3. Thesis Outline
Part I of this thesis evaluates Susan Moller Okin's feminist critique of multiculturalism, which provides the basis for the argumentation of this thesis. Her provocative article, “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?”, is often seen as the starting point of academic debate about the compatibility of women's rights and minority group rights. Nevertheless, this article is reviewed and analysed in Part I along with the rest of Okin’s work concerning the relationship of feminism and multiculturalism. Second, this thesis deals with Kymlicka's liberal approach to reconciling both concepts. Here, the focus is put on five different aspects. First, it is often said that Okin came to the conclusion that there is a conflict between feminism …show more content…
In her famous book, Gender, Justice and the Family, Okin was more concerned with criticizing political philosophers for their failure to see the importance of justice within families than with analysing women's rights and group-differentiated rights. Concerning the relationship between multiculturalism and feminism, she mentioned only that there is tension between traditions and gender equality (Okin, 1989, p.71). For Okin, we need to be concerned with the connection between feminism and multiculturalism, because neither feminists nor defenders of multiculturalism have adequately addressed this relationship (Okin, 1998, p.670). In this part, four articles written by Okin are considered. These serve as the basis for the following analysis. These articles best demonstrate Okin's point of view regarding the relationship between feminism and multiculturalism. Moreover, one can see from them how she developed and changed her arguments over …show more content…
However, in this article, she was more concerned to find a solution to the conflict and did not focus much on explaining why there is a conflict between the two concepts. The main difference between the previous articles and this one is that Okin distinguishes between countries that have suffered from oppression by colonial powers and countries that have not. According to Okin, the main difference between these countries is that women who have suffered under colonial powers have reasons to identify with their culture or religion (Eisenberg and Spinner-Halev, 2005, p.
Part I of this thesis evaluates Susan Moller Okin's feminist critique of multiculturalism, which provides the basis for the argumentation of this thesis. Her provocative article, “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?”, is often seen as the starting point of academic debate about the compatibility of women's rights and minority group rights. Nevertheless, this article is reviewed and analysed in Part I along with the rest of Okin’s work concerning the relationship of feminism and multiculturalism. Second, this thesis deals with Kymlicka's liberal approach to reconciling both concepts. Here, the focus is put on five different aspects. First, it is often said that Okin came to the conclusion that there is a conflict between feminism …show more content…
In her famous book, Gender, Justice and the Family, Okin was more concerned with criticizing political philosophers for their failure to see the importance of justice within families than with analysing women's rights and group-differentiated rights. Concerning the relationship between multiculturalism and feminism, she mentioned only that there is tension between traditions and gender equality (Okin, 1989, p.71). For Okin, we need to be concerned with the connection between feminism and multiculturalism, because neither feminists nor defenders of multiculturalism have adequately addressed this relationship (Okin, 1998, p.670). In this part, four articles written by Okin are considered. These serve as the basis for the following analysis. These articles best demonstrate Okin's point of view regarding the relationship between feminism and multiculturalism. Moreover, one can see from them how she developed and changed her arguments over …show more content…
However, in this article, she was more concerned to find a solution to the conflict and did not focus much on explaining why there is a conflict between the two concepts. The main difference between the previous articles and this one is that Okin distinguishes between countries that have suffered from oppression by colonial powers and countries that have not. According to Okin, the main difference between these countries is that women who have suffered under colonial powers have reasons to identify with their culture or religion (Eisenberg and Spinner-Halev, 2005, p.