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Multiculturalism: Multiculturalism is a societal model that recognizes the importance of cultural diversity and seeks to promote equality and respect for all cultures within a society. See also Culture, Cultural values, Cultural relativism, Calture tradition.
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Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

Feminism on Multiculturalism - Dictionary of Arguments

Gaus I 257
Multiculturalism/Feminism/Kukathas: One of the most important objections to multiculturalism is that, in seeking exemptions or special rights for cultural groups or religious communities and organizations, it in effect seeks protection for groups whose practices are sexist and highly disadvantageous - if not altogether harmful - to women.
Susan Moller OkinVsFeminism: this view has been put most forcefully by Susan Okin (1998(1); 1999a(2); 1999b(3); 2002(4)), who has taken issue with almost all of the most prominent defenders of multiculturalism, and found their commitment to women' s rights and interests wanting.
Multiculturalism is in tension with feminism because the two ideas represent political visions that stand some way apart.
Equality/PollitVsFeminism: As Katha Pollit puts it, 'In its demand for equality for women, feminism sets itself in opposition to virtually every culture on earth multiculturalism demands respect for all cultural traditions, while feminism interrogates and challenges all cultural traditions' (1999(5): 27). Feminist critics of multiculturalism thus not only ask why groups which do not accord women equal opportunity, or even equal dignity, should be given special rights or protections, but also why the
Gaus I 258
liberal state fails to intervene in such cultural communities to ensure that women are not denied
education, forced into marriage or made the victims of bodily mutilation. Why should a cultural group be entitled to try to live by its ways if these ways violate the individual rights of their members? '
Education: Why shouldn't the liberal state, instead, make it clear to members of such groups, preferably by education but where necessary by punishment, that such practices are not to be tolerated?' (Okin, 1998(1): 676).
Religion: Thus when writers such as Margalit and Halbertal (1994)(6) defend public funding of religious education for ultra-orthodox Jews on the basis of the right to culture, feminists like Okin (1999b(3): 131) ask how this can be defensible when the corollary of this practice is an education for girls that is oriented towards facilitating the religious life of boys.
Kukathas: (...) the fact of this conflict does not establish whether one philosophical stance or the other ought to prevail (Kukathas, 2001(7)).
Shachar: some writers, however, have tried to argue that multicultural accommodation need not be incompatible with feminist concerns. The most notable contribution to this position has come from Ayelet Shachar, who argues that it is a mistake to think of multiculturalism simply in terms of the granting of 'external protections' to cultural groups. Since individuals are typically members of many groups, the question is how to 'allocate jurisdiction to identity groups in certain legal arenas while simultaneously respecting group members' rights as citizens' (Shachar, 2001(8): 27—8). >Multiculturalism/Shachar.
Citizenship/culture/women: other writers have also sought ways to reach some solution to the tension between feminism and multiculturalism. Some have concluded that some form of differentiated citizenship will need to be developed if the claims of women and the claims
of culture are to be mediated (Benhabib, 2002(9): 82—104). Others have suggested that a dialogic
solution, forswearing the appeal to individual rights or procedural justice, offers a better prospect of reaching an accommodation of cultural values and women's interests (Eisenberg, 2003)(10).


1. Okin, Susan Moller (1998) 'Feminism and multiculturalism: some tensions'. Ethics, 108: 661—84.
2. Okin, Susan Moller (1999a) 'Is multiculturalism bad for women?'. In Joshua Cohen, Matthew Howard and Martha C. Nussbaum, eds, Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 7-24.
3. Okin, Susan Moller (1999b) 'Reply'. In Joshua Cohen, Matthew Howard and Martha C. Nussbaum, eds, Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 115—31.
4. Okin, Susan Moller (2002) '"Mistresses of their own destiny": group rights, gender, and realistic rights of exit'. Ethics, 112: 205-30.
5. Pollit, Katha (1999) 'Whose culture?' In Joshua Cohen, Matthew Howard and Martha C. Nussbaum, eds, Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 27—30.
6. Margalit, Avishai and Moshe Halbertal (1994) 'Liberalism and the right to culture'. Social Research,61: 491-510.
7. Kukathas, Chandran (2001) 'Is Feminism Bad for Multiculturalism?' Public Affairs Quarterly, 15 (2): 83-98.
8. Shachar, Ayelet (2001) Multicultural Jurisdictions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
9. Benhabib, Seyla (2002) The Claims of Culture: Equality and Diversity in the Global Era. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Umversity Press.
10. Eisenberg, Avigail (2003) 'Diversity and equality: three approaches to cultural and sexual difference'. Journal ofP01itica1 Philosophy, 11 41-64.


Kukathas, Chandran 2004. „Nationalism and Multiculturalism“. In: Gaus, Gerald F. & Kukathas, Chandran 2004. Handbook of Political Theory. SAGE Publications


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Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments
The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.
Feminism
Gaus I
Gerald F. Gaus
Chandran Kukathas
Handbook of Political Theory London 2004


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