Explained: Liberal Feminism

October 17, 2023

The power of cinematic suture

The words feminism and feminists have become extremely common. In almost all contexts, feminism is seen as a monolithic movement and all feminists are perceived to be a homogenous group.

This could not be further from the truth. Feminism, as a movement, philosophy, and way of life is vast, complex, and even contradicting at times. Factors such as ethnicity, economy, religion, sexuality, war, and climate change are among the few factors that play/have played a role in the development of feminist philosophy. Dismissing feminism without understanding its types, depth, and complexity would not only be a disservice to feminist writers and philosophers but also to oneself, especially if you claim to stand for equality, justice, and peace.

One thing about feminist philosophy is that it resists categorisation. Phrases like interdisciplinary, intersectional, and overlapping best describe its thought and function. However, labels such as radical, Marxist, liberal, etc are useful as they contest the idea that feminism is a monolithic movement and that feminists are a homogenous category. These labels highlight various perspectives and approaches to women’s oppression and possible solutions.

In this edition of Man-splaining, we break down liberal feminism.

“Mari chori choro se kamm hai ke” (Are our girls any less than the boys?)

This dialogue from the Hindi film ‘Dangal’ basically sums up liberal feminism.

Roots

Before diving into liberal feminist thought, it is imperative to understand the political school of thought it is rooted in. Liberal political thought views humans as rational beings and it is this rationality that separates them from animals. Liberals believe that a fair society allows individuals to exercise their autonomy and fulfill themselves. They emphasise the need for a society that allows its members to exercise individual rights without depriving others of exercising theirs.

With that out of the way, lets us look at liberal feminism itself. At its core, liberal feminism insists that like men, women too are rational beings and thus have the right to shape their personal and socio-political lives. Women are deserving of every opportunity afforded to men simply because all human beings deserve an equal chance to develop their rational and moral capacities.

Understanding of Women’s Oppression

Iconic liberal feminist Mary Wollstonecraft’s work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, set in18th-century Europe identified women’s exclusion from decision-making, developing reasoning, and education were the reasons why women lacked intelligence and rationality which lead to their devaluation. She argued that if men were deprived of these chances, they too would develop the same flaws. She believed that this exclusion from the chance and space to develop one’s mind was a form of violence against women.

For example, men marrying attractive women, only for their beauty and as a means for their own pleasure and delight is treating her less than her status as a complete person and no woman should permit this violence. Wollstonecraft viewed traits such as lack of emotion, rationality, discipline, and control that were traditionally associated with males as desirable while traditionally female traits such as being, frivolous and petty were a hindrance to one’s development. (perception of women in the 18th century)

Harriet Taylor Mill, in the 19th century, insisted that the lack of women’s contribution to the household income was what made them unequal to their breadwinning counterparts. Not earning an income, made women not only dependent on male family members but also made them mere servants. This is in line with the contemporary ideas about women and housework.

Even in the 21st century, it is just taken for granted that the women of the household are going to perform care and domestic work to the point where it is not even considered work.

Betty Friedan in her classic book The Feminine Mystique insisted that women’s oppression was rooted in an obsession with one’s household and family. This overvaluing of marriage and motherhood, enforced by a patriarchal society limited women’s development as rational humans.

Overall, liberal feminists stress that patriarchal society conflates sex and gender, deeming appropriate for women only those jobs associated with the traditional feminine personality. Patriarchal systems, are those that set customary and legal restraints on women’s entrance into the public world.

Proposed Solutions

Since the problem lies in exclusion from public spaces, the market, and education, liberal feminists insist on the removal of these restraints. They demand an equal chance for women to succeed in the public realm as men do.

In “The Enfranchisement of Women,” Taylor argued that women needed to do more than read books and cast ballots; they also needed to be partners with men, especially in public domains. Friedan emphasised the need for women to find meaningful work in the full-time, public, and productive workforce. (once again, housework was considered productive work)

Liberal feminists wish to free women from oppressive gender roles, that is, from those roles used as excuses or justifications for giving women a lesser place, or no place at all. Therefore, the concept of Inclusion is crucial to the liberal feminist agenda. Voting rights, property rights, Inclusion in sports etc are examples of liberal feminist successes.

Liberal feminists seek equality through legal reform and not through revolution. They believe that equality can be achieved within the law, making the state an essential ally to the movement.

The role of the state in furthering the inclusion of women once again becomes a point of contention.

Classical liberal feminists favour limited government intervention and the free market. They insist on the removal of discriminatory laws and policies that formally enables women to compete equally with men. After this inclusion, liberal feminists believe that not much can be done.

