PHIL 2280 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Wage Labour, Susan Moller Okin, Legal Personality
18 Dec 2017
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Document Summary
Traditional view: women have an inferior nature, one that is less rational then men and lack civil personality so they are excluded from political domain. This view is the target of severe criticism during the last two centuries. This critique has led to anti-discrimination laws and formal recognition of women"s equal worth. Despite the recognition of women"s equal rights and anti- discrimination laws sexual equality has not been achieved. The essence of human beings is developed by their living in the world not on gender. Okins work is aimed at answering the question. She argues that traditional thinking has been reproduced in liberal theories of justice. Looking at the inconspicuous public/private distinctions in liberal theory, she points out 4 flaws: the family environment is deemed to be immune to the dynamic of power, which is a feature of the political. Battered wife syndrome and child abuse are pathologies of power in family relations.
