Prateći ideje o genealoškom metodu u proučavanju istorije koje
razvija francuski filozof Mišel Fuko, ovaj rad je usredsređen na ono što je u
istorijskom smislu najbliže, na relativno kratku i skorašnju istoriju liberalnog
feminizma koja pokriva period od početka drugog talasa, odnosno od sredine
1960ih godina u Sjedinjenim Američkim Državama.
Genealogija kao „istorijat sadašnjosti", kao i filozofska i istorijska metoda ne
usmerava svoj pogled daleko u prošlost u potrazi za poreklom i konačnim
istinama, već na ono što je vremenski najbliže, sa ciljem da se razume i proceni
sadašnjost.
Istorija savremenog liberalnog feminizma se u ovom radu posmatra i u
kontekstu feminističke teorije i prakse, ali i u odnosu prema liberalizmu kao
teorijskom i političkom okviru. Kritička distanca u odnosu na liberalizam koju
razvija femistička teorija u 20. veku, postavlja sam liberalni feminizam u složenu
situaciju, i ova studija ispituje poziciju liberalno feminističke politike i teorije,
naglašavajući da liberalni feminizam i koristi, i preformuliše, ali i kritikuje
liberalne teorije i politike, tako da se ne može govoriti o bezrezervnom i
nekritičkom prihvatanju liberalizma.
Liberalni feminizam nije samo, zapravo nije ni najmanje feministički oblik
liberalizma. Uobičajeno određenje liberalnog feminizma glasi da je on najmanje
'preteći' oblika feminizma i da se samo zalaže da se žene uključe u postojeće
institucije i strukture moći, a da ih pritom ne dovodi u pitanje. Kako ova studija
pokazuje, iako ovakvih glasova ima na početku drugog talasa, približavanje
stavovima radikalnog feminizma, podstiče liberalne feministkinje da se dublje
posvete analizi ženske nejednakosti u tradicionalno privatnoj sferi doma i
porodice, i sistemskim preprekama koje onemogućavaju da žene budu uistinu
jednake sa muškarcima...Following the concept of a genealogy method in the research of history, as
developed by the French philosopher Michel Foucault, this thesis focuses on what
is historically close, i.e. on a relatively short and recent history of liberal feminism,
covering a period from the beginning of the second wave, from the mid 1960s in
United States of America.
Genealogy, as "the history of the present," as a philosophical and an
historical method does not turn towards the distant past in search of origins or the
final truth, but instead focuses on what is chronologically closest, with the aim to
understand and assess the present.
In this thesis, the history of liberal feminism is approached in the context of
feminist theory and practice, but also within liberalism as a theoretical and a
political framework. Critical distance to liberalism, which is developed by feminist
theory in the 20th century, places liberalism itself in a complex position. Therefore
this study questions the positioning of liberal feminist politics and theory, while
emphasizing that liberal feminism both uses and reformulates liberal theory and
politics, but it also articulates a critique of this theory and politics. This makes an
uncritical embracing of liberalism, a liberalism without reservations, non
acceptable.
Liberal feminism is not only, or, better said, is not at all a feminist variation
of liberalism. The usual designation of liberal feminism is that it is the least
'threatening' form of feminism and that all it stands for is that women are to be
included into the existing institutions and structures of power, while not
questioning them. Although there were such voices at the beginning of the second
wave feminism, when getting closer to and encouraged by the standpoints of
radical feminism, liberal feminists - as this study shows - devoted themselves to
the analysis of women's inequality in a traditionally private sphere of the home
and the family, and also turned to the systemic impediments that prevented
women to be truly equal with men