The rise of feminist theory has developed many questions in the area of global politics. There is not one position of feminism. It is a rich and highly diverse terrain but all are aiming to explain the subordination of women. Also, all are interested in gender and questions about gender justice. Feminism has contested the traditional views and understandings of what were previously seen to be gender neutral concepts. The “gender division of labour, in which men tend to specialise more in paid work within the market, and women tend to specialise more in unpaid work within the home, is a feature common to modern Western society” (Washbrook,2007,2). Within this essay, I will exhibit the issue of gender for feminists, what is meant by the gendered division of labour and how it affects global politics. I will also include some different feminist perspectives on the issue of gendered division of labour. My position draws on feminist theory to argue that the issue of gendered division of labour is explicit throughout society and that feminists would argue that this is not based on the biological differences of sex but rather as a consequence of social conditioning. I will argue that it is an important issue to global politics, as to some extent global politics has produced and perpetuated this division.
There is a key issue of gender for feminist theory. For most people gender conveys the biological sex of individuals. However, for feminists they define gender as a “set of socially constructed characteristics that define what we mean by masculinity and femininity” (Tickner,2014,260) Ann Oakley demonstrates this by writing how there is a distinction between biological sex and socialised gender “gender roles of masculinity and femininity might be experienced by people in their daily lives as spontaneous dispositions but are in fact deeply determined by the wider society and culture” (Elliot,2014, 210) Spike Peterson argues that gender should be understood as a ‘governing logic through which the masculine is privileged and the female is devalued’ (Tikner,2014,260) For example the realm of government has historically been associated with men and thus male power and influence. This realm is masculine no matter whether it is all male or even when some females work in government. In contrast housework has historically been constructed as women’s work and is the natural realm of women’s labour. Peterson suggests that we use gender sensitive lenses to answer questions about why women often play subordinate roles in global politics “order what we see and provide direction for subsequent actions… we choose the lenses we assume is most appropriate for a particular context” (Tikner,2014,260) Peterson also argues that “feminisation devalues not only women but also racially, culturally and economically marginalised men and work that is deemed unskilled, menial and merely reproductive” (Peterson,2005,499) Finally, Judith Butler famously demonstrated how gender is an important issue from the very beginning of our lives. She gives the example when a baby is born. The first question that is asked is whether it is a boy or a girl? This moment of naming a baby as to whether it’s a boy or it’s a girl comes to powerfully shape the life that can then be led by that child. It produces gender as a way of living. Butler views gender as a discourse that effects the way we live but gender is never fixed as it is constantly being challenged. Having discussed the issue of gender for feminists, I will now explain what is the gendered division of labour and how it is an issue.
When discussing the issue of gendered division of labour, it needs to be determined what is meant by gendered division of labour. Enloe believes that the “relations between governments depend not only on capital and weaponry but also on the control of women as symbols, consumers, workers and emotional comforters” (Enloe,2014,22) Feminists identify that there is an explicit distinction between what many associate to be jobs for men and what people associate as jobs for women. For instance, if someone says ‘nurse’ people automatically associate this profession with women or if someone says ‘builder’ people automatically presume that it would be a man. An explanation for these gender roles could be as a result of the socialisation of gender. As a result of these role expectations, when women do enter into the workforce they are disproportionately representation in the caring professions for example nursing, social services and primary education. Also expectations about appropriate gender roles meant that women are often characterised as supplemental wage earners to the male head of household. The association of women with domestic roles for example, housewife and caregiver have become institutionalised and nationalised thus it is seen as the norm and natural for women to do the domestic work. There is also the issue of industries frequently firing women if they are married or pregnant, the notion of “having children will necessarily have an impact on a woman’s career but not on a man’s” (Bates,2014,241) Women can be seen on a world wide scale to occupy a narrow range of careers characterised by low pay, low skill levels and limited upward social mobility. In contrast men tent to occupy positions of high pay, high responsibility and limited social mobility. Feminists believe that the gender division of labour is a consequence of the continuation of the patriarchal dominance of men who have consistently ensured that women do not enter positions of power. It is a global occurrence, such that the regular exclusion of women from positions of power and authority has had a detrimental effect on international politics. Institutions of global politics can be deemed as gendered concepts due to their perspective of human nature ostracising the position of women. Spike Peterson highlights this by suggesting that “women everywhere have less access to political power and economic resources and less control over processes that reproduce this systemic inequality” (Peterson,1993,12) I will now explore some different perspectives on whether the issue of gendered division of labour is important to global politics.
One perspective on this issue comes from Marxism. Marxist feminists argue that the primary source of female oppression is the capitalist economic system, so for example the inferior position of women is linked to class-based capitalistic system and family structure within this system. Capitalism deepens male domination and relies on the unpaid domestic labour of women. For Marxist Feminists there are two types of labour; Productive and Reproductive labour. Productive labour indicates work that has financial value in the capitalist economic system and as a result earn money for their labour. This is usually seen as men’s labour. Reproductive labour refers to things that people do to take care of themselves rather than for the purpose of earning money, this often includes cooking, cleaning and raising children. Marxist feminism highlights that in capitalist economies, reproductive labour is normally considered to be women’s labour. This creates a system in which women’s labour is separated from men’s labour and is thought to be less valuable because it does not earn money. I will now exhibit another perspective to the issue of gendered division of labour.
A different perspective derives from postmodernism. Postmodern feminist’s perspective is that society benefits the roles of men over women. ‘Postmodern feminists are more interested in analysing the assumed naturalness of various political categories including the category ‘woman’. For instance, concepts such as rational, strong and independent when referring to individuals are favoured greatly. These are masculine traits. In contrast their feminine equivalents are concepts such as emotional (lack of rationality), weakness (lack of strength) and dependent (lack of independence). Consequently, greater favourability is allocated to those which are associated to masculinity and lesser to those associated with femininity’ . They suggest that the language we use emphasises the idea that masculine traits are greater than feminine traits. Spike Peterson suggests that the divisions of gender identity have major implications for the difference between men’s experience and women’s experience in earning money and exerting public power (Peterson,2005, 515). For instance, data from the Fawcett society demonstrates this; women paid 19.1%, women working full time in the UK in 2012 earned 14.9% less than men. Also according to the Fawcett society in 2016, as of the 10th November 2016 women were effectively working for free as they stopped getting paid effectively for the rest of the year.
In conclusion, I have explained why gender is an issue for feminist theory. I have also demonstrated what is meant by a gendered division of labour and how it affects the area of global politics. I have also drawn upon the perspectives of Marxist and postmodern feminist theories in highlighting why the issue of gendered division of labour is important to global politics. My position has advanced feminist theory to argue that gendered division of labour is important to global politics because to some extent global politics has caused and maintained this division.