A Communitarian Reading of Gender Domination in the Thought of John Stuart Mill

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Fariba Niksiar ¹
• Seyed Khodayar Mortazavi Asl ²
• Faramarz Mirzazade Ahmad Beiglo ²

¹ Ph.D. Candidate in political thought, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

² Assistant professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

10.30495/jzvj.2024.32816.4104

Abstract

Dominance, monopoly, and the exercise of power lead to inequality, injustice, and marginalizing the oppressed person with unpleasant consequences for the individual and the society. The present study aims to address the issue of domination as one of the obstacles in the way of women’s progress and their participation in development and politics.

As a qualitative research, this study uses hermeneutic method of Quentin Skinner. Skinner considers the intension of the author and the relevant context. Therefore, with the use of Skinner’s method and his recommendation to interpret specific beliefs by placing them in the context of other beliefs, four communitarian thinkers are selected to examine John Stuart Mill’s opinion about gender domination. Their opposing ideas are also presented in a table with the help of Hegel's triple dialectical method.

The question is; from the point of view of the selected communitarians, how valid is the cause of gender domination in the thought of John Stuart Mill? The findings revealed that most of the selected communitarians except Nussbaum consider the society and social ties to be involved in domination and do not consider the liberal solution to amend the laws and institutions to remove dominance.

Keywords

• John Stuart Mill
• Communitarians
• Gender domination
• Laws and Institutions
• Social goods

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