Description
This book explores the position of women in western political theory and feminist philosophy, and examines a few women political leaders. An analytical study of these reveals, that the real malaise behind the problematic conditions of women is methodological, The Western methodology of knowledge, particularly since the sixteenth century, has emphasized "reason" and 'sense perception' as the only sources of knowledge and has led to disastrous consequences for women. The process of secularization has affected men and women individually and the relationship between men and women collectively. Life is compartmentalized into religious life and mundane life. Socio- political theories and actions are categorized under 'mundane- life, nothing to do with 'religion'. The conception of woman and her domestic activities, including child-bearing and child-rearing are greatly influenced by this compartmentalization of life, which secularization has affected. Her position is jeopardized and her identity as a woman is either trivialized or lost completely.
In most cases she is forced to believe that she has no 'intellect and no 'power of sense-perceptions'- She is a 'fool', 'dumb', deaf and a 'blind' individual who is completely incapable and ineligible to play any public role. Such a picture of women is depicted in western political theory not from the sixteenth century but even in Greek political thought.