StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Dorothy Smith - on Socialist Feminism and Bifurcation - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper "Dorothy Smith - on Socialist Feminism and Bifurcation" highlights that Karl Marx showed how the ruling class uses the apparatuses of production to control power and to marginalize those without access to production means. If class oppression is real, so is gender oppression…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER95% of users find it useful
Dorothy Smith - on Socialist Feminism and Bifurcation
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Dorothy Smith - on Socialist Feminism and Bifurcation"

Download file to see previous pages

Mead taught me that the self is a product of social forces, institutions, conditions, and interactions (Gardiner 180). I also believe in Mead’s idea of a “generalized other” wherein people determine their behaviors about their referent groups. We are who we are because of who we are constantly with. Our social interactions do not only influence us for they can completely define us in ways that are so unconscious we think that we have 100% autonomy over our lives, but we do not.

Marx talked about the rise of the public or social sphere that will integrate the private sphere so that public and private inequalities would both vanish (Delamont 107). In reality, such vanishing is not occurring at all. Instead, what we see is a continued sexual division of labor that produces the bifurcation of our experiences. Bifurcation refers to the split between the world as it is and the world as the prevailing viewpoint says it is (Appelrouth and Edles 542).

My concept of bifurcation has its roots in Alfred Schutz. Schutz argues that our personalities have different levels based on different aspects of our reality (Appelrouth and Edles 542). He coins the word “mitwelt relations” to refer to relations that are considered as “types” or that between us and the mailman, for instance, and the word “umwelt relations” for face-to-face interactions (Appelrouth and Edles 542). I am extending his concepts by asserting that if men want to become full participants of the real world, they must not only focus on the jobs that they see as concrete, or, in essence, stop delegating umwelt relations to women (Appelrouth and Edles 542). Women’s work experience devaluation and delegitimization because they are categorized as mere umwelt (Appelrouth and Edles 542).

I find it particularly disconcerting that sociology promotes gender oppression because it studies society away from its everyday gendered social life (Sprague 44). Men, in line with Schultz’s mitwelt-umwelt relations, live and dominate the abstract world without living and seeing their bodily existence, since women serve these bodily needs (Sprague 44). The result is that they are controlling sociology by studying it from their male standpoint. What we need then is a female standpoint that comes from living with and sharing experiences with women. Indeed I advocate immersion as a sociologist. Sociologists are not truly objective people. We must then acknowledge our subjectivities and the subjectivities of the people we are studying. We must approach society in a way that frees women from their oppression through what I call standpoint theory.

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“You are Smith Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words”, n.d.)
You are Smith Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/sociology/1678592-you-are-smith
(You Are Smith Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words)
You Are Smith Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words. https://studentshare.org/sociology/1678592-you-are-smith.
“You Are Smith Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/sociology/1678592-you-are-smith.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Dorothy Smith - on Socialist Feminism and Bifurcation

Liberal and Socialist Feminist Approach Towards Wage Gap in the US

This paper aims to highlight the liberal feminism approach towards the wage gap in the United States and its comparative analysis with socialist feminism approach of wage gaps.... feminism does not have a single approach, but it includes various theoretical approaches such as social, liberal, and radical and Marxist.... All terms and phenomena related to equality considered vital for several theoretical movements that have developed in feminism....
7 Pages (1750 words) Research Paper

The Concept of Socialist Feminism

It focuses on liberating women with regard to Marxist feminism and radical feminism, which alludes to the oppression of women as a result of the existing capitalist system and patriarchy.... The paper "The Concept of socialist feminism" asserts patriarchy as an indirect source rather than a primary source of oppression with regards to women's financial dependence on men.... socialist feminism asserts these complexities to be the result of social, political, and economic injustices....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Socialist Feminism and Bifurcation

In the present paper "socialist feminism and bifurcation", an author would like to share his own concept of bifurcation of consciousness.... Here I would make it absolutely clear that when I said sociology for women that did not mean a sociology exclusively for women rather " it means a sociology that addresses society and social relations from the standpoint of women situated outside rather than within the relation of ruling" (smith, "The Every day" 46).... "There is a disjuncture between how women experience the world and the concepts and theoretical schemes by which society's self-consciousness is inscribed" (smith, "The Conceptual" 13)....
5 Pages (1250 words) Personal Statement

Briefly Define and describe the impact of utopian socialism on first wave feminism

Seen in light of this fact, one can clearly understand the philosophical proximity of the two concepts of feminism and socialism (LeGates, 154).... Seen in light of this fact, one Briefly define and describe the impact of utopian socialism on first wave feminism: Any discussion of the first wave feminist movement is incomplete without reference to the impact of utopian socialism on the former....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Three Feminist Theories

ocialist Feminism:Another form of feminism is socialist feminism.... Today, there are as many definitions of feminism as there are feminists.... Each definition of feminism depends on a number of factors including one's own beliefs, history and culture (Sylvester, 1995).... This form of feminism demonstrates the importance of individual feelings, relationships and experiences.... nother form of feminism is called liberal feminism....
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay

Authors Theory of Socialist Feminism and Bifurcation

The essay "Author's Theory of "socialist feminism" and "Bifurcation" focuses on the critical analysis of the author's interpretation of the notions of "socialist feminism" and "bifurcation".... Here, I would make it absolutely clear that when I said sociology for women that did not mean sociology exclusively for women rather 'it means a sociology that addresses society and social relations from the standpoint of women situated outside rather than within the relation of the ruling' (smith, 'The Everyday' 46)....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

The Theory of Socialist Feminism

It focuses on liberating women with regards to Marxist feminism and radical feminism.... The paper "The Theory of socialist feminism" discusses that socialist feminism seeks to liberate women from discrimination, and more specifically, oppression on the basis of economic and cultural aspects.... socialist feminism theory asserts patriarchy as an indirect source rather than a primary source of oppression with regard to women's financial dependence on men....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Feminism and Socialist Politics

This report "feminism and Socialist Politics" serves the purpose of addressing issues of socialist and feminist politics within the context of America.... socialist and feminist politics have been focused primarily on the representation of women in politics and on the conduct of tailoring the impact that has been widely undergoing by women.... These silent features of socialist and feminist political movements adhere to the class, rights, and representation of women in the political sphere....
18 Pages (4500 words) Report
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us