Re: Capitalism and gender inequality

In a message dated 10/28/01 6:00:58 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
Shahijm2@aol.com writes:

<< On the surface of it, it would appear that 
 women in the West have better status.  All lot of this is an illusion, 
 however.  Just watch MTV and decide if there's more respect for women in 
 America.
  >>
I think this sort of argument has the same epistemological status as claims 
that women in the Muslim world must be oppressed by virtue of wearing the 
veil.  Denunciations of both the veil and MTV culture obscure completely the

agency of women in these cultures.

Steven Sherman

        I agree. It can also be argued that the underlying culprit is
patriarchy itself.  Patriarchy as a broad ideology has different faces in
different cultures.  The systems of Machismo, Purdah, and US-style Christian
fundamentalism, for example, are inherently patriarchal - the manner in
which they interact with a society's economic system will, to a great
extent, determine the agency of women in a particular culture.

Judi Kessler