Scott defines gender as a constructed category of
human distinction which is the primary means of signifying power relationships
in society. Scott asserts that men’s and
women’s roles in society and history are constructed through language and the
framing of sexuality and sexual behavior. Scott diminishes the importance of
other means of identity analysis, chiefly religion and class. She takes issues
with what she sees a the over-reliance on material difference on the part of
Marxist feminists, correctly asserting that women were subjugated long before
the advent of capitalism. One could make a solid argument that the interplay of
these identities is far more useful as means of historical analysis. Her desire
to explain the presence of patriarchy ignores the immense social stratification
of both men and women generated, in large part by economics, politics, race,
division of labor, etc. One could take particular issue with her assertion that
authoritarian regimes legitimize their power through the subjection of women.
Indeed the USSR often couched its liberation narrative with the notion of the socialist
emancipated woman and acted on these assertions with literacy programs, female enlistment in the military etc. Furthermore, Germany’s National Socialism actions often contradicted
their words as women served in an auxiliary capacity in the Wehrmacht, SS, and
civil government.
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