Feminist Art Movement Essay

Feminist Art Movement 1960s

The rapid globalization that the world is experiencing today has had such profound effect on women that some commentators argue "Globalization Is a Man." While making this comparison, these commentators refer to the ways in which women suffer disproportionately from policies initiated by international bodies such as IMF and the World Bank in the furtherance of aid. The proponents of this view argue that as the two organizations push world governments to cut on public services, women are forced to care for the sick, old relatives and the disabled and at the same time earn a living. This problem is compounded by the existence of capitalism that has come hand in hand with globalization. In a capitalist world that creates a billion losers for every handful of winners, millions of speechless women endure endless hardships, suffering and pain through class based discrimination.[1]Some authors however argue that capitalism has not created the subordination of women in the world today. However, capitalism has deepened the gender discrimination due to the rise in gendered-wage and sexist employment laws.[2]In this paper, we are going to argue that neoliberalism has resulted to the impoverishment and suffering of women through discriminatory policies that have continued the subordination of women.

Proponents of globalization say that globalization has resulted in free trade, increased the world trade, and increased the welfare of people in poor countries. However, this could not be further from the truth.[3]Capitalist globalization has not only resulted into a lower amount of international trade but has also increased inequality between countries, races, and gender.[4]A further examination of available literature on the impacts of globalization reveals that within the last few decades, globalization has created tremendous effects on the lives of women both in developing and developed countries. Globalization refers to the complex economic, social, political, cultural, and geographic process through which the mobility of capital, ideas, people, and discourses has taken a global transitional form. The capitalistic nature of world trade is such that it creates a huge number of losers for every few winners.[5]

Capitalism has resulted in a situation in which common wealth, including human labor, is in the process of being converted from a public domain asset into a private sector asset.[6]According to some scholars, private sector has taken the commoditization agenda far more than most people ever imagine.[7]Due to the intense commoditization efforts by the private sector, the same drama of massive property grabs, displacement, and dispossession of the poor people off their lands into the labor market as propertyless workers is repeatedly occurring in one part of the world after the other. In the process, suffering is being inflicted all over to millions of poor people, among them women, around the world.[8]

Due to the commoditization and classification of labor, capitalism has created a system that brings about the insubordination of women. Contrary to what governments and multinationals claim, global trade and capitalism has nothing to do with expanding the rights of people. What the different accords for global trade have been successful in bringing out is the expanded rights of the multinationals and the segregation of power among the few rich people at the expense of the millions who suffer from the activities that such a one sided economic organization is sure to bring. The treaties allow for cooperates to enforce upon government treaties that they are not part of or that require them to act responsibly. For example, NAFTA pacts that give corporations the right to sue the government even in instances where the government acts in the public interest and have thus lead to the increased suffering without justice for the world’s poor.[9]

Most corporations have shifted their line production to Asia and other parts of the world where there is abundance of labor.[10]With the weak regulations in place and capitalist agenda that motives these companies to towards low costs production, they employ women at a rate lower than that which men can accept to work for since they are aware that the citizens of the developing nations are living in poverty-stricken conditions and are desperate for employment. In addition to these problems, women in production facilities are subjected to inhuman treatment, poor working conditions and are forced to work for long hours and in conditions that endanger their health.

The film entitled The Hidden Face of Globalization (2003), gives us a clearer view of the effects of globalization of on women. This film shows the women's working conditions in Free Trade Zones (FTZ's). The film shows the different ways in which women are mistreated. This film shows that in addition to the low wages and poor working conditions, women working in the Export Processing Zones (EPZs) in the world's poorest nations are abused both verbally and emotionally. The film also shows that the working conditions in EPZs are worse than those of men working in other areas outside the EPZs. The poor conditions of women is compounded by the fact that EPZs make it impossible for women to unionize in order to attain their basic rights to social rights.[11][12]

In order to understand women's discrimination in a globalised world, it becomes important to study both the political and economic conditions that contribute to such domination and discrimination of women. First, it is important to note that the discrimination occurs in the third world countries. The poor economic conditions of these countries allow for imperialism from the more developed nations. Imperialism is evident through policies like that of the structural adjustment programs. SAPs have been widely criticized for making the lives of the people in the nations that they are imposed worse off than before and has been viewed as an instrument for western imperialism on the developing nations. Fighting imperialism is a major step towards bringing peace in the world. Ending imperialism does not mean cancellation of debts for poor countries but disarmament and support for the rights of all oppressed peoples and allowing them to choose their own self-governance systems freely.[13]

