Feminist critique of the State. (UPSC CSE Mains 2021 - Political Science and International Relations, Paper 1)
- Feminism looks at the traditional concepts and theories of political philosophy with doubt and distrust. It is claimed that the political theories are fundamentally male-biased, normative, and androcentric. The concept (and practice) of the state, nation, democracy, king, citizens, leadership, power, legitimacy, authority, governance, policy, judiciary and legislature are constructed by the hegemony of males to suppress the women in an institutionalized and structured way.
- The fundamental critique of the state adhered by the feminist is that the philosophy of state is power-centric, and the power is often defined, used and operationalized by the male or his representative structures. Accordingly, norms, structures, values, knowledge and realities, etc. are the construction of power. There is a manipulation of male-dominated leadership to hold on to power and take advantage of them. Feminism is critical and resistant to this form of power that legitimizes the hegemony against women. Hence, feminist political theory is constructed around the existing power relations as represented by and constructed with the state.
- The patriarchal nature of the state is the central theme of feminist critique. It was epochal largely in the second wave feminism, (i.e.) during the 1970s and continues to come. The radical feminists maintained that the state’s role is to form patriarchy and to ensure its continuity. But, subsequently, liberal feminists and the postmodernists were ready to accept the intervention of the state in the key areas of concern, like abortion, anti-rape legislation, pornography and such other issues against which there were popular movements. The construction of state power through an engagement of women is an evident artefact in history. There has been a gradual realization that the state has a role in curbing such practices, which could not be solved by the social and market forces. In sum, feminists of all levels often criticize the unitary role of the state, which seems to be male[1]biased, objectivist and instrumental.
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