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“Yet, one might object here that there is no reason in principle why women could not also break free of their social ties in such fashion. Be that as it may, women are traditionally expected to “preserve just the sorts of relationships…that autonomy-seeking men sometimes want to abandon.” (Friedman, 2000, p. 35) As Mark Piper observes, gendered socialization processes disadvantage women when it comes to opportunities for self-expression, since young girls and women are often taught to be submissive to men and to focus on domestic life over other pursuits.” (pg. 2-3)
This section of the article was particularly compelling to me, because it succinctly points out exactly why autonomy is frequently inaccessible to women as a whole. In order to have true autonomy, one must be able to completely set aside any influences and act purely on their own desire. Women are largely unable to do this, while men can achieve autonomy with little to no struggle whatsoever. Because men are generally not expected to be the main caretaker of the family or the home, they can simply act on their own needs and wants. By comparison, women are berated severely if they “abandon” their family or home in any way. Even single women with no children are often judged for electing to have a strong career, and are told that being a mother would be much more fulfilling. Women are seen as caretakers by society, and because of that, they can never truly act autonomously; their decisions are always tied to a relationship.
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“On this view, autonomy should be reclaimed from the atomistic tradition to serve a more liberatory purpose: its aim would be precisely to recognize the role that societal and cultural norms have played in the shaping of women's subordination (and the scaffolding of male dominance discussed in the previous paragraphs), and to consequently challenge and combat the inhibiting role they can play in women's agency.” (pg. 3)
This is a perfect followup to what the previous quote laid out: if we view autonomy as the ability to make a decision with zero outside influence, then it would be impossible for any woman to have autonomy. In order to create a definition for autonomy that would allow women to experience it, we have to recognize just how tightly woven the societal and cultural expectations really are. Because women are expected to be caretakers and to live a more relationship-oriented life rather than a self-oriented life like men do, “autonomy” in a woman looks much different and considers the influence of societal norms on a woman’s decisions. A woman cannot simply choose to have kids, for example, without acknowledging that society expects her to have kids, and that these expectations affect her. She sees society praise good mothers, and she thinks fondly of her own mother, and she remembers playing with baby dolls as a child, and she recalls taking care of her younger siblings and being praised for being so caring with them. All of these things, however small they may seem, play a role in influencing this woman to want to be a mother.
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“An unjust world might effectively “socialize us to prefer conditions or options that are bad for us,” (Terlazzo, 2016, p. 206)” (pg. 5)
This line really stood out to me because it lays out this unjust world as a concept that doesn’t yet exist, when in reality, we already have been socialized to choose options that are worse for us. For example, many women choose to use makeup. Makeup is bad for your skin, can take a lot of time to apply, requires skill and practice, and costs a lot of money, among other negative aspects. However, because women are expected to look perfect, we are conditioned into thinking that we want to wear makeup. And many women do genuinely enjoy wearing makeup, but it would be unreasonable to ignore the fact that subconsciously, most of us wear makeup because we want to look prettier, and we want to look prettier because society tells us this is important. Putting on makeup every day is in fact an option that is bad for us in a way, but we have been socialized into preferring it, and feeling uncomfortable without it. Most men do not experience this unjust world, but all women have experienced this unjust world that influences us into preferring what hurts us, whether it be makeup, weight loss, shaving, fashion, motherhood, etc.