Theoretical Information

Women’s place in private space
Domestic work is rarely considered as a real job by society. Its invisibility may be due to its gratuity. Actually, some researchers have tried to explain how this gratuity hides material appropriation of women’s strength of work by men.
Indeed, if, at home, men’s participation in domestic work is generally increasing, it remains a sexed discrimination enlighted by the presence of more active of women. Foodshopping, washing up, clothes stuff, cleaning the house, taking care of the children are often women’s businesses. Even if house modern domestic equipement has permitted women to gain some leisure time recently (and still it depends also on the social status of the couples) they have still a lot of difficulties to manage to balance their work and their family life. This is what researchers call the problem of the double-day phenomena.
If men start now to handle some housework, we can also still see that the kind of task is shared between what is supposed to be feminine tasks and what is supposed to be masculine tasks. Thus men have the tendancy to choose valorisating areas. Ood jobs (wood, car or DIY) requiring reflexion or strength are the main part of them. On the contrary they are not interested in what we can call daily life housework, such as cooking and cleaning. Concerning the education of the children, they will be, in the same way, more led to play with them and to help them to make their lessons, than to handle with the care part (bath, meals…).
However, even if now, thanks to the legalisation of abortion and the use of contraception, women can decide if and when they want a child, they are still obliged to create a strategic organisation in order to maintain professionnal life balanced with family life, the fact to be a women and the fact to be a mother. (sometimes, to be a women and to be likely to be pregnant can be a reason for not being employed).
Additionnally, the legalisation of the abortion or the pills have permitted also to women to change their sexual behaviour, and not only those who are in a couple. Indeed, we can notice that men’s sexual behaviour and women’s ones are becoming closer and closer. Women are more free in sexuality. But there remain some inequalities and differences according to the genders. Some acts or attitudes don’t have the same meaning if they are perfomed by a women or by a men.

Gender: nature or nurture ?
One of the main common points between many different societies is the division of labour according to the gender. Thus the differences separating both genders can not be considered only as coming from biological or physical factors because socialisation, the influence of culture, and influence from the values of society tend to lead people in different ways – of being, making decisions, finding social role – according to gender.
So how determined by gender are we? Is gender something we are born with, or do we learn it from society?
First of all, in all the different ways of socialisation, the family seems to play a important role in our way of becoming.
The education can be different according to gender. Thus boys are often more stimulated to experiment life away from the familial one, parents give them more easily autonomy, independence and freedom. Moreover, the difference can be felt as well regarding the habits to help for the domestic work, daughters tend to be expected (both by society and the mothers themselves) to help their mothers with domestic chores, even if more and more of women are professionally speaking active workers , women also stay in charge of the domestic work: it’s the double day phenomena ).
And even if education tends to become more and more equal and similar for both genders, beyond it, parents have different expectations from their children according to gender, because they received themselves a sexed education to reach a sexed identity.
In another way, the friends and the people out of the family have as well a important influence on the building of sexed identity of each gender. Indeed since the youngest age, children tend to separate themselves first of all according to gender and by reacting contrarily in response to the opposite gender. Is the natural instinct to move closer to a group of people who are the most similar to us?
Thus, from 5-7 years old, the division according to the gender is really clear, but without any idea of domination yet.
Finally, the school , third main way of socialisation, has a real impact upon sexed identity.
Indeed at the beginning, only men had right to get scholarly education, and when finally women got the right, it was in order to support the sexed education received in familial area, and still in order to become a “good” wife, to get a “good” marriage. Moreover, education was clearly differentiated according the gender as girls and boys didn’t go to the same school, and had some different courses.
And when school became open for everybody, without separation or different courses according to gender, this new coeducation didn’t bring the equality expected.
Indeed the professional orientation, which leads to an important place in society, remains dominated by masculinity. And even if women are successful academically speaking, it seems that they persist to choose careers in areas already feminised, such as nursing. Thus the professional choices are more or less the same, and the division of work according to sex still exists between sectors considered feminised or not.
But maybe if men still have this trend to reach the most powerful and more recognized status in the area of work it’s also because of the pressure from society which seems to stay stronger for them, regarding the importance of success in their professional life, presented as the only way to achieve social recognition.
Thus, the question of sexed identity stays controversial, the difficulty is to distinguish in which ways it results from cultural values and norms or, on the contrary, from the natural biological differences.

