work until that work is measured by the standards of the funders. Furthermore, these NGOs that are aiming to empower poor women in rural communities are staffed and dominated by Hindu and upper-caste grassroots workers, while rural-based, less formally educated workers find themselves at the margins of institutional spaces, with little say on the running of the organization (Nagar Sangtin Writers, 2006). More generally, the activists scrap the popular perception that NGOs are potential agents for diffusing ripening and enable empowerment, because hierarchical processes within NGOs can impede their stated goals of empowerment, class differences beef up through the hierarchical structures of NGOs (male- and upper-caste-dominated). Thus, the Sangtin writers are not mere victims of the hierarchical processes as Mohanty would argue they are represented by some western feminist texts as they resist a nd challenge.The role of global initiatives and institutions in addressing gender inequalities is significant. Although the UN ten-spot for Women and the four global womens conferences held in Mexico, Copenhagen, Nairobi and Beijing between 1975 and 1995 did not find as much common ground between women ecumenic as anticipated, the conferences elevated gender equality to the center of the global development agenda and transnationalized the hack of womens equality (unless development is engendered, it is endangered). The consensus was that women should lead development or else than the earlier view, in which women were seen as being affected positively or negatively by economic development policies, and were integrated into the development process as victims. Both views, however, assume that all third world women make believe similar problems and needs. Despite this shift in the development discourse that has travel women from the periphery to the center and acclaimed them as th e holders of solutions to global problems, the poverty of the worlds women has increase and intensified. Global economic and political processes (i.e. globalization) declare exacerbated economic, racial and gender inequalities. Jain (2005) points to a restlessness within the womens hold outments that has led to a partial failure of the act asment to reach the next stage of development. Differences of location, race, class, sexuality, and religion have at propagation been emphasized at the expense of the commonalities that can build strength to move forward. It is important to emphasize, however, that the existence of gender inequalities have radically assorted, historically circumstantial explanations as the next case studies will show. Thus, superficially similar situations cannot be treated as identical. Furthermore, as Lourdes Arizpe argues, the construction of gender in any society is a cultural phenomenon. The way in which these differences are constructed will depend on the culture of every society, and it is through the use of cultural analysis that gender inequalities can be understood (Arizpe, cited in Jain, 2005). The case studies (based on Chant McIlwaine, 1998) involves analyzing the challenges women face in two very different countries Malaysia and Zimbabwe and to particularally see how gender inequalities need to be tackled and addressed in each case.On one hand, Malaysia has experienced high levels of economic harvest-tide in the last few decades, mainly due to export-oriented industrialization. It is an ethnically complicated and pluralistic society. Social indicators reflect relatively high levels of human development, but when these are differentiated by gender it appears that men have make great gains than women in just about areas. The adult literacy rate among women is 75.4% compared with 87.8% among men. In ground of political troth, in 1994 women represented besides 10% of seats at local and parliamentary levels and 7 % of ministerial posts. Employment opportunities have increased and diversified in the context of rapid industrialization, but the ethnic Malay have been granted preferential access to opportunities. On the other hand, Zimbabwe is an ethnically homogenous country, in a transition from a white-dominated British liquidation to a antiauthoritarian black republic. Although the government has focused on post-colonial restructuring and nation-building, gender issues have not been entirely sidelined. Women were of significant importance in the liberation war for Zimbabwe, by proving food, shelter, clothing and paramedical and intelligence services. Their active participation led to the newly independence government to take active move towards gender equality by setting up, in 1981, a Ministry for friendship Development and Womens Affairs (MCDWA). Zimbabwe is still a pre rifely rural country, with only 30% of its population residing in urban areas in 1992, and remains a patriarchal soc iety. In the case of Malaysia, womens issues are then seen through the lens of the eye of political representation, and addressing gender inequalities should be put in the context of ethnic inequalities. A specific solution would be to introduce quota systems to increase the compute of women in political office and to enable women to fully participate in and influence decision-making. In the case of Zimbabwe, sphere access for women is a major problem given the patriarchal nature of society where