Re: Socialism and Women's Leadership (was China Drafts Law to Boost Unionsand End Labor Abuse)

[Yoshie Furuhashi <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 10/14/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Oct 14, 2006, at 1:23 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> > That said, you evade the question of why socialist states and
> > movements have had only a few women leaders, fewer than one would
> > expect, when women have managed to rise to the top in a number of
> > capitalist states, even ones that are poor or on the Right where one
> > might not have expected them to do so.
>
> Might be because, contrary to some essentialist feminist thinkers,
> capitalism undermines patriarchy over the long term, by competing
> away gender distinctions in favor of a purer individualism; because
> socialism arose in many highly patriarchal cultures, and didn't last
> long enough to undermine the received system; and because formerly
> existing socialism was already in decay as women were rising in
> capitalist societies. How many women were in Western boardrooms and
> parliaments in the 1970s?

That explains the rise of women to the top in well-developed
capitalist countries, where capitalism has already destroyed the
ancient regime of patriarchy, with only the sexist division of labor
remaining.  But how do you explain the rise of women to the top in
much poorer states where patriarchy is still well entrenched, such as
Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Liberia, Mozambique, Pakistan, the
Philippines, etc.?

--
Yoshie
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