Question on Chapter 6
In chapter 6, Okin argues that the private/public dichotomy should be abolished so that there is no division of roles and responsibilities between men and women in the society. She asserts that there should be a fair distribution of benefits and burdens concerning family responsibilities, which denies women equality and justice in the society. Okin argues that in the society people refuses to perceive division of labor between sexes as unchangeable and natural and define gender as a social construction. Okin suggests that until the notion of tying family to its gender structure is successfully challenged, and recognizing and encouraging nontraditional grouping and division of labor, women will never achieve equality in either public or domestic sphere (Okin 125).
The family is considered as a political institution because feminists have established an approach that analyzes political and social institutions based on the assumption that political and personal relations are interdependent. Okin summarizes this notion in "the personal is political" maxim (Okin 124). Feminists have revealed the " interconnections between women's domestic roles and their inequality and segregation in the workplace, and between their socialization in gendered families and the psychological aspects of their oppression" (Okin 124). Therefore, Okin argues that justice needs to be integrated into domestic life by the state and legal system.
Question on Chapter 8
Okin reveals that families are far from constructing just institution because of the heavy burdens that women carry and the high risks challenging children within the families. Therefore, Okin argues that there is a need for transformation that facilitates the justice institutions. She recommends that there should be a fair and just solution to the issue of children and women's vulnerability to facilitate and encourage the equal sharing between men and women. In other words, Okin advocates elimination of gender in the social, political and economic life. Therefore, there should be regulation in the division of labor that forbids women to carry undue burdens and help them to reach their full potential. However, Okin recommendations seem to be rather anemic because it would prohibit women who are willing to bear extra burdens for the favor of their family because this would be perceived as injustice.
In some scenarios, it would be perceived as unjust for women to serve certain programs and roles within the family institution. Okin makes an assumption that women's roles in the society are not because of the free choice. They are produced by the unjust society that requires women to perform particular roles and responsibilities. However, whether the women are making a socially programmed choice or a free choice, justice would interfere with this choice. As a result, just family needs to sacrifice the notion of the liberty.
Question on the articles
The two articles, "How Serfdom Saved the Women's Movement" and the "Does Feminism Have a Class Problem?" demonstrates how racial and class inequalities intersect with gender inequality issue in the modern U.S. Geier and Curve Contributors argues that there is a deep class inequality in the American feminism (Sec.1). For example, women are rarely interviewed on cable news about the economy. In the United States, women constitute a large proportion of the long-term unemployed. The low-income women in the U.S. make a mounting proportion of the single-mother households while middle-income women only access to inadequate social supports. High-income women are also challenged by gender inequality as their executive progress remains relatively slow. In the U.S., it is also evident that upper-middle-class women are utilizing the effort of the poor women to justify their choices regarding motherhood and work (Flanagan, Sec. 1). As elucidated above it is important to take into account the differences of race and socioeconomic status when addressing gender inequalities. This is because gender inequality varies according to these factors. For instance, it would be ineffective to address the gender inequality for upper-middle-class who is being leveraged by a poor woman as a nanny.
Works Cited
Flanagan, Caitlin. "How Serfdom Saved the Women’s Movement." The Atlantic. N.p., Mar. 2004. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/03/how-serfdom-saved-the-women-s-movement/302892/>.
Geier, Kathleen, and Curve Contributors. "Does Feminism Have a Class Problem?" The Nation. N.p., 11 June 2014. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. <http://www.thenation.com/article/does-feminism-have-class-problem/>.
Okin, Susan M. Justice, Gender, and the Family. New York: Basic Books, 2008. Print.
