Feminist Criticism of Vice-presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech

Feminist Criticism of Vice-presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech Women began taking on political roles over a century ago as they fought for the right to be recognized within the governmental system in the United States. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution which gave women the right to vote. Since then, women have made leaps and bounds within the political sphere. However, these expansive steps were not taken easily. Constant negotiation is necessary for women in political positions. Women must negotiate between identities, values, and ideologies in order to achieve political status. Women are constantly negotiating identities between spaces and battling stereotypes based on â€Å"a presupposed particular set of social arrangements respecting male and female sexual and reproductive relations which was assumed to be ‘natural’† (Clark 168). This division creates a public and private sphere â€Å"by articulating one set of rules for the private sphere and another set, quite different, for the public sphere (168). Traditionally, the public sphere is viewed as the sphere for men and the private is where women belong (Wischermann 185). Gender dichotomies cause the â€Å"marking of the private sphere as ‘woman’s realm,’ in which work is performed out of love, and [reflect] on the way boundaries between the private and public are drawn in the context of patriarchal power structures† (185). Women, therefore, have been limited to the private sphere which focuses on family and home. This limitation for women often dictates their behavior and frequently dictates the political platforms of women who enter politics (185). Throughout the Women’s Movement, women strived â€Å"to characterize the private as also... ...therhoos and Political Involvement: The Construction of Gender and Political Identities.† Feminism and Psychology. 2000: 486-491. Clark, Lorenne M. G. â€Å"Women and the State: Critical Theory- Oasis or Desert Island?.† Canadian Journal of Women and the Law. 1992: 166-. Coletti, Elisabetta. â€Å"Geraldine Ferraro.† Christian Science Monitor. September 1999: 23-. English, Leona M. â€Å"Negotiations in Third Space.† The Journal of the Britain and Ireland School of Feminist Theology. September 2004. 97-. Farrell, Thomas J. â€Å"The Female and Male Modes of Rhetoric.† College English. April 1979: 909-921. Fox, Richard L. and Schuhmann, Robert A. â€Å"Gender and the Role of the City Manager.† Social Science Quarterly. June 2000: 605-. Wischermann, Ulla. â€Å"Feminist Theories on the Separation of the Private and the Public: Looking Back, Looking Forward.† Women in German. 2004: 184-.