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Feminism Reflective Essay

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Feminism Reflective Essay
Feminism is a very controversial topic in today’s society and has been growing greatly ever since World War II. In general, feminism refers to movements aimed at instituting and protecting equal political, economic, social rights and equal opportunities for all women. Some of these rights include legal protection, inclusion in politics, business, scholarship, recognition and building of women’s cultures and power. Feminism is contentious because it faces traditions in many areas especially for supporting the political balance shift towards women. Some feminists argue that all people are harmed by gender roles and consequently that feminism involves both men and women. There are three particular feminists and their point of views that will be evaluated: bell hooks, Nancy Folbre and how they relate to Nancy Fraser’s standards for feminist critical theory. Ultimately, feminism includes general theories from different people and origins of inequality in a variety of disciplines that are expressed by different feminists. In the end, there are many different views towards feminism and its disciplines, and therefore some theories can relate to each other more than others. Firstly, a feminist by the name of Nancy Fraser developed a thesis about the definition of a critical theory. In her thesis she mentioned that there is no philosophically interesting difference between a critical theory and an uncritical one. In her own words she said: “But there is according to this definition, an important political difference” (Fraser, 202-232). This means that there is no difference between philosophical critical theory and uncritical theory but there is a difference in a political one. For example when she says, “...then a critical social theory for that time would aim, among other things, to shed light on the character and basis of such subordination” (Fraser, 202-232). This quote means that in order to make sure a statement is not biased or false, it would be a good idea to


Bibliography: “What’s Critical About Critical Theory? The Case of Habermas and Gender” Nancy Fraser in The Frankfurt School: Critical Assessments edited by Jay Bernstein 1994 Routledge London, New York pp 202 – 232. "Promising alliance: the critical feminist theory of Nancy Fraser and Seyla Benhabib.." Contemporary Women 's Issues Database. 01 Jun. 2003 eLibrary. Web. 19 Oct. 2010. hooks, bell. “Talking back: thinking feminist, thinking black”. South End Press. Cambridge, MA: 1989. Ferree, Molly. “Womens issues: Defining feminism”. The Whitworthian. Oct 2010.
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