Feminism -should feminist politics aim to establish gender equality or difference

Introduction:
The aim of this essay is to prove the impossibility of achieving equality and the futility of aiming to establish equality in feminist politics. In feminist politics, equality and difference have been understood to be alternative concepts; difference has become the reverse side of equality. Over the years, one of these terms has gained the laurel of being a positive term and the other a negative term. Before analysing whether or not equality is indeed possible, a brief overview of feminism and equality is needed. There are three schools of feminist thought, which are namely Liberalist, Marxist and Radicalist.

The Liberal school of thought believes that 'gender equality can be brought about through incremental reform' . They believe that all of society has the ability to govern itself, including women and they need to be elevated to power in order to use their governing abilities, this elevation can be brought about by reforms. This is in significant contrast to the Radical feminists' viewpoint, where a significantly more negative view of the order of things exists. This branch of feminism sees 'gender divisions to be the most politically significant of social cleavages, and believes that they are rooted in the structure of domestic life' . Basically, radical feminists see the world as 'run by men… for men' . Their point of view is not completely different from that of Marxist feminists, who believe in much the same thing but see things from a more economic point of view as opposed to the gender inequality point of view of radical feminists. Thus, it is apparent, that despite the differences in the different branches of feminism, the quest for equality, albeit in different forms, is a common thread among them.

Stand:
Equality is in itself a word with many connotations. It could mean parity or sameness, among other meanings. Now, to be 'same' would be impossible in this context given the biological differences between males and females. Parity, however, is what feminists seek to implement when gender equality is mentioned. Seeking similar levels of opportunities in careers, a level ratio in political representation, and in some countries, namely strongly Islamic states, levels of freedom that are on par with that received by males.

Equality and difference theories both aim to establish women in a better position in society, the end in similar, just the method that is different. The option that feminists face is to pursue either 'gender neutrality' - equality, or 'gender visibility' - difference. This essay takes the stand that gender difference ought to be established instead of gender equality due to the differing concerns of men and women in society and politics. After all, gender-neutrality would mean to imply that women lose the right to leave and continued job security when having babies. This would definitely be unacceptable because in the rapidly aging populations of many developed nations, childbirth is counted as socially necessary work, and women at this stage have unique needs which must be fulfilled for the better good and continuation of society.

Differences between Masculine and Feminine peoples:
In a study conducted to find the differences between political inclinations and interests of masculine and feminine people, it was seen that masculine people expressed greater interest in the generic term 'politics' whereas feminine people expressed more interest in particular issues such as women as candidates and public officials, abortion and the equal rights amendment. This study goes to prove that men focus on generalities and women on particularities.
In the highly general aspect of the world, society at large and politics, it is then apparent why men have been dominant in this realm, thus far. With women focusing largely on personal and domestic politics, it does not make sense to put them in charge of volatile international affairs or national defence arenas, which could be a possibility if complete gender equality was somehow achieved. As such, feminist politics, ought definitely to aim to establish gender visibility as opposed to gender neutrality.
To bring out the best in each gender instead of ignoring sex and gender differences, not just in the area of politics, but also in terms of career opportunities and domestic issues. Specialisation of labour according to one's strong points is definitely preferable to trying one's hand at something with the possibility of failure.

Probability of Gender Equality:
Other than the previous argument regarding the possibility of aiming for gender equality decreasing the quality of output produced, by men or women in society, there is another important argument; which is that achieving gender equality is a nigh impossible task, which should not even be attempted. As Mackinnon said,

to require that one be the same as those who set the standard - those which one is already socially different from - simply means that sex equality is designed never to be achieved. Those who most need equal treatment will be the least similar, socially, to those whose situation sets the standard as against which one's entitlement to be equally treated is measured. Doctrinally speaking, the deepest problem of sex inequality will not find women 'similarly situated' to men. Far less will practices of sex inequality require that acts be intentionally discriminatory.

In fact, some feminists themselves agree that the 'struggle' against gender inequality and the establishment of feminist politics requires the dropping of 'equality' for 'autonomy' .

“Equality… implies a measurement according to a given standard.”
“Autonomy… implies the right to accept or reject such norms or standards according to their appropriateness to one's self-definition. Struggles for equality… imply an acceptance of given standards and a conformity to their expectations and requirements. Struggles for autonomy, on the other hand, imply the right to reject such standards and create new ones.”

As such, to aim for equality would not just be to agree that the actions of men today are right but would also be to 'become the enemy', to do what you have fought against. As such, the stand of this essay is reaffirmed, that feminist politics ought to aim for gender difference as opposed to gender equality. If women want to be free to redefine social roles, as they please to suit the modern woman of today, then autonomy and not equality should be their rallying cry and aim in mind.

Autonomy:
If autonomy were to be the aim of feminists, then some of the policies they would suggest would include the right to represent themselves in sectors of government that directly affect their interests, including abortion, human rights legislation, women's charter, domestic violence, etc. These are some of the areas of particular interest to feminine peoples.7 The right to choose areas of governance to involve themselves in, would certainly drive home their rejection of the 'male-stream' values of today's society and state.
Policies regarding childcare benefits and maternity leave ought to be restructured so as to better suit women's job schedules and allow them greater opportunities in applying for jobs.
A major obstacle in the employment of women in today's workforce is their domestic 'duties'. It has come to a stage where employers do not wish to employ newly married women or those who are at an age where their biological clock is ticking loudly, for fear that they would soon apply for maternity leave and childcare and medical benefits, which would not contribute to the company's profits in any way.
Merits of Equality (Flipside):

It must however be mentioned that equality, despite the many complications it does present, has proved to be more than efficient over the years. It is through the concept of equality that women gained the legislation to vote and managed to prevent (at least to some extent) the arbitrary treatment of women. It is only, that as mentioned above, the main problems with the notion of equality is that they not only cause women to become more 'masculine' but also that they ruin the specialised balance of labour and power that biological and physiological differences in men and women have wrought in society over the years. Equality is based on the premise that en and women are essentially similar and as such, women can be compared by the same yardstick that applies to men. This however, completely ignores the nurturing process that girls go through that makes them completely unsuitable for male tasks. Men better understand defence issues due to conscription and armed forces service, whereas women learn to abhor war due to massive loss of loved ones. Men are trained to be physically more able than women and thus are better equipped for certain jobs and gender equality can simply never be achieved because physically, women are and will always be disadvantaged.


Conclusion:

Thus, women could only make a more significant impact in the workforce and political arenas by playing up their skills in jobs that require the 'human touch' and greater 'emotions' as opposed to trying to 'compete' with men; competition being a 'masculine' obsession anyway . In the political scene, they ought to campaign for offices that focus on areas that particularly interest them. It is on this basis that women can then propel themselves further and into other realms of politics and careers, based on the success they first achieve in these areas. As such the establishment of differences between the 2 genders would serve the purposes of feminist politics far more than the aim to establish equality ever