The Construction Of Feminism Citizenship And Its Limitations

Citizenship is a core issue in Western political philosophy.It has a long history in the West and is extremely complex and controversial.Since ancient Greece,the two major theoretical traditions of liberalism and republicanism have gradually formed,but the classic form of modern citizenship was not established until 1949 that TH Marshall clearly defined and systematically generalized the concept of "citizenship"in "Citizenship and Social Class".After that,the study of western citizenship has entered a new stage.In the 1990s,with the advancement of globalization,post-modernization,and the emergence of a series of major social issues,the study of citizenship has reached a new peak.Among liberalism,republicanism,communitarianism,and multiculturalism has launched fierce debates on the conceptual meaning of citizenship,the subject of citizenship and the universality and particularity of citizenship,unity and multiple,nationality and Cosmopolitanism.In addition,various new concepts of citizenship have emerged one after another.Such as ecological citizenship,immigrant citizenship,aboriginal citizenship,sexual citizenship,cultural citizenship,etc.Among them,feminism citizenship has also become a compelling component.The rise of feminist citizenship research is on the one hand related to the upsurge of citizenship research and the re-understanding of citizenship in political thought at that time,on the other hand it is also related to the development of feminist theory and the feminist movement.The essence of feminist citizenship is to engage in various citizenship theories from a gender perspective,reveal the theoretical limitations and gender deficiencies of mainstream citizenship theories,and try to reform or reconstruct traditional citizenship theories to solve the women's excluded status in citizenship theories and practice.Feminist citizenship is an important part and a new perspective in contemporary western citizenship research,and it is also an important theme for feminism to explore gender politics and women's political status.This thesis intends to conduct a comprehensive and systematic study of feminism citizenship,to analysis feminist criticisms of various western citizenship theories and the basic model of feminist citizenship,and summarize and refine the theoretical demands and policy scheme of feminism citizenship.In the last,this thesis intends to make a reasonable evaluation of its value and shortcomings in the perspective of Marxist philosophy.This article first illustrates the theoretical context and background of feminist citizenship construction through feminist critiques of liberalism,neo-republicanism,communitarianism,multiculturalism,deliberative democracy,and other citizenship theories,and clarifies the basic logic of the various mainstream citizenships and the theoretical basis and theoretical logic of feminist criticism.The criticism of feminism shows that although various citizenship theories have different presuppositions for the subject of citizenship,they are abstract and masculine;although there are different divisions and evaluations of the public and private spheres,they all have the separation and opposition between the family realm and the public realm;although there are different understandings of the relationship between citizens and the community,there is a homogenized understanding of citizens varying degrees,and there is rejection and suppression of women and vulnerable groups.Feminist believe that the rejection of women is closely related to the theoretical construction of gendered citizenship.The gendered criticism of feminism has unveiled the false universalism and the masculine nature of mainstream citizenship theory,and poses an important challenge to some deep-rooted masculine ideological concepts and cultural traditions contained in citizenship theory.However,the feminist criticism failed to rise up from the political,moral,and cultural level to the economic level because be restricted by a purely gender perspective and an abstract theoretical criticism perspective,thus ignoring and obscuring the nature of the bourgeois citizenship based on private property and the deep economic roots of women's unequal citizenship status.Secondly,this article sorts out various theoretical models and main representatives of feminist citizenship.Feminism requires overcoming the gender blind spots and theoretical limitations in the theory of citizenship,and constructing a model of citizenship that is more friendly to women,more tolerant,and diverse.Based on different theoretical backgrounds and target methods,on the basis of criticizing and drawing lessons from liberalism,republicanism,multiculturalism,deliberative democracy and other citizenship theories,feminism has made various ideal designs for new citizenship models.From the perspective of target orientation,there are generally three basic forms of gender neutrality,gender difference,and gender diversity.From the perspective of theoretical origins,it presents a variety of feminist citizenship theory schools such as liberalism,neo-republicanism,postmodern deconstructionism,radical democracy,and multiculturalism.From the perspective of typical representatives,there are the humanitarian liberalism model of Susan Moller Okin,the republican model of Mary Dietz and Rain Vote and others,the Maternalistic model proposed by Joan Elshtain and others,Chantal Mouffe's radical democratic model of "gender diversity" and Iris Marion Young's "group difference" model,etc.These theoretical designs are of great significance for overcoming the gender limitations of mainstream citizenship theories and truly tolerating the diverse differences and needs of women in the diverse and changing social background.But from an overall point of view,their choices did not go beyond the constraints of human nature,and still carried a single and one-sided understanding of the nature of human beings;It did not fundamentally touch the fundamental system of capitalism,and only require gradual reforms of the institutional system.It had cut apart the relationship between women's liberation and human liberation,and it is difficult to become the theoretical basis for the unity of oppressed women.Thirdly,on the basis of combing through various feminist citizenship models and representative viewpoints,it integrates the dialogues and debates of different models on some core issues related to citizenship,revealing the theoretical dilemma and basic theoretical demands of feminist citizenship.In general,under the influence of social thoughts such as postmodernism,post structuralism,and post colonialism,how to get rid of the dualistic thinking mode of patriarchy and the shackles of gender essentialism and to search for an open and dynamic balance between a series of binary relations such as equality and difference,universality and particularity,caring ethics and justice ethics,public and private spheres has become the basic theoretical appeal of contemporary feminist citizenship.Feminist discussions on these issues have broken through some basic presuppositions in traditional Western morality and political philosophy,and posed an important challenge to the abstract rationalism,universalism,and dual logic in the Western theoretical tradition.However,because feminism is confined to the way of thinking of "interpreting the world" of theoretical philosophy,it is difficult for them to find the true source of a series of dual oppositions and the practical way to eliminate them.Finally,this article clarify feminist policy conception and institutional arrangements in civil political practice.Feminist builds a feminist citizenship policy framework on the basis of comprehensive and balanced basic concepts such as equality and difference,universality and particularity,care and justice,in order to release the potential of citizenship for women's tolerance from various practical dimensions.The policy conception of feminist citizenship not only transcends the traditional public-private boundary,making citizenship begin to be connected with the traditional private spheres of care,grassroots participation,body,intimacy,sex,etc.,but also transcends the boundaries of the nation-state to global.These policy ideas and institutional arrangements have expanded the space for citizenship,expanded the scope of the original citizenship rights and responsibilities,and are of great significance to the promotion of women's political and economic status in the real society.However,these policies only require gradual and sporadic reforms under the existing liberal democratic system and mainly rely on government actions.Therefore,their effectiveness in social reform and women's liberation is relatively limited.In today's great practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics,in the process of promoting China's democratic construction and women's liberation,we must absorb and draw on the useful theoretical results of Western feminist citizenship.But at the same time,we should take Marxist philosophy and Marxist thoughts on women's emancipation as the basic theoretical guidance.Our understanding of the issue of women's liberation cannot be separated from the Marxist macroscopic vision of human liberation,and cannot be separated from the realistic soil of Chinese socialist practice.