Building a Principled Practice or Policy Argument - Essay Example

THREATS TO FEMINIST IDENTITY By (Name) Course Professor’s name University name City, State Date of submission Introduction I am a strong advocate for women rights, when I came across the article “Threats to Feminist Identity and Reactions to Gender Discrimination” by Aleksandra Cichocka, it caught my attention. I went through the article and got varying insights some of which were congruent with my ideologies; however, some of the ideologies were incongruent with my ideologies. It is based on this regard that this paper seeks to build an argument based on this article. It will provide a summary of what the article entails then give a personal critique of the article. A conclusion will then be drawn from the analysis. Article Summary Before critiquing the article, it is prudent to have a brief overview of the article. Primarily the article looked into the conditions that influenced feminist’s championing for women rights particularly in regard to gender discrimination. The research was intrigued by the rising cases of women complaints regarding being discriminated. Since the inception of the twenty-first century, there have been several women advocates championing the rights of women all over the world. In the past women were considered to have their roles at home and had limited or no participation in public activities or hold any business position (Cohn, 2000). However, this is still fading away; women are getting enlightened and are becoming more vigilant in ensuring their rights are upheld. For instance, the author states that despite there are still some instances of women discrimination, there has been a tremendous improvement, especially in the United States. US women celebrated the “year of the woman” celebrations which were mainly to pay applaud women who had ascended to political authorities. (Bacchi & Eveline). Women leaders such as Christine O’Donnell and Sarah Palin were party leaders who were among the most successful. For instance, there are fourteen countries that have directly elected leaders. The author states that gender discrimination and inequity is more prevalent in post-communist countries. Strong advocates of women rights are still puzzled why at this state in time, people still cheer when women are being deterred from rising into power. The author argues by showing support to women political leaders depict an act of supporting other women as well as supporting the policies or legislations that they might endorse. The article aimed at finding out the conditions under which feminists show a reduced or decreased support for fellow women. It also looked into the attitudes portrayed by victims of gender discrimination, on establishing on whether the victim shared or did not share a feminist identity. Two elements of gender discrimination were evaluated in the study put forth; compassion of the victim and perception or viewpoint of the situation on whether the situation was unjust and will mainly depend on the cognitive interpretation of the discrimination. The article brought forth different aspects discussed by past scholars on their perception and reactions on the issue of gender discrimination. Most of the researches stated that across different cultures, feminists are more sensitive to gender discriminations issues and try a much as possible to fight and stand against such acts. Feminists in their attempts to try to salvage the discrimination against women, they have received a lot of criticisms from critics or anti-feminists (Cichocka, 2013. For instance, many anti-feminists argue that feminists are people who are perceived to hate men, people who are frustrated in life or who are anti-family. These criticisms are found in almost all communities including the post-communist communities. This shows the high rate of negative stereotyping about feminists. This might result in in-group improvement and intergroup differentiation. Threats to feminist’s identity might lead to an increase in the organizational level in the group and also enhance equality. There were a number of hypothesis made in the study. The first hypothesis was that there is effect to the threat to feminist identity. The prediction of this hypothesis was that when women are subjected to threats, they are more likely to be more responsive to acts of discrimination and would perceive the action at hand as unjust and will also show compassion to the victim as compared to when they are not under any form of threat. The second hypothesis was regarding the impact for feminist of the victim, and here the researchers stated that when compared to the feminist victim, the feminists are more likely to view the action as more unjust and rarely shows compassion and discrimination. The respondents were from institute of psychology, sociology, literature, history, law and theories of culture from the University of Warsaw. The questionnaire research design was used. Students who identified themselves to be involved with a feminist group were involved in the sample. The participants were age between the ages of nineteen and forty to maintain homogeneity of the sample. The results obtained from the study were in line with the prediction made; feminists responses to acts of discrimination was highly dependent on the victim on whether they were feminists or not. Similarly, it also depended on whether feminists were threatened by the act or not. It was found out that feminists were easily evoked more compassion towards the victim as compared to the degree of compassion shown by conservatives. The second hypothesis which aimed at predicting the main effects of threat were incongruent with the research findings. For the third hypothesis, there was a small correlation between the interactions of threat or situation to feminist identity with the feminist’s perception on what unfairness entails. (Cichocka, 2013) On the aspect of identity value threat, findings showed that the threat was viewed as more unfair when the perpetrator of the incidence was a fellow feminist as compared to the effect that could be felt when the victim was presented as a conservative. Furthermore, the situation was also perceived as more unfair when the victim was a presented to inhibit conservative perceptions about those presented to have the low-threat condition. Moreover, there was no interaction between the victims perception of compassion and threat towards the victim. Overall, the findings implied that threats to feminists identity result in a greater differentiation between women who are considered feminists and those who are considered to be conservative worldviews. The study was essential. Its findings contribute to a better understanding of the functions and roles of feminist identity and how they respond to discrimination. Critiques