Page 188 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

174 Citizenship

communities, so that as well as being subjected to repressive practices,
they are also actively engaged in perpetrating them. It is older women
who are responsible for ensuring that girls become eligible for a “ decent
marriage ” by arranging and carrying out female genital cutting, for
example. Criminalization of these practices often, therefore, falls particu-
larly hard on women who are effectively carrying out their duties as wives
and mothers (Dembour, 2001 ; Gunning, 2002 ). As a consequence,
although feminists are now quite routinely seen as complicit with racism,
if not racist, and arguments about women ’ s equality are used to discredit
the ideal of respecting cultural diversity, at least in the English - speaking
world, feminists themselves are actually much more likely to support
multiculturalism (see Phillips, 2007 ; Schachar, 2001 ; Volpp, 2001 ; cf
Okin, 1999 ). The multiculturalism feminists tend to support is, however,
what Phillips calls “ multiculturalism without culture. ” It is, in other
words, anti - essentialist multiculturalism.
Phillips follows Kymlicka in arguing that multiculturalism is valuable
because people are cultural beings: everyone is shaped by the norms and
practices that have made us who we are. She departs from Kymlicka ’ s
reasoning, however, by arguing that it makes no sense to think in terms
of cultures as if they were bounded, unifi ed “ things. ” In doing so, she
argues, we bundle together sets of norms and customary behaviors which
do not invariably go together, and which are, anyway, continually chang-
ing (Phillips, 2007 : 52). In addition, people themselves differ in terms of
the importance they give to cultural norms: while some endorse them,
others celebrate the superiority of their way of doing things, and others
resist thinking in terms of culture at all. In fact, it is very common to
think: “ I ” have moral values; “ they ” have cultural traditions (Phillips,
2007 : 31). In all these respects, she argues, women are effectively no dif-
ferent from men. Whilst it is certainly true that women are frequently

identified as the “ guardians ” of culture, and they may lack resources that
would enable them either to leave close - knit communities or to speak out
against community leaders, what follows is support for women ’ s rights
as individuals – to refuges to protect them against family violence, for
example, or to education and training to improve their social status,
expertise, and economic situation. In addition, however, women also need
individual rights that have long been taken for granted, but which are
now in question for those whose choices offend the cultural norms of the
majority: for example, the right to dress according to cultural and reli-
gious codes that is now treated with such suspicion and contempt in the
case of some Muslim women.