Introduction
Powerful efforts to ridicule and silence activist has been achieved through quick progress in prosperity of the western world. However, nationalism and feminism are different movements in one nut shell. In this case, they both aims to cleanse rectify and shape the western society from the conflicting issues ranging from religion, legal rights, politics and culture. Researchers assert that, the two perspectives can be analyzed within a common framework of gender and culture relationship (Kinshlansky, Gearly & O’Brien, 2008). This is to mean that, they coincide over common issues of in the society such as national liberation, legal rights and war against neo-colonialism. However, their consistency will be assessed individually.
Background: Feminism and Nationalism
Currently, there is a huge debate over the position of women in the society. Majority argue that with the patriarchal nature of the society, women have been treated as inferior to men. On the other hand, the concept of nationalism came into being approximately five centuries ago. This movement involves individuals struggling to gain identification in a political entity so called a nation. Since then, it has dominated both in political and international affairs. There is an aggressive debate over the difference between a nation and nationalism (Kinshlansky, Gearly & O’Brien, 2008). However it is evident that nationalism gave rise to emergence of nations in the western world. Post modernist and Marxists have their own view that a nation exists individually and that nobody can explain how it develops.
Certainly these schools of thoughts lack consistency due to the contradicting issues and challenges posed to them by their critics. Nationalists and feminists are unable to give a clear stand on them. For instance, nationalist of a particular country like USA, claim that, nationalism was first initiated from their own incumbent to other nations (Kinshlansky, Gearly & O’Brien, 2008). In this case, there is much contradiction over the specific nation where nationalism first came into being. Moreover, critics wonder what constitute to a nation since nationalists argue that the incumbent is a cultural entity within a particular territory. Currently, there are ideological divisions over what nationalists refer to as a nation (Kinshlansky, Gearly & O’Brien, 2008). In this case, it is more difficult to settle on the different views of critics about nationalism. Different revolution faces of nationalism calls for review of past history for us to know the common implication it has toward the people.
In line with this, several varieties of nationalism such as contemporary, civic, territorial and left-wing nationalism had emerged. Different forms of nationalism advocated for similar issues though took different dimensions. Several waves of nationalism have created an impact in the western world at different times.
Theories: Feminism and Nationalism
In this case there has been bias in several concepts such as gender and social roles (Cheris & Spender, 2010).
They criticize the logic in which laws were made claiming that, they reinforce men interests. However, there are subdivisions among feminists into gender, liberal, cultural and dominant feminists (Cheris & Spender, 2010). Though they share common ideologies and facts towards the patriarchal society, their views are different. For instance, liberal feminists claim that, women and men have equal rationality hence they should be treated equally. Liberal feminist look down upon enforcing the government to abolish gender based distinction from the law (Cheris & Spender, 2010).
Additionally, legal feminists celebrate and adore the fact that there are differences among men and women especially on cultural backgrounds. It is evident that, the feminist school of thought has not been consistent as there have been several new waves replacing the older ones. Moreover, real feminism has been reformed giving it a total configuration from the ancient ones (Cheris & Spender, 2010). This poses a big question on whether the contrasting interests between the ancient feminists will aid in bringing a change with the modern incumbent.
Currently, new feminism has taken a different dimension toward the issue of equality. Traditional feminists only advocated for gender equality as opposed to the modern feminists who are demanding extra rights for women (Cheris & Spender, 2010). This brings in criticism that, if feminism was an issue of equality, why do feminists demand more rights for women? Critics argue that, if more rights will be given to women men should also be considered. In this case, we find that feminism has been a different that all the time and therefore, it is impossible to predict the trend of feminism in future (Cheris & Spender, 2010).
References
Cheris,K. &Spender, D. (2010). Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Identity politics to publishing. New York: Routledge Publishing, Inc.
Kishlansky, M., Geary, P. & O’Brien, P. (2008). Civilization in the West, New York: Longman Pearson Education, Inc.