Women’s place in public space
For a long time the dual model of the man in the workplace and the woman in the domestic workplace at home has been presented as the most rational and efficient mode of organisation for society. As a result, the woman’s desire towards professional activity as a foundation of the feminine identity, and as a focus for independence and opening on social life, has been forgotten.
The arrival of women in labour market has been reached in stages. First of all, they have been confined to « women’s work » supposed to be fitting to their « nature », defining thus works according to the gender. Moreover the first occupations of women have always been in the lower end of the professional (and salary) hierarchy because they started to replace men, giving them the possibility of applying for more qualified jobs. If men were required to work to provide to their family, in society’s eyes, women needed to work only for their own needs.
If now things have changed, we can still see an inequality between men and women in the working area. First of all, we can notice that, generally, women reach less qualified jobs than men. The main reason is now due to their gender, and the behaviour that is supposed to be linked to it. Then some industries there still exist gendered definition of qualifications, whithout recognizing « feminine » skills. Additionnally, salary differences, decreased social mobility, a career ladder harder to climb, unemployment and the part-time work are also characteristics of women’s working life.
The social visibilty of women is also questionned in political areas, for the same reasons as the economic area. Indeed, in these spheres, women’s representation is quite weak. Women have been excluded from the political area (first with the right of voting which they had to fight for) because they are seen, not as individuals or citizens, but as women with a certain « nature » different from men. That is to say that they could not be trusted with responsibilities in politics or economics, because they are supposed to be easily influenced, weak and emotional- not pragmatic. Society also thinks that women are not able to wield authority, that they are turned towards family and not toward general interest or that they are not able to exercise self control, they don’t like competition or power. So, these areas are considered as men’s business, even if women begin to achieve more qualifications than men. Because what is questionned is less women’s professionnal skills than the fact that men (but also women) think that some skills are characteristic of one gender or the other.

Violence against women
The stake of violence is always domination. Physical violence often begins with psychological abuse of power and domination of one individual by another .
It works in a process as follows: Tension > agression (liberation of a negative energy) > physical violence > excuses, contrition (justification of the behaviour) > reconciliation
This circle can only be broken by the man, and accelerates and intensifies as the woman gets used to it and the man becomes addicted to his behaviour.
Psychological violence is characterised in differents ways : isolation, attack of the identity, control (money, time), threat (to maintain the power), harrassment, intimidation.
The aggressor denies it to himself and to society, which leads the victim to feel doubt about who is the perpetrator – her or the agressor .
Sexual violence expresses a wish to posses and to dominate.
Why women don’t leave : agressions are not brutal but introduced step by step. Resistance is diminished as the woman becomes accustomed to it and loses her critical spirit. Domestic violence works thanks to a devaluation process, loss of confidence and infantilisation of the victim. She is sure that without the man she won’t manage to do anything. An internalisation of the guilt occurs.

About gender issues
Associated to A.R.T Fusion, our goal for these next six months is to raise awareness about the discrimination of women in contemporary society. Topic of gender issues is really phylosophical and needs a lot of critical tools we don”t necessarily have. But we’re still able to enlighten the supposed differences between men and women which occur, wondering if they are legitime and trying to understand where they come from and why they result in discrimination. There remains in each area of the life an inegality between men and women, even if a lot of progress has been made. By the way the proper question of egality between the two sexes is recent. But still, men have power and dominate the most important places in life. Strong discrimination according to the gender continues, even if women enter more and more in areas previously reserved for men. Legal egality seems now quite accepted by most people in Europe. However, social egality is much less obvious because of strong stereotypes. They appear in public spaces but also in private areas.

First of all, women’s place in public sphere needs to be mentionned.Concerning salaries, professionnal responsabilities and careers, visibility in arts, in creation in general, political representation, women are discriminated. Such a discrimination has been explained by the biological nature of woman. Her physical but also psychological weakness supposed, the fact that she must support a work of reproduction and not of production leads to what we can call a segregation because of the sex.

Concerning private sphere, discrimination is no less prevalent. The role of the mother often results in a “double day”. After work they take care of children and the household. And there is a gap concerning involvement in daily life between men and women.Then, concerning sexuality, differences exist between men and women, where men seem to have much more freedom than women. Stereotypes about the beauty of a woman are numerous. Violence against them must also be mentionned because it shows a kind of superiority men look for.

But the question is also to wonder to ourselves where these discriminations come from. They are linked to a difference which is made between two ways of life, two behaviours : a feminine one and a masculine one. Man would be stronger, more authoritive, with a practical spirit. On the contrary, women would be tender, weak, sensitive, easily swayed… The difficulty consists in trying to know if these categories because of sex are natural or cultural. First of all, it’s seems that, we can indeed find common points amongst women which lead us to believe that a certain nature of woman exist. But, we must also consider the importance of education in the process of socialisation. Then we can say that a lot of ideas concerning what is a man and what is a woman are entirely made by the society. That is to say, first of all, by our parents. Choosing our presents, our clothes, leading us in the choice of study…they shape our mind based on certain stereotypes from which they are also subjected to. Then, school takes also an important part in this process. Judgement of peers influences a lot how you build your sexual identity. Society is itself a producer of individuals. It produces differences between men and women which favour men and create men’s feeling of superiority.

This theoretical part aims to explain the main reasons which lead us to get involved in A.R.T fusion’s project. Of course we don’t plan to solve the problem. Our goal is mainly to raise awareness among the population of Bucharest concerning women’s situation, leading them to think about it.

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