Drawing on any of the readings discussing gender, in addition to Benhabibs

essay, provide a short essay on the marginalization of the feminine (e.g.,

Watson, Bowden, Sack, Wilson, Delaney, Harlan). In other words, drawing on

the course readings: Why and how are womens voices marginalized?

Eniola Lamina

Dr. Kenneth MacKenrdick

RLGN 144O Evil in World religion

January 10th, 2017

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 Theres always been a big problem in our society with feminism,

females havent had the chance to be something big or whatever they want,

but for male its been anything anytime for them, Marginalization is the social

process of being relegated to the fringe of society. One such example of

marginalization is the marginalization of women. Blacks are marginalized but

women are subjugated not only as blacks but as women also. Women are

relegated to an inferior position. They are regarded as mere appendage to a

man. They are treated as chattels. Their status has been degraded. Gender

divisions are a misconception of the patriarchy. Its true that a child belongs to

its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mothers

hut. A man belongs to his father when things are good and life is sweet. But

when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your

mother is there to protect you. And that is why we say that mother is

supreme.1 a woman made this quote in a song about feminine We teach

girls to shrink themselves To make themselves smaller We say to girls "You

1Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New Delhi. Arnold Associates. 1987.
Print.

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can have ambition But not too much You should aim to be successful But not

too successful Otherwise you will threaten the man" Because I am female I

am expected to aspire to marriage I am expected to make my life choices

Always keeping in mind that Marriage is the most important Now marriage can

be a source of Joy and love and mutual support But why do we teach girls to

aspire to marriage And we don't teach boys the same? We raise girls to each

other as competitors Not for jobs or for accomplishments Which I think can be

a good thing But for the attention of men We teach girls that they cannot be

sexual beings In the way that boys are Feminist, the person who believes in

the social2 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Most people feel a womans duty only lies in the family or indoors either as

housewives or maids or cooks and they believe there are some certain jobs a

man can do that a woman cannot do which I feel is wrong a woman should be

able to do any kind of job her strength is capable of doing not just what her

environment thinks she should do, According to Carol Gilligians research in

cognitive, developmental moral psychology recapitulates a pattern made

familiar to us by Thomas Kuhn.3 Distinguishing between the ethical orientation

of justice and rights and the ethical orientation of justice and rights and the

ethical orientation of justice and rights and the ethical orientation of care and

2 Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. we should all be feminists

3 Thomas Kuhn, the structures of scientific revolutions, 2 nd edn (University of
Chicago Press, Chicago, 1970), pp 52f

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responsibility allows her to account for womens moral development and

cognitive skills they show in a new way womens moral judgment is more

contextual, more immersed in the details of relationships and narratives it

shows a greater propensity to take the standpoint of the particular other, and

women appear more adept at revealing feelings of empathy and sympathy

required by this.

There are many ways in which women are still marginalized in America today,

first the dollar bills, Every day the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing

produces 38 million paper bills. Actually they are not bills; they are the likes of

George, Alexander, and Abe. These may be great men, but where are the

great women who have also helped shape American history? Every day when

we pull out our dollar bills we take it for granted that its men who are

important, but isnt it time for us to see some notable women too?

Secondly, most religion that serve gods are mostly male gods, not thats its a

good thing to make people your gods but I mean women still do some

memorable things to deserve such acknowledgment, in the majority of

religions God is he. In the Christian religions New Testament, Jesus always

refers to God as Father. The Lords Prayer begins Our Father. The writers of

the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, were of course men, and so they

reflected their own culture and ideas. Although the same is true in all the main

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religions of the world, this was not always the case. We have plenty of

archaeological evidence for Goddess worship being the earliest form of

religion. There are many theories as to how the men took over and the women

allowed them to, but soon we see female sexuality being demonized along

with the sacred She. Mens views and voices tend to dominate the text of most

news articles published online, while women appear proportionally more in

images, according to the research conducted by the Universities of Bristol and

Cardif. Women were also found to feature more in articles about fashion,

entertainment and art but were much less present in those involving sport and

politics, which researchers said provided empirical evidence that they were

being marginalized by the media.

Bibliography

MacKendrick, Kenneth. Guide for the Erudite Student 2016-2017

Benhabib, Seyla. The Generalized and the Concrete Other: The Kohlberg-

Gilligan Controversy and Moral Theory, In Situating the self: Gender,

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Community and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics, 148-177. New York:

Routledge, 1992.