Women’s struggles for freedom and equality have been a vibrant part of all social movements for transformation and social justice through history. Mary Wollstonecraft wrote in 1792 in her Vindication of the Rights of Women 1 that the struggle for rights of women is located within the personal space–the home and the family; and within the public space– the political and economic world.

Two hundred years later, women activists defined their experiences of violence, subordination and disadvantage as located within patriarchy. Patriarchy is a social formation that gives privilege to male power and separates the public and the private worlds. It constructs ‘gender’ (the socially constructed meaning assigned to the sexes) as a binary of male and female and assigns particular roles and privileges to these. It assigns to women roles within the private sphere which are attributed lesser value-creating and perpetuating inequality. Patriarchy also privileges heterosexuality, establishing sexual hierarchies and marginalizing sexual and gender identities that do not fall within this power dynamics. A pattern of violence, oppression, silencing and marginalization are used to enforce this value system.

Claiming rights, claiming justice: A guidebook on women human rights defenders

Извор: WUNRN – 24.06.2014