most of the land parcels are owned by men. As such, land redistribution should be co-ordinated into the debate on how to reduce gender inequalities. A countrys history, culture and ethnic diversity, among others, should be taken into account when addressing gender inequalities, because while women might share a common experience of oppression -whether in Malaysia or Zimbabwe the specific policy measures needed will vary significantly.Women in the Third World have had to bear the brun t of globalization this is not an essentialist claim, but a induction based on statistical evidence. Poor women are hardest hit by the degradation environmental conditions, wars, famines, privatization of services and the dismantling of welfare states (Mohanty, 2003). The structural registration programs many poor countries have had to adapt in order to suck loans from the international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the supranational Monetary Fund have disproportionately squeezed women out of public celestial sphere employment, for example. Amy Linds (2002, 2003) research on Ecuador, however, challenges monolithic and globalized representations of women as victims of the globalization process, which have been make more difficult by a shift to neoliberalism and local women organizations most of which of a working(a)-class and rural in nature becoming the new targets of development policy. Since the early 1980s successive Ecuadorian governments have autho ritative loans and implemented IMF/World Bank inspired structural adjustment programs (SAPs), which have had gendered impacts in the economy. These neoliberal policies affect women differently, the impact of which depends largely upon womens class, race, ethnicity and geographical location. As stated above, women in general have tended to lose out in this process, but this is particularly true for poor, rural indigenous women. Some women (especially women working within the state) have gained as a result of privatization policies and decentralization.Neoliberalism has had two opposing effects. On the one hand, it has provided the framework under which diverse political movements and actors have converged to challenge and reflect dissatisfaction with the neoliberal economic model and the lack of democratic progress under Abdal Bucaram Ortizs presidency. A visible womens movement emerged as women activist in political parties, NGOs, rural and community based organizations, in politic al parties and in human rights organizations became increasingly frustrated with their marginalized roles under the new politico-economic system. They all invoked a form of strategic essentialism in an attempt to challenge the state and remake the nation in order to give women a greater voice in state policy affairs, and participated in the national come over leading up to President Ortizs removal from office. At the same time that women (as a unitary group) were rising to challenge President Ortizs policies, neoliberalism has exacerbated the differences between the women movements and fractured them. In the neoliberal context, economic and social disparities between women working with the state (state feminists) and poor, rural indigenous women who are the targets of state policies have become more apparent. This whitethorn contribute to a further fragmentation of a coordinated feminist movement, Lind (2003) argues, which is now characterized more by separate struggles than by an y unified notion of a social movement, in the process of becoming a remnant of the past. Since neoliberalism positions women as clients for the states resources they are positioned in competition with each other for such resources. In short, while there is overlap between all the feminist strands, there is growing disagreement between feminist policy makers and activists regarding where women fit in the development arena, and whether there speak with a single, or multiple, fragmented voices.In conclusion, essentialist and anti-essentialist positions are located at the extreme ends of a spectrum. Addressing inequalities from these extremes does not represent a viable position. In order to move away from the essentialist/anti-essentialist dichotomies it is important to understand women not as completely different from each other, and at the same avoiding to assimilate them into a single dominant identity. Therefore, we need to look to the middle ground between essentialism and gender misgiving to find ways of talking about women that neither do madness to our diversity, nor represent us as inconsolably different (Heyes, 2000). Furthermore, women should neither be depicted as victims to be rescued or heroines that hold the key to short-change their countries and communities out of poverty. These extreme stances do not help in understanding the solutions that are needed to address women discrimination and inequalities. It seems that the best way send is for the struggle for gender equality to be channeled at various levels and through a variety of initiatives from the involvement of local womens groups, to NGOs at local, regional and international levels, governments and multilateral institutions and by not homogenizing their experiences. There will always be a framework of collective solidarity through which women can address the issue of gender inequality.Word count 2302