The dependency theory states that the intrusion of western capitalism has destroyed the self-self sufficiency of the developing countries by looting them of their resources and blocking them from acquiring means to diversify capitalistic development.[14]This implies that until after the women are able to generate enough capital to support their economic development, they will continue to exist in poverty. As we discussed earlier, capitalism has enforced the women's insubordination and oppression through unjust policies that favor men over women. This kind of oppression has lead to feminist consciousness.[15]Feminist consciousness refers to a consciousness of victimization perpetrated by the dominant males of the society, which results in women's insubordination and consequent oppression due to their sex. Bringing in the issue of sex, women's desires and needs is important to feminist because capitalism is a class system. Without this kind of classification between those who capital and those who provide labor, capitalism cannot survive. Women's cheap labor (quarantined through patriarchal and racist systems inherent in capitalism) is an important to the accumulation of surplus value that is the basis for profit making and expansion through a capitalistic system.[16]

Marxist feminism is one type of the types of feminist theory that focus on the social institution of private property and capitalism as the basis for critique of inequality and oppression against women. According to these feminists, private properties give rise to the social inequalities and struggle between sexiest and this is the root for oppression based on gender. Marxist feminism is built on the foundations of the work of Friedrich Engels. In his work, Engels argues that a woman's subordination is not a result of biological disposition but of social relations and the desire for men to attain control of women's labor. Through a Marxist historical perspective, Engel tries to trace the recent phenomena of men trying to control property to the social phenomena associated with such things as incrimination and violence against women who commit crimes, a condition which the family institution has solidified. Engel argues that since control of property allows men of class to take possession of women, the issue of gender oppression is a class system. This gender based class system creates a relationship between men and women similar to that of proletariat, and bourgeois. In this regard, women's oppression is similar to oppression based on class. Women's oppression thus resembles class oppression, which is maintained by the capitalists because just like racism, it serves the interests of the capitalists. Marxist feminism on the other hand extends Engels class system argument by looking at the issue of free female labor.[17]

Often, neoliberalism is viewed as simply a set of policies imposed from above.[18]He further states that while the neoliberal turn was forced upon communities from the top, it transformed the most basic levels of everyday life and societies at the lowest levels of the society. To build upon capitalistic ideals, capitalist destroyed the sense of the self, community’s ways of relating to each other, and the organization of communities. Capitalism needed to do these things to survive. It therefore forced the erosion of social and cultural processes that previously supported class organization, solidarity, and spaces of resistance through dispossession and displacement of communities from their lands. The neoliberal made an assault of the collective communities by broking down unions, mothballing factories and relocating investments and jobs. McNally (2006) says that such harsh tactics to introduce neoliberalism resulted to the disappearance of entire cities.

Neoliberalism has had profound effects on every part and member of the society, both in developed and developing countries. However, women and people of color have been the most instrumental in the fight for global justice and oppression by capitalists.[19]Its not only that neoliberalism has widened the gap between men and women, it has also widened the gap between different classes of women.[20]Rich women from the bourgeois class of social elites can afford to live in luxury using money that is acquired, in most cases by the husbands, through the exploitation of women in other parts of the world. In contrast, a majority of women cannot even get a job however hard they try.

Neoliberalists usually claim that china and India, countries that have had tremendous economic development in the last few years following their liberalization, are proof that capitalism, does indeed work. However, capitalism can claim little credit from such an increase in the countries’ prosperity.[21]Instead of making the lives of the many Indian low class better, neoliberalism has actually pushed them to poverty and debt by allowing entry of cheap subsidized products from rich nations. This has seen a rise in the number of protest by the poor in addition to increasing conflict over seizer of land.

In the course of a few years, the world has seen an unprecedented rise in the number of social movements. These movements have shattered the silence imposed by the "neoliberal consensus," won significant victories in countries like Bolivia and Ecuador, and proclaimed publicly that another world is possible. However, no single group of anti-capitalism protesters has been as thorough and as successful as have been the women workers, indigenous peoples, and people of color in struggles for global justice.[22]In the course of a few years, these movements have shattered the silence imposed by the "neoliberal consensus," won significant victories in countries like Bolivia and Ecuador, and proclaimed publicly that another world is possible.[23]

One of the greatest achievements in the fight for the rights of women has been the creation of organizations that serve the interests of the women.[24]Among the organization that fight for the rights of women include battered women’s shelters, health clinics, art galleries and law firms. Ending women’s insubordination requires the use of social arrangement that validate women’s feelings and experiences and ideals of sisterhood among women and provide for equal power and opportunities to women. Many feminist organizations that came up during the 1960s and 70s tried to manifest such a vision as their microcosms of a new social order.[25]These movements aimed to reduce the discrimination of women by reducing the dominant subordinate relationships between men and women. These movements hoped that by doing so, they would enhance the development of women’s skills and facilitate cooperation. The main values that feminist organizations strived to instill are those of participation and humanism, even though they also tried to sell egalitarian and hierarchical practices. The egalitarian structures however became subject of criticism by other feminists. For example, Jo freeman in her essay, "The Tyranny of Stractureless” argues that collectivism collectivist structures in feminist’s organizations might hinder, instead of eliminate hierarchies.[26]

