Feminist exercises 1-3
Exercise 1)
The first assumption of Empowerment Feminist Theory is that social and political forces shape an individual. These forces in a person’s environment help shape an individual’s values, expectations, and behaviors. For example, a business man values hard-work, time management, and assertiveness. This man is socialized into a business environment. This environment stresses that individuals be hard-working, have good time management skills, and be assertive. Because this business environment mentality, the man values these attributes personally and professionally. This is an example of how the forces in an individual’s environment shape an individual’s values. Assumption one of Empowerment …show more content…
In particular the interpersonal relationships that people have can sometimes reflect the broader political circumstances that exist in society. For example, a woman’s personal achievement is overlooked and belittled by her husband. Often it is the case that a woman’s achievement is seen as less important than a man’s. As a society this occurs all the time in different spheres like business and education. This same dynamic occurs within the personal relationships of some women. In the example above, the woman made a personal achievement and it is belittled by her husband in the same way that the personal achievements of women are belittled within our society. Power within relationships affects how people behave and interact. Minorities and other subordinates will often have to use indirect ways to gain power in a relationship just as minorities and other subordinate groups have to use indirect ways in society to gain power. This reveals that there is a power differential within relationships and society. A goal of Empowerment Feminist Theory is the development of egalitarian relationships. Egalitarian relationships lead to healthy thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. For example, a husband and wife have an equal power differential within their relationship, which leads to good communication of each other’s needs, happiness in their marriage, and mutual respect for each other’s goals and accomplishments. As a part if the change process, having clients think about their/or lack of their power within their relationships can help them understand the importance of egalitarianism. Specific homework assignments would have clients experiment with equal relationships and see he types of benefits that come about interpersonally. One major outcome that could come this this