Untitled research work

The social contract is based on a separation between state of nature and state of culture. One of the binary oppositions connected to this separation is the distinction between the public and the private sphere (Chapter 2). The public sphere is seen as the primary location of men, the private sphere as the primary location of women. Such an opposition is not self- evident or historically static and women’s exclusion from the public sphere has never been complete. Feminist researchers have criticised the use of the public/private distinction (see Siltanen and Stanworth, 1984). I agree that it is not applicable to women and men as a descriptive categorisation, but it is useful as an analytical distinction. Men are still connected to the public and women to the private sphere in gender representations. Women carry the ‘aura’ of the private sphere with them when they enter the public sphere; the labour market is gender-segregated and women’s work in semi-professions (teaching, health care, social work) and in service occupations is a continuation of jobs they do at home. Men bring the ‘aura’ of the public sphere to the private; they do less housework and are less involved in childcare. Public and private are connected, not distinct, and the relationship between them is complex and dynamic. Women have not accepted their confinement within the private; they have sought to challenge limitations imposed on them.