Decentering Agency in Feminist Theory: Recuperating the Family As a Social Project☆
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Women's Studies International Forum 35 (2012) 153–165 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Women's Studies International Forum journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wsif Decentering agency in feminist theory: Recuperating the family as a social project☆ Amy Borovoy a, Kristen Ghodsee b,⁎ a East Asian Studies Department, Princeton University, 211 Jones Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544–1008, USA b Gender and Women's Studies, Bowdoin College, 7100 College Station, Brunswick, ME 04011, USA article info Synopsis Available online 21 April 2012 Ethnographic investigations demonstrate that there are many cultures in which women relin- quish rights for broader social goods and protections, which are equally acceptable, if not more desirable, to women. These include Western European social democracies, Eastern European post socialist nations, and the East Asian industrialized nations. Exploring these gender politics provides a powerful window into how the liberal emphasis on “choice” captures only one nar- row aspect of what is at stake for women in issues such as feminist debates about domesticity and the politics of abortion and family planning. In this article we draw on Japan and Bulgaria as our case studies, and we historicize the brand of social feminism that we are discussing, locating it in the mission to incorporate women into national agendas during the interwar pe- riod in many locations throughout the industrialized world as well as in the diverse mandates of early socialist feminism in the United States. We argue that “social feminism” can help sharpen the critiques of liberal feminism mobilized by anthropologists under the banner of “cultural relativism.” © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction a shared access to social goods: social assistance for family and child-rearing, economic stability through market regulation, American feminist debates of the last two decades have been and the social construction of domesticity, fertility, and mother- characterized by a divide between those who champion the hood as national assets (e.g. Borovoy, 2005; Ghodsee, 2010; liberal belief in individual rights and autonomy on one side and Guenther, 2010; Leve, 2007; Navailh, 1994; Stern, 1999a,b; those who advocate for cultural relativism on the other, exempli- Thébaud, 1994). fied by debates between liberal feminists and post-colonial For instance, the social significance of motherhood has been feminists influenced by subaltern studies. In most societies, how- a touchstone for liberal feminists in Japan since the turn of the ever, as many feminists would readily acknowledge, the tension century, as well as a platform for women's broader political in- between women's rights and cultural values is far more complex. volvement in local governance and social movements (LeBlanc, In many industrialized societies, women's movements have 1999; Vogel, 1988; White, 1992). More broadly, feminism in defined women's welfare not primarily in terms of rights, choice, many industrialized countries has not always been antagonistic or autonomy—thoughthesegoalsareofteninthemix—but to broader social goals, even when they curtail certain rights rather in terms of the provision of broader social supports and or do not explicitly invoke women's autonomy, including tradi- tional family planning, promotion of public safety, government regulation of social services, savings campaigns, and even the ☆ The authors would like to thank Robin LeBlanc, Sonya Michel, Michele promotion of patriarchy through support for the single wage. Rivkin-Fish, and the two anonymous reviewers for Women's Studies International Such societies include Western European social democracies, Forum for their valuable comments and conversations concerning the manuscript. Eastern European democracies emerging from a tradition of Both authors would also like to acknowledge the support of the School of Social state socialism, and the East Asian industrialized nations Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, and in particular our ongoing conversations with Farzana Shaikh, Joan Scott and Michael Walzer. (Borovoy, 2001, 2010a; Cott, 1994; Garon, 1997; Ghodsee, ⁎ Corresponding author. 2010, 2011a,b; Leve, 2007; Mahmood, 2001; Mohanty, 2003; 0277-5395/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2012.03.003 154 A. Borovoy, K. Ghodsee / Women's Studies International Forum 35 (2012) 153–165 Navailh, 1994; Rivkin-Fish, 2004; Stern, 1999a,b; Thebaud, with paid employment in the private sector, which would 1994). make better use of women's education and prior work experi- Historically, the emphasis on family integrity and social ence (Gulcur & Ilkkaracan, 2008). The preoccupation with indi- cohesion as feminist goals can be linked to the demands of vidual choice continues to disproportionately shape feminist particular historical moments of nation building. The social debates, but such a preoccupation distracts us from the social democracies of Western Europe were born in the late 19th structures and practices that gender social life more broadly, century context of powerful nation-states and empire, but and for more women. 2 crystallized in the post World War II context of the need for Rather than focusing on questions of agency and individ- economic and social planning (Judt, 2005). The Japanese ual choice, or exploring how we might expand the definition state was influenced by the Western European model of of these concepts, we posit that there are many cultures in the late 19th century (particularly France and Germany), which women prefer to advocate for their own needs by but emphasized reliance on family and community in caring advocating for a better society. Feminism in many industrial- for society, rather than an emphasis on state munificence ized nations over a broad stretch of modern history has (Garon, 2010). Other East Asian societies including South emphasized a better life for women by investing in broadly Korea were strongly influenced by Japan's model of corporate shared social goals. In the following consideration of social fem- welfare in promoting industry regulations and guarantees inism, we explore the nature of the trade-offs that women which protected the family wage, incentivizing women to have made in return for social stability and social security, stay at home, and exacting tight control over individuals including the intrusion of the state into private lives, pres- through intensive socialization and tightly-woven communi- sures to socialize children into middle-class values, and ties. At the far extreme of this model, the former rigid gender role divisions—all of which are difficult to accept socialist countries of Eastern Europe were almost entirely from the vantage point of traditional liberal or even socialist planned economies. Yet state ownership of the economy and feminist ideals. We do not wish to put forward the possibility gender equality were inextricably intertwined. So-called scien- of an Eden in which women enjoy both state protections and tific socialism depended upon the provision of childcare, flexi- also individual choice in all matters. Rather, our goal is to ble work-schedules, and in many instances state-subsidized culturally contextualize women's preference for improvements abortions and generous maternity leave—as well as the provi- in the social conditions of their lives—even when these come sion of public laundries, cafeterias, and other services that so- at the expense of individual autonomy. cialized domestic work (Gal & Kligman, 2000; Haney, 2002). In this article, we address two case studies of how women The growth of these economies depended on women's labor; have conceptualized feminism and women's welfare in terms in turn, women's equality as workers and citizens was an out- of the social good rather than in terms of individual autono- come of the nationalization of private services.1 my: 1) women's role in child-rearing and domesticity; and We suggest that the stark division between liberal rights- 2) debates around abortion and family planning. In develop- based perspectives and cultural-relativist perspectives ing these cases, we first address a history of feminism as (which emphasize the cultural acceptability of certain forms linked with nation-building in the social democracies more of subordination), has not always been productive in theoriz- broadly—in hopes that such an analysis can move us beyond ing the improvement of women's lives. This juxtaposition oc- the customary distinction between “first world” and “third curs, in part, because the question of “rights” has often played world” feminisms (Suchland, 2011). We locate the origins a pivotal and polarizing role in defining the terms of the dis- of social feminism in the mission to incorporate women cussion. When the violation of rights becomes the ultimate into national agendas during the interwar period through- litmus test for defining feminism or measuring the moral out the industrialized world as well as in the diverse man- worth of a society, the conversation tends to focus on those dates of early socialist feminism in the United States, which most egregious and visible ways in which rights are violated: has subsequently faded or been absorbed by liberal and genital modification, trafficking, prostitution, veiling, and so third world feminisms. We also briefly reflect back to earlier forth. Enlightenment feminists will say that these practices American socialist feminist traditions in order to show how are