Eric W. Cheng, “Davis, Tocqueville, and the Isolated Individual: Gender Equality and the Possibility of Reform,” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 80, no. 1–2 (2024): 419–34, https://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2024_80_1_0419.
| Item Type | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| Author | Eric W. Cheng |
| Abstract | This article places Angela Davis’s analysis of why the modern individual trends towards self-isolation in conversation with Alexis de Tocqueville’s competing account in Democracy in America. I argue that Davis misidentifies the problem of isolation as a ‘systems problem’, rather than as a ‘people problem’ (as Tocqueville implies), and that she underestimates the extent to which people’s self-understanding can evolve within the capitalist system. She argues that women’s oppression is a consequence of the isolation which emerges under capitalism, so she believes that the overthrow of capitalism is required to overcome it. Yet much progress in redressing women’s oppression has been achieved within capitalism as a result of its recent troubles. Accordingly, I suggest that Tocqueville offers a plausible theory of reform that can help feminists continue to rectify women’s oppression within the capitalist system. Specifically, feminists should heed Tocqueville’s counsel, that smart institutional interventions can help reform how people understand themselves, and focus on designing policies which can encourage people to move away from the belief that women are more naturally suited to domestic labour than men. |
| Date | 2024 |
| Language | English |
| Rights | © 2024 Aletheia - Associação Científica e Cultural |
| Volume | 80 |
| Pages | 419-434 |
| Publication | Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia |
| DOI | 10.17990/RPF/2024_80_1_0419 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| ISSN | 0870-5283 ; 2183-461X |
| Date Added | 7/31/2024, 10:59:59 PM |
| Modified | 7/31/2024, 11:18:07 PM |
Cheryan, Sapna and Hazel Rose Markus. “Rooting Out the Masculine Defaults in Your Workplace.” Harvard Business Review. Last modified October 21, 2022. https://hbr.org/2022/10/rooting-out-the-masculine-defaults-in-your-workplace.
Davis, Angela Y. “Women and Capitalism: Dialectics of Oppression and Liberation.” In The Black Feminist Reader. Edited by Joy James and T. Dean Sharpley-Whiting, 146-82. Malden: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2000.
Hayek, F.A. The Road to Serfdom. Edited by Bruce Caldwell. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
Kelly, Jack. “The Rise Of The Stay-At-Home Dad.” Forbes. Last modified December 7, 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2022/12/07/the-rise-of-the-stay-at-home-dad/?sh=396eebcc7921.
Kim, Jessica and Kathleen M. Fallon. “Making Women Visible: How Gender Quotas Shape Global Attitudes toward Women in Politics.” Politics and Gender 19(4) (2023).
Lee, Juhohn. “Why American wages haven’t grown despite increases in productivity.” CNBC, Last modified July 19, 2022. https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/07/19/heres-how-labor-dynamism-affects-wage-growth-in-america.html.
McKinsey & Company. “The ‘double shift’ of working mothers now even longer.” Last modified May 21, 2021. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/sustainable-inclusive-growth/chart-of-the-day/the-double-shift-of-working-mothers-now-even-longer.
Schaeffer, Katherine. “The Data on Women Leaders.” Pew Research Center. Last modified September 27, 2023. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/fact-sheet/the-data-on-women-leaders/.
Sorrentino, Jasmin, Martha Augoustinos, and Amanda LeCouteur. “’Deal me in’: Hillary Clinton and gender in the 2016 US presidential election.” Feminism & Psychology 32(1) (2021).
Suneson, Grant. “These Once-Male Dominated Jobs Are Now Mostly Held by Women.” 24/7 Wall St. Last modified June 4, 2021. https://247wallst.com/special-report/2021/06/04/these-once-male-dominated-jobs-are-now-mostly-held-by-women/.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. “Critique of Socialism (1848),” Translated by Ronald Hamowy. Online Library of Liberty, April 10, 2014. Accessed April 7, 2015. http://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/tocqueville-s-critique-of-socialism-1848.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. Edited by J.P. Mayer. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.
Yellen, Janet L. “The history of women’s work and wages and how it has created success for us all.” Brookings. Last modified May, 2020. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-history-of-womens-work-and-wages-and-how-it-has-created-success-for-us-all/.
Young, Iris Marion. Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.
