Are women their own worst enemy when it comes to equal rights?

Question

Just to be clear - I am not inviting people to talk about "all the terrible things that women do"...

Examples of what I'm talking about...

If a study shows that women are less likely to vote for Hillary Clinton then men.

If a Mormon woman would actually use her vote to elect a man that she knows is going to take her voting rights away.

If a woman moves from Pakistan to the United States only to continue walking 10 steps behind her husband and covering her hair...

If a study shows that Defense attorneys try to get as many women on a jury as possible because they are more likely to blame the rape victim for how she was dressed...

Answer 1

The women you refer to our examples of how a person that is the less dominant group internalized oppression and thus feels that they are getting what they deserve because they are truly less that, and in this case it would be males. There was a film made about this phenomena that is quite interesting called, "Blue Eyes". It illustrates how a group can be systemically denigrated until they begin acting in the ways that the oppresive group wants which just makes it easier to keep them in line.

Answer 2

Yes.

I think the problem is that by admitting there is an issue "women's rights" women automatically separate themselves and define themselves by sex and also ideas regarding gender.

In a sense they create the issue.

In your examples above a mormon woman may feel its more important to be a morman than a woman. The woman covering her hair may define herself firstly as a muslim and secondly as a woman.

At the end of the day gender and ideas about gender are social constructs. ie people invented them. Fact says you have men and women and that they are biologically different. Society says what is masculine or feminine. In creating the gender agenda women make themselves different/ more feminine than men so how can they then be expectd to be treated the same?

xxx

Answer 3

I do not understand this statement "If a Mormon woman would actually use her vote to elect a man that she knows is going to take her voting rights away" What the heck are you talking about? Are you suggesting that Romney will take womens votes away? The LDS church clearly states that we should vote and uphold righteous people in the government. Always picking on us mormons.....

Answer 4

I do think that many females in some circumstances make things worse by voting for the wrong people to represent them because they are women. But think about it this way. Equal rights are so strong today because of those that started the oppression in the first place and punished those that breached it. Your point in regards to Muslim women, if something has been that way for decades, it's a little hard to change.

Answer 5

Sounds to me like the asker of this question is a victim of "internalized oppression". If women are less likely to vote for Hillary than men (and I doubt that this is the case), they're more likely to vote for someone farther left.
___"A Mormon woman"? One? Most? Some? What percentage of voting women are Mormon, anyway?
___A lot of sex-role customs are integrated into larger systems, and aren't as easy to change as one's grocery list.
___Who did the study of the women on juries? Was it a feminist? Look at some of Warren Farrell's compilations of false claims by feminists. Feminists are not credible sources. Take a course in feminist theory, and ask yourself if the methodology promotes anything more than delusionality and solipsism.
___And ask yourself who controls the gender-discourse within conventional wisdom. What is the consensus among academics on gender issues? Is it anti-feminist? (And don't confuse conventional wisdom with vulgar stupidity; that's just a cheap dodge. Conventional wisdom is the consensus of academics and other idea-people in the culture.)
___Orditz: Some women are socialized to be subordinate, but so are many men, only in a different way. The girl-friendly, boy-hostile "adjustments" to US education has resulted in US college enrollments of 60% female. This isn't subordination? Besides, women are socialized to use covert manipulations, rather than out-in-the-open confrontation, to get their way. Feminism wants to take overt power without surrendering the covert. Or even talk about it. Equality? Hah.

Answer 6

A simple answer would be yes. But I have to point out that not all women are feminists. And that women are socialised in the same way that men are socialised. Meaning that because we live in a patriarchal society, unless someone points out otherwise, women are socialised in certain ways to maintain the domiant paradigms. Therefore the majority of women and men are socialised in the same way, to see men as being dominant in the power dynamic, similiarily women are socialised into being subordinate. This begins at birth, when people are 'colour coded' into gender roles and continues through out a persons life. This socialisation happens for many reasons, but mainly to keep men in power (because men arent going to be giving away that power without a fight) and also as a form of social control. Therefore, people are much easier to control if they are made to believe in the reality of a gendered (unequal dynamic) existence.

Answer 7

Yeah, they can be hinders to their own cause. As far as "internalized oppression" goes, that sounds like a lot of cr**. That seems to suggest that people who do that are not to blame for their own actions and thoughts and society is to blame for their weakmindedness (if that's a word)

Answer 8

Some valid points there. I think women do tend to judge each other more harshly, especially when appearance is concerned.

Answer 9

Sometimes women can be, and there are examples of those kind of women right here in this forum.

Answer 10

Yes the same as minorities are to themselves.