Introduction
Women must be empowered to act as change agents in their own lives in order for programs focused on reducing violence against women and girls to succeed. Because they serve as “community facilitators,” the women who participate in project activities provide a crucial connection to the greater community of women with whom preventive initiatives must engage. Women are prospering in a wide range of businesses today, from exploring the universe as astronauts to even holding positions of power in governments; there are only a few fields that have yet to be discovered. Women are considered the world’s most underutilized source of talent. With perseverance and determination, women all over the globe are striving to prove themselves in order to reach the pinnacle of success in the workplace. An emancipation and empowerment tsunami is spreading over the world as more and more women are becoming conscious and voicing their displeasure with the oppressive society they live in.
Main body
Changing economic, social, and cultural frameworks to encourage the progress of women is just the beginning. States must also actively work to include women in the country’s political system. Gender equality must be a priority in the political arena. These disparities should be reflected in decision-making bodies since women often have different aims than men (Enloe 21). Because of this, women will now be able to begin to transform and overcome all kinds of barriers, from cultural norms and traditions to economic and social barriers. The “Presidential Initiative for Maternal Health and Safe Motherhood” was established by Malawi’s President Joyce Banda immediately after she took office.
With its foundational assumption that women’s daily lived experiences have ontological and epistemological consequences for international studies, feminists owe much to radical feminist theory. Feminist perspectives on global affairs often start off with Cynthia Enloe’s powerful statement that “the personal is international.” Radical feminism’s “the personal is political” phrase is a rallying cry for a more serious appraisal of women’s embodied experiences as a basis for political analysis and action in the second wave of feminism.
Among Cynthia Enloe’s key aims is to find out why so many people have lost their sense of wonder. As her title indicates, she is interested in the paucity of feminist investigation. Laziness, a motivation to save effort for “more significant” actions, a reliance on “natural,” “conventional,” “often,” and “ancient” things, powerful reinforcement from those in authority not to challenge or think about why things are as they are and how they might or ought to be unique, and a desire to remain comfortable are all possible explanations for this. Other explanations include (because this is because it is comfortable) (Enloe 51). Bring into sharp perspective the apparent and subtle political workings of both femininity and masculinity, says Enloe, “and show patriarchy in all of its forms” if one is interested in and pays attention to women. Becoming interested in the world may help people understand how and at whose expense power structures operate—”within households, inside institutions, in communities, and in international affairs.” In addition, this awareness allows people to organize themselves in order to change unjust structures, cultures, and societies.
Enloe included examples from colonial encounters, military posts, and diplomatic life to show how women have had an impact on the political sphere. Forensic prostitutes, rural working women, and those “married” to diplomacy all feature prominently in Enloe’s investigation of international politics. Women’s roles in current politics often serve as markers of how international politics works, which she strives to prove by showing how many apparently personal and social facets of contemporary politics are often indicators of how international politics works, if only inadvertently. On the other hand, Bell Hooks explores this issue in depth in her book Ain’t I a Woman? In fact, she says that the “harsher, more brutal reality of racism” is to blame for the lack of black feminist voices. Thus, the battle to remove racism and sexism was “naturally intertwined” for black women (Hooks 27). Instead of the universal fight that Western feminism teaches, this focuses on an issue specific to the situation of African-American women.
Enloe and other liberal feminists describe women’s oppression as a “summation of numerous small-scale deprivations.” It is their goal to keep the patriarchy’s grip on society as strong as possible by focusing on issues of everyday life. Feminist adversaries claim that liberal feminism’s attention to daily life does not focus enough on the root causes of gender inequality. On the other hand, others argue that women’s enslavement is linked to the prevailing patriarchal social structures.
Similarly, Bell Hooks, a renowned black feminist, tries to reconcile universal and diverse thinking despite the pluralist nature of black feminist philosophy. According to her, the goal of feminism should be to create a worldwide sisterhood while also respecting the individuality of each person within that sisterhood. She uses the term “intersectionality” in her writing. Women were oppressed, in particular, by a global cultural framework of power that existed across all classes, races, and genders, according to the theory of intersectionality. Hooks believes that the silence of black women induced by patriarchy and white liberal feminism must be broken in order to achieve this goal.
The anti-intellectual taint on non-Western feminist thought is likewise a goal of Hooks’. In the opinion of many, Hooks’ works lack intellectual rigor. Her purpose, though, is to unite them. She attempts to achieve a goal through her work that is critical to the visibility of non-Western feminist theory. In the end, Hooks believes that in order to resolve conflicts, all women must find some kind of common denominator. According to Hooks, all women are engaged in the same struggle, but that struggle includes a variety of voices and experiences. When seen from a global perspective, the word “feminist” is widely contested. Feminism, entrenched in religion and culture, according to global philosophers, often leads to the perpetuation of inequalities. Feminists in literature, both present and historical, are notorious for their inability to come to terms with one another. It has been argued that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to understanding feminism.
Both Enloe and Hooks agree that feminism’s greatest challenge has been its tendency to focus on little victories rather than big ones. According to Hooks, society is more amenable to non-threatening “feminist” demands and may even help sustain the current quo. Reforms frequently reinforce “capitalist, materialistic values” (illustrating the flexibility of capitalism) without truly liberating women economically, according to Hooks. The purpose of the movement must be the transformation of thought, not the achievement of little personal ambitions. Women all throughout the globe will keep fighting for their rights and making a difference in the world (Enloe 53). Since they are “change agents,” the women’s movement will keep working to transform the system so that it supports women and doesn’t oppress them in all aspects of society.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as agreed by both Enloe and Hooks in their works, the majority of people do not understand sexism, or if they do, they assume that it is not a problem in their society. Many people feel that feminism is always and only about women seeking equality with men. This is not always true. And the great majority of these individuals feel that feminism is anti-male in its nature. Both Enloe and Hooks agree that it is understandable that people are ignorant of feminist politics, given that the majority of them learn about feminism from the patriarchal media. Typically, the feminism that they are acquainted with is represented by women who are mainly committed to gender equality—equal pay for equal work—with the exception of the odd instance in which women and men share household activities or parenting obligations.
An important objective of visionary feminism was to create solutions that would enhance the status of all women while also increasing their own power and independence. In order to do this, both works of Enloe and Hooks suggest that the feminist movement needs to go beyond the aims of equal rights and begin with fundamental problems such as literacy programs that would benefit all women, but notably those from lower-income groups. There are no feminist high schools or universities in the United States. In addition, there has been no coordinated effort to construct these institutions so far.
Work Cited
Enloe, Cynthia. Bananas, beaches and bases. University of California Press, 2014. Web.
Hooks, Bell. Feminism is for everybody: Passionate politics. Pluto Press, 2000. Web.