Place of Women in Western Modern Political Thoughts

Running head: PLACE OF WOMEN IN WESTERN MODERN POLITICAL THOUGHTS
Place of Women in Western Modern Political Thoughts
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PLACE OF WOMEN IN WESTERN MODERN POLITICAL THOUGHTS1
Empowerment of women is widely recognised as a significant global policy objective
and is also an important component of the strategies for promoting health and combating the
poverty all around the world. Degeneration of the feminine and silencing the women writers
in the canon of western political thought has marked the relationship of feminism to the
canonical texts as deeply ambivalent. However, the debates and conversations among the
feminists as a response have been both proactive and lively. It is often seen that women are
absent from the canonical texts of the political theory and these texts often operate on the
basis of gendered assumptions. This paper shall elaborate on discussing about how the place
of woman been conceptualised implicitly or explicitly across the history of western modern
political thought.
In near about each and every country in this world, women fare worse as compared to
men on several different indices including political participation, income, vulnerability to
abuse and sexual assault, wealth, property, level of access to education and other social
positions (Woolf 2014). In many developing nations, these inequalities that are based on
gender gap are particularly stark. For instance, in countries like India, girls are 40% more
likely to die prior to the age of five years as compared to boys. Also, there is less likelihood
of girls being educated, receiving proper health care and even getting fed. Despite of
democratizing and globalizing 21st century, women continue receiving the short end. The
modern political thought of the western countries and their feminist movement has inspired a
significant level of scholarship and research in the areas of legal studies, sociology, history as
well as literary criticism. This has further resulted in a wide range of important and
innovative works. However, there is still very limited research done on the treatment and
place of women in the modern political philosophy of western world.
Political nature is the key factor for the exclusion and inclusion of females in the
political area. According to Hooks (2006), politics refers to “an articulation, or working out

PLACE OF WOMEN IN WESTERN MODERN POLITICAL THOUGHTS2
of relationships within an already given power structure”. However, this definition by Nabers
is contrasting with that of the traditional view of the politics, which defined politics as “an
activity, a conscious, deliberate participation in the process by which resources are allocated
among citizens”. This idea of the politics basically constraints the political activity in the
private sphere of the family life and in the public arena and this is provided as the apolitical.
Such a public-private dichotomy in the earlier definition of “politics” is used for excluding
the female participation from the public political sphere and also when the women are
brought into the politics that they are entered as wives and mothers. Notwithstanding this
fact, today, the women all around the world have much more influence over the decision
making process that influence their lives. Also, even in the most conservative societies like
the ones in the western countries, the gender advocates and feminists are been able of moving
forwards more equitable outcomes and policies. They are more visible in the public life today
than they were been during the time of modern history. According to Woolf (2014), in the
western politics, women today have more access to the positions of the authority than they
actually did just thirty years ago, right from the judiciary to the parliament and from the
professional associations to boardroom. Although the women political powers differ from one
regions to other, from one countries to other. In the western modern political thoughts, a total
of three main factors constrain or enable the decision making power of women and their
leadership. These three factors in the modern western politics also explain the idea of which
women is to gain the political power and when and how. The factors are- institutions,
structures and capabilities. Institutions are the norms and rules that shape the behaviour and
the interactions of people in political, economic and social life. Structures refers to the deeper
political, economic and social endowments, patterns and groupings that shape the society and
lastly, capabilities is all about the notion that women must draw on a wide range of