NEGATIVE - CRITIQUE - FEMINIST CRITIQUE OF PRIVACY 152

ANSWERS TO SOCIAL FEMINISM LINK OUTS

SOCIAL FEMINISM DOOMS WOMEN TO SUBORDINATE ROLES

Mary G. Dietz, Prof. of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, 1998; FEMINISM, THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE, "Citizenship with a Feminist Face: The Problem with Maternal Thinking," EE2001-hxm p. 59

Thus, in her determination to revive the family and maternalize feminist consciousness, Elshtain strains a distinctive social practice-that of mothering-to its breaking-point. In the end, all women-asmothers can do is to chasten arrogant public power; they cannot democratize it. Women who do not venture beyond the family or participate in practices beyond mothering cannot attain an adequate understanding of the way politics determines their own lives. Nor can they-as mothers or creatures of the family-help transform a politics that stands in conflict with maternal values. The only consciousness that can serve as a basis for this transformation and so for the sort of active citizenry that Elshtain wishes to promote is a distinctly political consciousness steeped in a commitment to democratic values, participatory citizenship, and egalitarianism. Likewise, the only practice that can generate and reinforce such a consciousness is not mothering, but the practice of acting politically, of engaging with other citizens in determining and pursuing individual and common interests in relation to the public good. In sum, the political practice of citizenship must not be forsaken for the social practice of mothering, if feminism is to succeed.

SOCIAL FEMINISM SEEKS INCREASES IN PRIVACY AS OPPOSED TO LIBERAL OR RADICAL FEMINISM

Mary G. Dietz, Prof. of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, 1998; FEMINISM, THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE, "Citizenship with a Feminist Face: The Problem with Maternal Thinking," EE2001-hxm p. 49

Social feminism, guided by maternal thinking, also chastens what Elshtain calls the 'article of faith' of the contemporary feminist movement: 'The personal is the political."' She reads this credo as a theoretical justification to politicize, criticize, and manipulate the private world of the family and personal life. Social feminism would seek to protect the private sphere from this sort of desecration. By preserving and protecting its 'moral imperatives', social feminism would purge feminism's soul of its antifamilial and matriphobic spectre and restore an authentic and unique identity to women.

SOCIAL FEMINISM REIFIES PUBLIC/PRIVATE DICHOTOMY

Mary G. Dietz, Prof. of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, 1998; FEMINISM, THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE, "Citizenship with a Feminist Face: The Problem with Maternal Thinking," EE2001-hxm p. 51

These may or may not prove insuperable problems, but until they are addressed and overcome we must judge the case for social feminism as incomplete, at the least. But there are more serious problems with social feminism, problems that threaten to undermine the political relevance of maternal thinking and so Elshtain's hopes for a new feminist political consciousness. Social feminism reinforces an abstract split between the public and private realms that cannot or should not be maintained; and no theoretical connection is provided for linking maternal thinking and the social practice of mothering with the kind of 'ethical polity' Elshtain envisions, namely one informed by democratic thinking and the political practices of citizenship.