From the above-described article, I have been able to gunner some knowledge and insights regarding the feminists response to gender discrimination. The study had both strengths and weaknesses. The main strength of the research study was the availability of its information. The study as evidenced mainly based its arguments on past literature materials and the researchers were also able to conduct an extensive field assessment through the use of questionnaires from student’s, especially postgraduate students. The participants moreover, were drawn from different institutions thus the researcher was compliant to research ethics thus increasing the validity of the research. The findings from the research have more than the conventional weight since they have integrated both survey and past literary materials. I highly applaud the findings from the research as they will go a long way in giving direction for further researches on this topic of discussions. Furthermore, readers have gained useful insights that are essential to understanding the current position of gender discrimination and understanding how best to fill the existing gaps to have a fair and just world where regardless of their gender people are treated with utmost respect. On the issue of practicality of the study, I can argue that it is highly applicable and appropriate to the current world. The research focused on the issue of women discrimination which has stirred up a heated debate among scholars and academicians on whether women need to be empowered or not. Thus, by this article looking into these current striking issue makes it very significant. The study has been able to fathom that despite women being discriminated and limited opportunities to business institutions or in politics, some of the few who have been able to ascend to power have proved that women have the potential and can do the same or even exceed their male counterparts. Political leaders such as Christine O’Donnell and Sarah Palim and also the other fourteen freely elected female politicians were voted among the best politicians thus clearing showing that they have the potential (Farran & Newton, 2000). Moreover, these women have been strong in advocating for women rights, they champion for policies that place the rights of women on par with those of men, and this depicts support for other women. Similarly, when citizens freely elect female leaders, it is a show of support for the women which also clearly show the fight against gender discrimination (Gregory et. al, 2003). However, as much as these feminists are in the forefront advocating for the rights of women, they need to take into consideration the various cultural background. There are some people who are conservative and place much precedence to their culture; they cannot be forced to elect women leaders to lead them if that is not in line with their traditions and beliefs. Thus, it is prudent to take into consideration other people’s aspects of culture regarding the issue. There are many stereotypes regarding the issue of gender discrimination; some people fee that feminists are man-haters or fear family responsibilities. These are myths and do not hold much water. I feel that the author did not extensively look into some of these stereotypes and address them extensively. Some aspects of the study were also not clear, for instance, the research indicated that the main source of manipulation were other women. The author did not explicitly expound on this ideology and might result in different interpretation. Therefore, future researchers need to deeply look into this contrasting argument. Does the study account for socioeconomic status/ social class? It is out rightly correct to state that the article has indirectly touched on aspects of socioeconomic status. Typically, income rates in an economy depict the socioeconomic status. In cultures that are conservative and are considered anti-feminists, they tend to limit participation in any form of leadership from managing business organizations to politics. Thus, they are limited to access certain jobs, they are only given low-level jobs, which consequently has little income. Low income means low social class whereas a higher income depicts a high social class. Therefore, gender discrimination , especially in the workplace, deters economic growth. In such communities, there is uneven economic growth with the men been economically stable while the women are economic dwarfs. However, feminists such as Christine O’Donnell and Sarah Palin are fighting for women rights and are contending for fair and just workplace treatment. The study focused on gender discrimination, specifically focusing on women thus it accounts for gender. It clearly shows what women discrimination entails. Did the study/report adequately account for race, ethnicity and culture? Did it erroneously Define racial (versus racialized) groups? Did it focus merely on deficits/limitations/illnesses? The article mainly focuses on ethnicity; it extensively gave a distinction between feminists and conservatives. These are two groups with contrasting ideologies. Did the study/ report adequately account for sexual orientations and identities (GLBTQI)? Did it erroneously assume all of their experiences to be similar? Yes, the article looked sexual orientation. A person’s sexual orientation showed how they would be received. In some communities, women showed much respect to their parents. Typically, women are accorded good respect. Conclusion In conclusion, the issue of gender discrimination is an issue that needs urgent and quick attention due to the increasing number of gender discrimination especially the girl child has food. This essay has built an argument base on the article. The paper has provided a summary and recommendations based on the findings. Bibliography BACCHI, C. L., & EVELINE, J. (2010). Mainstreaming politics gendering practices and feminist theory. Adelaide, S. Aust, University of Adelaide Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/UPO9780980672381 Cichocka, A., De Zavala, A.G., Kofta, M. and Rozum, J., 2013. Threats to feminist identity and reactions to gender discrimination. Sex roles, 68(9-10), pp.605-619. COHN, S. (2000). Race and gender discrimination at work. Boulder [u.a.], Westview Press. FARRAN, S., & NEWTON, T. (2000). Gender discrimination: a review of legislation and considerations for reform in Vanuatu. Vanuatu, University of the South Pacific, School of Law. Gregory, Raymond F. Women and Workplace Discrimination: Overcoming Barriers to Gender Equality. New Brunswick, NJ [u.a.: Rutgers Univ. Press, 2003. Print. SCHUBART, R. (2007). Super bitches and action babes the female hero in popular cinema, 1970-2006. Jefferson, N.C., McFarland & Co. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1771629. Read More