For example, classical liberal feminists believe that the entry of women into a male-dominated profession such as engineering is enough. After that, if the employer chooses to hand over larger projects to men over an equally qualified woman, nothing much can be done.

Welfare liberal feminists think that the government should provide underprivileged citizens with housing, education, and healthcare. They see socioeconomic rights as a precondition to exercising one’s political and legal rights. Taking the above example of women in engineering, welfare liberal feminists would insist on the selection of women over equally qualified male engineers or even (more controversially) over better qualified male engineers, provided the female engineers are still able to perform adequately. ( temporary nature of such policies does not constitute reverse discrimination).

Critique

Over the years, non-liberal feminists have dismissed liberal feminism on various grounds.

Prioritising the mental over the physical

Liberal feminism’s emphasis on rationality and cultivation of the mind was critiqued by non-liberal feminist Allison Jaggar. Jaggar speculated that due to the sexual division of labour, mental activities, and functions were increasingly emphasised over bodily activities and functions. Given men’s distance from nature, their low-maintenance reproductive and undemanding domestic roles, and the amount of time they were able to spend cultivating the mind, men could afford to neglect the body. In contrast, given women’s proximity to nature, their heavy reproductive and domestic roles, and the amount of time they consequently had to spend caring for people’s bodies, women tended to value the body.

Men’s early access to and monopoly over the field of philosophy observed by Jaggar, led men’s way of seeing themselves to dominate Western culture’s ideas about human nature. As a result, everyone who wished to achieve rationality and fulfilment must choose the mind over their bodies.

She critiqued liberal feminism’s insistence that all women must prioritise the mental over the bodily even if their experiences contradict this belief. Since liberal feminists did not expect men to also engage in domestic and care work, it meant that women were still expected to do said work, but not talk or complain about it as it was. For example, menstruating women continue to work despite pain and weakness so as to not be reduced to their bodily functions.

Women as Men?

Liberal feminism has been sharply critiqued for pedestalising so-called male values. Jean Bethke Elshtain, a political theorist identified its major flaw in its claim all women should want to become like men, to aspire to masculine values. Elshtain also accuses liberal feminists of encouraging women to join the capitalist ‘rat race’ devoid of emotion, friendships, and love that add meaning to one’s life.

Elshtain critiqued the polarity that liberal feminists constructed between male vices and female goodness, between the “evil” public world and the “good” private world, when she suggested, they could have marched into the public world, demanding it absorbs the goodness of the private world from which they had come.

Classism and Individuality

Liberal feminism in the West has been critiqued for solely taking up the interests of white, middle class and heterosexual women. Even in non-western countries, it is usually women from dominant groups that have greater access to laws and provisions. For example, reservations for women in colleges mean nothing to women who cannot even afford to go to school.

Betty Friedan’s The feminine Mystique is critiqued for hugely misjudging just how difficult it would be for women to combine a career with marriage and motherhood without an army of servants unless major structural changes were made both within and outside the family. Like Wollstonecraft, Taylor, and Mill before her, Friedan sent women out into the public realm without calling men into the private domain to do their fair share.

Liberal feminism is believed to advance the interests of only certain kinds of women—namely, privileged women who, because of their privilege, think and act like men. Liberal feminists welcome this as a just critique and have come a long way from where they started. Issues of women of colour and oppressed groups have been taken up promptly in recent years.

Despite its critique, liberal feminist ideology has done a lot for women across the world (in different ways). Women’s presence across all fields such as science, sports, arts, and music is due to liberal feminists’ insistence and determination to be included in said fields. Women owe to liberal feminists various civil, educational, and occupational rights that they currently enjoy.

References

Elshtain, Jean Bethke. “Feminism, Family and Community.”
Jaggar, Alison M. Feminist Politics and Human Nature. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Allanheld, 1983.
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: Dell, 1974.
“Sentiment and Intellect: The Story of John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylo Mill.” In Essays on Sex Equality, by John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill; ed Alice S. Rossi. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.
Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, ed. Carol H. Poston New York: W. W.Norton, 1975
Friedan, Betty. “Betty Friedan Critiques Feminism and Calls for New Directions.”New York Times Magazine, July 5, 1981

Naomi Joy Yadav is the gender and communications officer at Ashray Trust, an NGO working against human trafficking and gender inequality. She holds a Masters degree in Gender studies from Ambedkar University Delhi. Her interests range from makeup to music to sports and “taking the fun out of everything” by looking at all these from a gendered lens