Since NAFTA came into effect in North American, talks of feminist movement have dominated scholarly debate. The signing of the NAFTA trade agreement has had serious effects on the poor in the region. In Mexico for example, NAFTA has pushed the farmers to poverty due to its export-based firming idea.[27]Women are an important part of the agriculture value chain in most countries in North America. The low prices brought about by the NAFTA agreement affected women in the region severely. For example, poverty has increased five times since the implementation of NAFTA.[28]The privatization of water in the region has made the lives of women in North America a lot worse since they have to walk longer distances to get clean water for household use or for irrigation.[29]

Feminists’ battle is focused on moving people away from the socially constructed concepts that a woman is inferior, weak, and powerless in comparison to men. In north America, feminism started in the 1940s during the years of high economic growth and domesticity of women. Among some of the important events that lead to the feminist movement includes sentiments like those of Simone de Beauvior who refered to women as the others in the patraichal community of the time. Among some events that propelled the feminist movement include the introduction of the contraceptive, which made it easier for women to engage in careers similar to those of men without breaks, JF Kennedy'spolicies on women which increased women's representation in politics. One of the main protests by the second wave include the protest called "Women Strike for Peace" to protest against the use of nuclear bombs.[30]The movement grew with legal victories like the equal pay right and Griswold v Connecticut Supreme Court. Among some major victories that the group worn due to its mobilization efforts includes the Affirmative action right for women.

The two greatest challenge that face feminist in the desire to change this perception are understanding diversity and the problem of understanding the complex world in which we live today.[31]We live in a globalised world and feminist movements must take into account the specific localized actualities and global contexts that shapes the lives of women today. The main problem here lies in recognizing the many, and usually vast, differences between women but also realizing that women are a recognizable social category in the global context within which these movements occur. Another yet bigger problem is that of antifeminism backlash.[32]

The media today is barraging women with a similar backlash message as was given by Susan Faludi in 1191. However spirited the fights of women to further the equity debate for women, popular media today shows a fondness in showing movies that give messages like career ambition is dangerous for women. This shows that the backlash anticipated by Faludi is true.[33]

In light of these challenges faced by the feminist, it becomes important to examine the anti-capitalism tactics that feminists use and juxtapose these with the methods that have been successfully employed in the past to bring about change. For the feminism to succeed, it needs to highlight a number of important principles. The first principle is opposition to gender, sexual and racial based oppression. Since capitalism thrives in these kinds of discriminatory tactics, building an a resistance that opposes classification on the basis of either gender or race is an important first step.[34]Secondly, the movement must extend democracy into the economic sphere. It must replace representative democracy with real democracy that is build from the roots of social life. Thirdly, it must oppose imperialism to ensure that the rights of all people, whatever their economic power is, are respected. Next, the movement must aim to achieve communal ownership of resources and support a culture of freedom.

The group should also promote a culture of freedom of expression of the creative energies, constructively get involved in the struggle against oppression and self emancipation. Bearing this in mind, authors have identified three main forms of struggle. We will look at how the feminist movement makes use of either forms of struggle.

The first form of struggle that a social movement can adopt is direct action. This form of struggle is based on the notion that in order for the oppressed to change the world, they must change themselves first. Powerless masses should be given powers through the movement to feel like they are part of the history in the making. Making the oppressed part of the revolution is part of the revolutionary practice. Direct action aims to make those oppressed feel that they can make a difference by being part of the militant action for change.[35]Direct action has been a permanent feature of feminist movements around the globe.[36]One of the strong points to direct action is that it is based on the principal of self-activity and instead on relying on the politicians and other bureaucrats to help the oppressed, direct action mobilizes these people to take action.[37]

The second method of struggle is mass mobilization. Those who believe in mass action argue that the struggle to change the world is reliant on the heroic resistance small minority in direct confrontation with the police and the state. Mass action therefore takes the form of substitutions where an elite few substitute the struggle of masses of the many oppressed. Feminists in s used feminists in Bulgaria to fight human trafficking, since a change in direction of radical democracy requires that people begin to feel their collective power that would allow them to change the world. Mass actions and mobilization provide the millions of people who eventually bring about revolutionary change. Mass mobilization is therefore a vital part of the collaborative action that makes a new society a reality.[38]

The final form of struggle is participatory democracy. For social action to bring otherworld, social movements must be laboratories of direct democracy. In addition to mobilizing people, Social movements should provide structures that enable people to organize at the grassroots. Such a model was witnessed in Argentina 2001.[39]

In conclusion, neoliberalism has had very negative effects on the lives of women. Since capitalism is a class system, it has perpetrated class system through oppression and dispossession of the poor of their lands, making them landless worker ready to work at capitalist factories at very low rates. This class based system of discrimination has also lead to the oppression of women. To fight this kind of oppression, women use three methods of struggle, namely direct action, mass mobilization, and participatory democracy

References