The Question of Women and Their Emancipation 1
The Question of Women and Their Emancipation 1
The Question of Women and Their Emancipation 1
Introduction
A woman in almost any part of the world is faced with challenges that make it difficult
for her to realize her potential as a person. For example if one were a young girl in
Southern India, she is snatched away from her family to be forced to marry a much
older man. In Many parts of Africa, a daughter's own mother and other women from
her family will cut off her clitoris without anesthesia, and then sew up her vagina so
that she does not feel any sexual pleasure and remain faithful to the man who
marries her. Different cultures have different ways of treating women and many
forms of modern slavery are reserved women. This is the reason why feminism as a
framework for thinking about justice is necessarry. Because of the forms of violence
and injustice that are particular to women, a specific form of ethical theory has to be
developed.
Feminist Ethical
Theory
The feminist ethical theory is a Women have different way of
theory born from the realization deciding on the best action to take
that women have different set of given a moral dilemma. Studies
issues that male-dominated have shown that women have a
ethical theories cannot fully different way of assessing the
address. Examples for these are good and understanding how best
the forms of discrimination and to realize the good. Finally it is
violence particular to women like necesarry to formulate ethical
the belittling of their work as theories from womens' perspective
homemakers and child bearers. because this perspective allows for
Another reason for necessity for the critique of existing system that
womens' perspective in ethics is victimize them.
the different way women reason
morally.
Feminist ethics is a branch of ethical thinking framed by women
to confront the challenges women face. It is a theory of the
good and justice that puts into the abuses and injustices that
women have to suffer and theorizes why these injustices exist
Feminist and how to address them. Feminist theory presents a way of
theorizing the good from the perspective of women. It is
Ethics important because academic ethics is defined by a very male
oriented perspective.
In her book titled In Another Voice, she demonstrated that women decide the
good based on their concern for preserving relationships and for their concern
for the welfare or feelings of others. Rather than focus on abstract,
universalizable rules. Women articulates the good as another way of moral
deliberation.
Feminist ethic's main concern when thinking about the good is on who will be
harmed by ones actions and decisions.
A famous example used by Carol Gilligan is the male and female response to the
heinz dilemma.
Heinz Dilemma
to the 2017 National Demographic and
According
Health Survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics
Authority, one in four Filipino women age 15-49 has
experienced physical, emotional or sexual violence
by their husband or partner.
The primary concern of feminist ethics is the question of equality. For
a long time, women have been treated as the lesser sex and they
suffer because of that. It has many forms in which sexual exploitation
is the most pervasive. Other forms of violence also exist which are
domestic abuse, rape, and fatal neglect. One of the reason why such
abuse occurs is that women are seen as less valuable than men,
Social structures support these kind of images. Dolls either teach girls
that they have to be pretty and present themselves to men like Barbie,
or that they should be trained to care for babies. As women grow up
their mothers constantly nag them about how they look and how
people percieve them. In teenage years, they are valued by how many
boys they attract. And in the world of work, they are rarely assigned
management or leadership positions and are expected to take on jobs
where they care for children or the sick. Thus, a very important theme
of Feminist ethics is to emancipate or set free women from such social
structures that keep them oppressed and unequal.
Struggle for liberation
The first phase of their struggle for liberation was the struggle for
equal rights. Women demanded for the equal right to vote, and later
expanded to the demand for equal rights in various aspects of life. This
began around the turn of the 19th century until the latter part of 20th
century. During this phase, women were able to examine how
oppressive the social systems were because these defined them as
housewives and caregivers. It was also in this phase where women
realized that they should not only have equal rights as men but also
wanted to be recognized as different and equal to men.
Filipina feminist explored how their traditional cultures should be
embraced for how they celebrated the centrality of women's roles
as nurturers and healers, as much as they celebrated their role as
warriors and community leaders.
Filipina feminist explored how their traditional cultures should be
embraced for how they celebrated the centrality of women's roles
as nurturers and healers, as much as they celebrated their role as
warriors and community leaders.
Women leaders
Gabriela Silang was a Filipina military
leader best known for her role as the
female leader of the Ilocano independence
movement from Spain. She took over from
her second husband Diego Silang after his
assassination in 1763, leading her people
for four months before she was captured
and executed by the colonial government
of the Captaincy General of the Philippines.
Women leaders
Gregoria de Jesús also known by her
nickname Oriang, was the founder and vice-
president of the women's chapter of the
Katipunan of the Philippines. She was also the
custodian of the documents and seal of the
Katipunan.
Women leaders
The Babaylan were women who the spirits
chose to communicate with them through
some process of initiation. The babaylan were
very important to the community because
their welfare depended on these women.
When the commonfolk suffers the babaylan
would help and guide them.
Gabriela Silang, Gregoria de Jesus, and the many Babaylan are
the precursors of the Filipina activist, development workers,
politicians, and educators of today.
Working toward
Emancipation
To this day women emancipation is an ongoing project for women
continuing the struggle for equality, however, they also discover
various and creatives ways of becoming a women. The aim of the
movement continue to evolve with more and more women
exploring social realities and exposing how economic
communication, governance, and cultural systems oppress
women.
Women should not be
discriminated against
In most societies, women bear the responsibility of child rearing
and are the first persons to introduce children into the ways of
their civilization. They also raise children while earning a
livelihood. In modern societies, we depend on women in order
to run a household, especially in ensuring the well-being of all
from nutrition to health.
There are studies that shows how women were actually the
more dominant gender in early human history until about 1500
BC. There was a time when human beings revered the earth as
a mysterious bearer of life. As long as women were associated
with the powers of fertility, they were revered and thought of
as the superior sex. However, at about 1500 BC there was a turn
in human history where penis worship replaced womb worship.
A theory for this shift is that human were developing
agriculture and were learning more about the fertilization of
eggs. They realized that the male principle was essential to the
development of life.
Conclusion
Feminist ethics demands an opening of our perspectives about
the meaning of being human in a way that does not
discriminate against but celebrates the different possibilities of
womanhood. This is an essential task because the oppression of
women necessarily mean the oppression of man as well. We
often think that men benefit from the oppression of women
because of the fact that they get more respected jobs, the
position of power, the higher pay, and the best care. However,
men are in this way the perpetrators of violence, defined as the
violent sex, and bear the responsibility for always being defined
to be strong and non-feminine.
Thus, men are immediately associated in a certain way with
violence, aggressiveness, and detachment from their emotional
life. Any self-aware man will tell you that it is not healthy for
their emotional development. And so, everyone must engage in
the movement of women's liberation as an act of social justice
and as an act of liberation of all mankind as much as it is a
liberation of womankind