I ntroduction Week th September 2013

In this module we examine:  ‘Patriarchalism’ (we ask, has global capitalism sounded the death knell for it?).  Forms of power and authority women can exert within the frame of patriarchy.  Women’s struggle for equal socio-economic, political and cultural rights and for equal representation in political institutions.  Distribution of resources between men and women here and across the globe.  Gendered dynamics of sexuality.  Power in relation to social inequalities; the use of physical force; the ‘erotic’; and to ethnic and national divisions in a global political economy.

How is it taught, how do you learn? It’s taught through involving you in its design and delivery and through a case study approach. So you deliver lectures or workshops or put together seminar material which not only help you develop your research and presentation skills, for example, but which also feed into the development of the module from one year to the next.

Module themes Four key themes: 1. The power of money and the meaning/deployment of power 2. The politics of sex 3. The quest for power 4. Money, sex and power in global context

Theme 1 - The power of money and the meaning/deployment of power  Equality/inequality  Social justice mean  How they can be measured  How they’ve been struggled for  And who’s struggled for them.

Theme 2 – The politics of sex  Social contract sexual contract (Carol Pateman)  Gender and the representativeness of political institutions  Institutionalised heterosexuality, the embodiment of male power and the challenges posed by sexual politics in the 1960s and 1970s (feminism, gay rights etc.)  ‘Postfeminism’, new feminisms : what’s changed since the 1960s?

Theme 3 – The quest for power across space and time  Colonial rule, postcolonialism and gendered relations o f power.  Gendered power in different systems of male domination and how such power is challenged by women (Arab Spring).  Women, the construction and preservation of the nation-state in a system of international relations.  Women in international conflict: alliances and peace.

Theme 4: Money, Sex and Power in Global Context Can a theory of patriarchalism explain the different interconnecting systems of power (based on gender, class, ‘race’/ethnicity, sexuality, disability etc.) that we will examine in this module? To answer this question we’ll look at:  How power is gendered;  How women can and do exercise power;  How the exercise of power by women is affected by class, sexuality, ethnicity, age, disability;  What the bases of power are in contemporary society.

Politics and the political We’re concerned with women, power and equality between the sexes within global capitalism. Consequently we need to think about the concept of politics and the political. So what is politics?  Politics in its broadest sense = a social activity through which people try and improve their lives and bring about ‘the good society’. So politics ‘is the activity through which people make, preserve and amend the general rules under which they live’ (Andrew Heywood, Politics 4 th edn 2013, p.2).

Too broad >> more questions But this is too broad and leads to more questions such as:  Is politics a particular way in which rules are made, preserved or changed? Is politics practised in all social contexts and institutions or only in certain ones, e.g. Only in government/public life or also within families or smaller groups of people? Given this scenario it isn’t surprising that there are more specific definitions of politics along a spectrum that runs from conservative and exclusive to radical and inclusive.

Conservative and exclusive At the conservative/exclusive end of the spectrum politics is about:  What concerns the state. This definition is what people have in mind when they talk about someone being in politics or entering politics. This is the definition that academic political science has perpetuated. A little less conservative and exclusive is the definition where politics is about:  public affairs and so the dividing line here between what is political and what isn’t runs along that separating the public and private domains.

More inclusive, more radical At the opposite end of the spectrum is a radical definition of politics although there is a category of definitions in between which see politics as being about consensus and resolution of conflict as a result of power being more widely dispersed in society. According to the radical notion, politics is about power and isn’t confined to a particular, narrow sphere of human life such as government but is ‘at work in all social activities and in every corner of human existence’ (Heywood ibid.). But what distinguishes politics from other social behaviours is that it’s about the production, distribution and use of (scarce) resources and because it’s also about power, politics is defined here as: ‘the struggle over scarce resources and power is the means through which this struggle is conducted’ (Heywood ibid.)

Women, politics and power Let’s finish with looking at three things to do with women, politics and power. 1. Women and their representation in the traditional sphere of politics (state and public institutions and processes, e.g. elections, elected assemblies, government, parties). 2. Masculine and feminine ways of doing politics (conflict vs. negotiation)? 3. The struggle for power and the deconstruction of the political.

Women in state and public institutions/processes Women form 50% of the population but aren’t proportionately represented in political and public institutions in most countries. Why?  They’re not good enough...  They’re too emotional...  They’re not serious enough...  They’re not tough enough... And so on

Ways of doing politics There aren’t enough women present in politics because: Political institutions have an overwhelmingly masculine culture and strongly reflect the sexual division of labour of our social life? Do women conform to popular stereotypes? Are they more nurturing and conciliatory while men are aggressive and competitive? Is it because so-called ‘women’s issues’ don’t get dealt with in politics? And yet many women have got past the stereotypes and barriers...

Deconstructing the political Returning to our definitions of politics, we can say that traditionally politics has been about maintaining exclusivity. Women have historically been kept out by virtue of preserving a strict sexual division of labour which relegates women to the private sphere of the home and family and carries men into the public domain. The deconstruction of this narrow conception of the political began with the emergence of feminist and other new social movements in the 1960s and 1970s.

The personal is political  The ‘personal is political’ is one of most well-known of feminist slogans of the 1970s. It reflected two main desires on the part of women:  to destroy public / private sphere divisions and challenge traditional notions of politics as a practice to be undertaken exclusively by those with a strong presence in public life and shift the balance of power away from men;  to cross the dividing line between private and public spheres in order to intervene in the political arena and challenge injustices, inequalities and oppressions suffered by women. To bring issues considered private (e.g. domestic violence) rather than political onto the public agenda.

A final comment... This module draws attention to two models of the acting human self in relation to others which are constantly at odds in feminist discourse and in discussions about women’s situation worldwide. These models are that of:  the autonomous individual – discourses of feminist individualism put great importance on the attainment of personal independence and autonomy;  the individual as part of a social collective and social relations on which we are all dependent.

... And question So an important question to bear in mind as we go through this module is: How do we create forms of social and political community that recognise human ties and necessary relationships of dependency and interdependency and responsibility on which our social life is based and which also recognise the specificity of sexual difference and the difference that it makes, while avoiding relegating women back into the ‘community’ and into dependency and a world of isolated autonomous individuals?