Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?

Susan Moller Okin with respondents

Princenton University Press

1999

146 páginas

4h 52m

ISBN-10: 0691004315

In the opening salvo of this philosophical debate, Stanford University professor Okin questions the effects on a liberal society's commitment to gender equality when it gives legal and political recognition to other cultures that discriminate against or abuse their female members. Of particular concern to Okin are patriarchal cultures with a theocentric structure. In response, 15 academics and writers, including Will Kymlicka, Yael Tamir, and Katha Pollitt, present essays defending the inherent rights of cultures to exist on their own terms. In addition, they accuse Okin of misunderstanding the position of women within these societies. In her concluding rebuttal, Okin restates her initial argument in less combative rhetoric but without compromising its intent. There is an air of pomposity and occasional defensiveness on all sides here. Few of the arguments offer concrete examples or address the diversity of social norms within any culture. This is geared primarily to academics and should be considered by public libraries only if demand warrants.ARose M. Cichy, Osterhout Free Lib., Wilkes-Barre, PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.