On the Margaret Thatcher argument: as Christine Sylvester notes, if one
adopts a statistical methodology, one would never try to construct a
generalised proposition based on the outlyer case (that is, perhaps, two
standard deviations from the norm) - and Thatcher (and a few other cases of
leaders who were also women) cannot be used as the basis for
generalisations about women in power. More particularly, those women were
in power within an international system based on and defined by masculinist
values where to be considered a 'good' leader one had to display the
attributes associated with masculinity (note, by the way, that I do not say
'associated with men' - I make a distinction between biological difference
and gendered difference).
One the essentialist argument - suggesting that women's lived experiences
(or the diversity of lived experiences of different women) may bring them
into closer contact with the processes of nurturing etc (and, of course,
this doesn't apply to all women) doesn't necessarily equate with
essentialism. As Grigson (I think) points out, just because women have
children doesn't mean it is essential to their nature to do so. However,
the construction of gendered roles in our societies itself often reinforces
some kind of constructed essentialism and that, as others have mentioned,
is often used to marginalise women (personally, I have strong objections to
biological determinism). That women might display greater caring, or
nurturing or cooperative or communicative values doesn't mean they do so
because it is 'in their nature' but rather because the construction of
their lives and the value-structures of societies mean that women are more
likely to be in situations in which this is socially learned behaviour. I
recall a colleague once saying that, if one denies that women are more
nurturing, then women have nothing to offer - an argument I resisted
strongly, but is there/could there be a sense in which one claims as
natural what one is 'told' one is valued for in the apparent absence of
other valuings?
I'm enjoying the discussions on this posting, even though it threatens to
overwhelm my computer!
Lorraine
__________________________________________________________________________
| Dr Lorraine Elliott Phone: (61 6) 249 0589 |
| Department of Political Science Fax: (61 6) 249 5054 |
| Faculty of Arts |
| Australian National University |
| Canberra, ACT 0200 |
| AUSTRALIA |
|__________________________________________________________________________|
