Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?

Susan Moller Okin

Published by Princeton University Press 1999

Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?

Susan Moller Okin
Edited by: Joshua Cohen , Matthew Howard and Martha C. Nussbaum

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400840991

Overview
Contents

About this book

Polygamy, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, punishing women for being raped, differential access for men and women to health care and education, unequal rights of ownership, assembly, and political participation, unequal vulnerability to violence. These practices and conditions are standard in some parts of the world. Do demands for multiculturalism--and certain minority group rights in particular--make them more likely to continue and to spread to liberal democracies? Are there fundamental conflicts between our commitment to gender equity and our increasing desire to respect the customs of minority cultures or religions? In this book, the eminent feminist Susan Moller Okin and fifteen of the world's leading thinkers about feminism and multiculturalism explore these unsettling questions in a provocative, passionate, and illuminating debate.

Okin opens by arguing that some group rights can, in fact, endanger women. She points, for example, to the French government's giving thousands of male immigrants special permission to bring multiple wives into the country, despite French laws against polygamy and the wives' own bitter opposition to the practice. Okin argues that if we agree that women should not be disadvantaged because of their sex, we should not accept group rights that permit oppressive practices on the grounds that they are fundamental to minority cultures whose existence may otherwise be threatened.

In reply, some respondents reject Okin's position outright, contending that her views are rooted in a moral universalism that is blind to cultural difference. Others quarrel with Okin's focus on gender, or argue that we should be careful about which group rights we permit, but not reject the category of group rights altogether. Okin concludes with a rebuttal, clarifying, adjusting, and extending her original position. These incisive and accessible essays--expanded from their original publication in Boston Review and including four new contributions--are indispensable reading for anyone interested in one of the most contentious social and political issues today.

The diverse contributors, in addition to Okin, are Azizah al-Hibri, Abdullahi An-Na'im, Homi Bhabha, Sander Gilman, Janet Halley, Bonnie Honig, Will Kymlicka, Martha Nussbaum, Bhikhu Parekh, Katha Pollitt, Robert Post, Joseph Raz, Saskia Sassen, Cass Sunstein, and Yael Tamir.

Author / Editor information

Susan Moller Okin is Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society and Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. She is the author of Women in Western Political Thought (Princeton) and Justice, Gender, and the Family (Basic Books). Joshua Cohen is Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is Editor in Chief of Boston Review. Matthew Howard is an editor and writer living in New York, and a contributing editor to Boston Review. Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago.

Reviews

"This book brings together impressively varied voices who help to set the terms for discussing the relationship of feminism and multiculturalism. They show in no uncertain terms that feminists have something important to say to multiculturalists, and vice versa."—Amy Gutmann, Princeton University

"This collection offers succinct, compelling and intelligent arguments on both sides, notably from a diverse group of respondents' to Okin's views."

"This is a magnificent contribution to the field. It manages the tour de force of combining a striking contribution to political philosophy with an extremely readable text that will engage the general intellectual reader. All the entries are well written, short and to the point, and arranged in a fair, balanced way that never lets the attention sag."—Jane Mansbridge, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

"Martha C. Nussbaum, Recipient of the 2012 Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences"

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Introduction Feminism, Multiculturalism, and Human Equality Joshua Cohen, Matthew Howard and Martha C . Nussbaum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART 1. Is Multiculturalism Bad forWomen? Susan Moller Okin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
PART 2. Responses
Whose Culture? Katha Pollitt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
Liberal Complacencies Will Kymlicka Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
“My Culture Made Me Do It” Bonnie Honig Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
Is Western Patriarchal Feminism Good for Third World / Minority Women? Azizah Y. Al-Hibri Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
Siding with the Underdogs Yael Tamir Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
“Barbaric” Rituals? Sander L . Gilman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
Promises We Should All Keep in Common Cause Abdullahi An-Na‘ Im Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
Between Norms and Choices Robert Post Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
A Varied Moral World Bhikhu Parekh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
Culture beyond Gender Saskia Sassen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	76
Liberalism’s Sacred Cow Homi K. Bhabha Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
Should Sex Equality Law Apply to Religious Institutions? Cass R. Sunstein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
How Perfect Should One Be? And Whose Culture Is? Joseph Raz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
Culture Constrains Janet E. Halley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	100
A Plea for Difficulty Martha C . Nussbaum Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
PART 3. Reply Susan Moller Okin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
CONTRIBUTORS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145