Sociology 2271A/B Lecture 4: Feminist Theory
21 Feb 2019
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Feminist theory is an extension of historical movements to empower women worldwide. Feminist theory shifts the lens to the activities and practices of women as it compares to men, but also in relation to how gender, class, race, age, hetero-normative expectations relate to their experiences in social life. Frame: gender difference: women"s location in, and experience of, most situations is different from that of the men in those situations. All human beings have certain essential features capacity for reason, moral agency, self- actualization. All human beings can engage their essential features through the legal (institutionalized) recognition of universal rights. The dynamics of the private world limit women"s agency and thus, their participation in the public sphere. The public sphere itself is organized around assumptions about gender that keep women at a disadvantage. Negotiating the interface of private and public is perhaps the most formidable and enduring of the barriers to women"s economic equality.
