What is the importance of the public/private distinction in feminist theories?

Type :

Presentation

Pages :

6 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

01/13/2009

Category :

Political science

Sub category :

Social sciences

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Summary :

Introduction.
Sexual discrimination.
Importance and the usefulness of the public/private dichotomy in feminist theories.
1. Meaning of public/private distinction.
2. The two different conceptions of the public/private distinction.
Judith Squires in Gender in political theory.
The Pateman theory.
The dichotomy between the private and the public.
Criticising the public/private dichotomy.
Conclusion.
Bibliography.

Abstract

"Liberalism has only one overriding aim: to secure the political conditions that are necessary for the exercise of personal freedom" . This is why liberal theory has been constructed around a dichotomy between the public and the private sphere: securing individual freedom. Freedom is indeed secured when constraints placed upon the individual are limited. On the contrary, "The limits of coercion begin", according to liberal theory and as Shklar explains, "with a prohibition upon invading the private realm." This is why a very strict separation between the public and the private is done and "must under no circumstances be ignored or forgotten ". This distinction is the one between the State which is equated with politics: this is the public realm and civil society which is the sphere of life in which individuals can pursue their own conception of the good in free association with others: this is the private sphere. Civil society is considered as "private" because it is not governed by the public power of the State .