The Clash of Feminism and Multiculturalism: Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? Are Liberal Human Rights Good Enough for Women?
The Clash of Feminism and Multiculturalism: Is multiculturalism bad for women? Are liberal human rights good enough for women?
Usman Rajkotwala
994212044
Trinity College
Majority community members wrongly consider discriminatory practices against women to be an integral of religion and culture, while pathologising the same acts of violence as deviant behaviour within their culture. This dichotomy illustrates the conflict of promoting multiculturalism and upholding liberal human rights. In Susan Moller Okin’s publication “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?” she plays the devil’s advocate by examining the actual status of women within ethnic minorities and how women as citizens of a liberal Western democracy must eliminate the patriarchal roots that limit the development of self respect and the capacity for women to actualize themselves in a liberal society. The critical problem in establishing equilibrium involves what gets included in the social, cultural, religious, economic and political life of a country. In certain cultural constructions, women are not granted the status as full human beings with the capacity to lead their life freely. The Western liberal democracies attempt to adhere to the broad tenets of philosophical liberalism oversees the effects these policies have on the lives and safety of women. Multiculturalism serves as a double edge sword; on one side it promotes cultural diversity while on the other it’s a dark tool for cultural imperialism and the discrimination against women. While cultures do retain a patriarchal mould, gender disparities are not only product of culture but are due to the failure of the international community to recognize gender equality and the states incapacity to enforce such liberal doctrines. In this essay I will first examine the status of gender equality in west and how gender inequality is not isolated to the third world but is also flawed in the affluent nations. Next I will acknowledge Okin’s argument
Usman Rajkotwala
994212044
Trinity College
Majority community members wrongly consider discriminatory practices against women to be an integral of religion and culture, while pathologising the same acts of violence as deviant behaviour within their culture. This dichotomy illustrates the conflict of promoting multiculturalism and upholding liberal human rights. In Susan Moller Okin’s publication “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?” she plays the devil’s advocate by examining the actual status of women within ethnic minorities and how women as citizens of a liberal Western democracy must eliminate the patriarchal roots that limit the development of self respect and the capacity for women to actualize themselves in a liberal society. The critical problem in establishing equilibrium involves what gets included in the social, cultural, religious, economic and political life of a country. In certain cultural constructions, women are not granted the status as full human beings with the capacity to lead their life freely. The Western liberal democracies attempt to adhere to the broad tenets of philosophical liberalism oversees the effects these policies have on the lives and safety of women. Multiculturalism serves as a double edge sword; on one side it promotes cultural diversity while on the other it’s a dark tool for cultural imperialism and the discrimination against women. While cultures do retain a patriarchal mould, gender disparities are not only product of culture but are due to the failure of the international community to recognize gender equality and the states incapacity to enforce such liberal doctrines. In this essay I will first examine the status of gender equality in west and how gender inequality is not isolated to the third world but is also flawed in the affluent nations. Next I will acknowledge Okin’s argument