GEN&SEX 50B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Settler Colonialism, Socialist Feminism, Alimony
20 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Gender and Modern States
-Concepts to review:
Feminist interests in citizenship
Public v. Private spheres (freedom./subordination)
Patriarchy an patriarchal structures
Manifest Domesticity- gender, race, and settler colonialism; domestic/foreign
-Public (Masculine)/Private (Feminine)
Public sphere: the State, the world of commerce, civil society organizations, outside
the home, freedom
Private sphere: the family, the household, the domestic sphere, subordination
Feminist claims: these spheres are separate but NOT equal and these spheres are
intertwined- public depends on private
-Modern state:
Western construct
Has become compulsory political form the rest of the world
Based on concept of citizens as individuals, detached from communities
Individual is a contract-making citizen
Relies on notion of individual as property owner- first and foremost an owner of
himself
Meant to be universal, but in fact the Western liberal notion of citizen implies a
masculine subject
Universal subject is a white male subject
Males were property owners
Carole Pateman argues that modern nation-state is a “fraternal patriarchy”
Dominant idiom is brothers
Free men enter into the social contact that creates an association of autonomous,
individualized, contract-making people
Only possible for property owners, who are largely white men
-Modern state as masculine construct
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Institutionalized the public/ private divide- transferred power to the state by some
men in return for men’s increased control over families
But state also: intervenes in the private realm to police women’s sexuality and
reproduction
From the beginning, Western liberal construct of the nation- state excludes women
and minorities
Nation-state is already gendered concept
Gets imposed on gendered systems of social stratification
Nation-state building project, too, is patriarchal and exclusionary while claiming to
be inclusionary
Citizenship isn’t universal; the state was founded on exclusions
-Who is the subject of modern liberal states?
Individual male
Citizen/soldier, worker
“reasonable man”
Property owner
“head of household”
“breadwinner”
Not-female (not dependent, passive inferior)
People of color seen as closer to women (historically worked for white
males)
Supposed to fear “dependence” (no one is really “independent”)
-The gender politics of space
Men move from public to private and back again
Women are “contained and constrained in the home and in their sexed bodies.”
(Pettman 175)
Women are to be under the protection and control of men. They are dependent.
-Women’s relation to the state
Placed in the role of dependency (“to be protected”)
Underrepresented in positions of authority
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Manifest domesticity- gender, race, and settler colonialism; domestic/foreign. Public sphere: the state, the world of commerce, civil society organizations, outside the home, freedom. Private sphere: the family, the household, the domestic sphere, subordination. Feminist claims: these spheres are separate but not equal and these spheres are intertwined- public depends on private. Has become compulsory political form the rest of the world. Based on concept of citizens as individuals, detached from communities. Relies on notion of individual as property owner- first and foremost an owner of himself. Meant to be universal, but in fact the western liberal notion of citizen implies a masculine subject. Universal subject is a white male subject. Carole pateman argues that modern nation-state is a fraternal patriarchy . Free men enter into the social contact that creates an association of autonomous, individualized, contract-making people. Only possible for property owners, who are largely white men.
