The feminist conception of justice (short note)

The feminist conception of justice

Feminist theorists argue that standard theories of justice leave out the family and women's lives, and propose to widen justice in three ways.

1. Who the theory imagines. Some feminists object to the person who chooses principles in Rawls's original position: a self-contained, rational chooser looking after his own interest. That, they say, is a characteristically male image of how people behave. Empathy, cooperation and the work of caring for and nurturing others, which they regard as qualities typically associated with women, have no place in it, so the original position does not represent them.
2. Where justice applies. Susan Moller Okin (Justice, Gender and the Family, 1989) argues that the family must be a main unit in any discussion of justice. Rawls applies justice to public institutions and leaves the household as a private zone that government does not enter, so injustice inside the home escapes his theory. The division of work at home is unequal: picture a woman engineer in Bengaluru who, after the same office day as her husband, still does the evening cooking and the children's homework alone. An imbalance of that kind, backed by custom, carries over into her chances outside the home. For Okin a theory of justice that ignores the family is incomplete, and justice as fairness is not fair to women. NCERT's account of the double burden and of the public/private distinction states the same problem.
3. Which women. IGNOU, drawing on Nancy Fraser's Justice Interruptus (1997), records a later self-correction: while 1980s feminism concentrated on identity built around gender difference, inequalities of race, ethnicity, class and sexuality were given too little attention, and feminists responded by connecting their theory with other political struggles. Black feminists accordingly address how class, race and gender intersect in the oppression of women of colour.

Differential treatment as justice. NCERT also shows the women's movement making the point that equal rights may sometimes require treating women differently, where that is what lets them enjoy the same rights as men. A university that builds a safe women's hostel beside its campus, so that women from distant towns can enrol on the same terms as men, illustrates the idea. This matches the principle of justice that taking account of special needs extends equal treatment rather than contradicting it.

Criticism. Okin herself is among the liberal feminists criticised for over-emphasising the need for women to become like men, while feminists who hold that women are closer to nature are criticised for sweeping generalisations.