Beauty’s Struggles against Gender Discrimination in Patriarchal Society depicted in Jacqueline Wilson’s Cookie.

Beauty’s

Struggles against Gender Discrimination in Patriarchal

Society depicted in Jacqueline Wilson’s

Cookie

A Thesis

Presented as Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Attainment of the Degree of a Sarjana Sastra in English Literature

By

Jehna Mayafani

NIM. 12211144002

ENGLISH LITERATURE STUDY PROGRAM ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LANGUANGES AND ARTS

YOGYAKARTA STATE UNIVERSITY 2016

iii

v

MOTTOS

“Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It is not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it is when you’ve had everything to do, and

you’ve done it.” – Margaret Thatcher

“Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.” – Franz Kafka

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed

on for them to do the same.” – Ronald Reagan

“Children aren’t coloring books. You don’t get to fill them with your favourite color.” – Khaled Hosseini

vi

I dedicate this thesis to:

 those who love and concern with children’s literature

vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Praise to Allah SWT, The Almighty who has given me His blessing, strength and mercy, so I could finish this thesis. In addition, greeting and invocation are presented to the Prophet, Muhammad SAW. I would also like to acknowledge my gratitude for those who encourage and support me, because I cannot finish this thesis based solely on my own efforts. Therefore, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to:

1. Dr. Widyastuti Purbani, M.A.; my first advisor, and Nandy Intan Kurnia, S.S., M.Hum.; my second advisor, for giving their willingness to give their precious time and patience to provide sincere guidance and motivation in helping me during the process of writing this thesis;

2. Andy Bayu Nugroho, M. Hum., my academic supervisor, for his support, advice and suggestion during my years of study in this university;

3. all of the lecturers in the English Language and Literature Study Program whom I owe gratefulness for improving my knowledge, my understanding and my perspective through their teaching;

4. my beloved parents, Bapak Ari Kumara Adi, S.E and Ibu Chasnidar, S.E, for their unconditional love, struggle, prayer, hard work, tear and care for nurturing, educating, supporting and encouraging me;

5. my inspiring grandparents, Akung Prof. Dr. Jumhan Pida and Uti Dra. Titi Wrestiati, for their reminder, guidance and support to finish this thesis;

6. Aquilla Arumi Nareswari, my little sweetheart, who always supports me with her cheerfulness, magical words and timeless love;

ix

LIST OF CONTENTS

TITLE ... i

APPROVAL SHEET ... ii

RATIFICATION SHEET ... iii

PERNYATAAN ... iv

MOTTOS ... v

DEDICATIONS ... vi

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ... vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... ix

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ... xiii

ABSTRACT ... xiv

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ... 1

A. Research Background... 1

B. Research Focus... 11

C. Research Objectives ... 13

D. Research Significances... 14

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ... 15

A. Feminism and Postfeminism ... 15

1. Patriarchy ... 22

2. Gender Discrimination toward Women ... 24

a. Marginalization ... 25

x

3. Women’s Struggles against Gender Discrimination ... 34

4. Feminist Literary Criticism ... 39

B. Children’s Literature ... 42

1. Children in Children’s Literature ... 46

2. Children’s Empowerment ... 49

3. Feminism in Children’s Literature ... 54

C. Previous Research Findings ... 57

D. Theoretical Framework ... 60

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ... 61

A. Research Design ... 61

B. Data and Sources of the Data ... 62

C. Research Instruments ... 63

D. Data Collection Technique ... 63

E. Data Analysis Technique ... 65

F. Data Trustworthiness ... 67

G. Analytical Construct... 68

CHAPTER IV FINDING AND DISCUSSIONS ... 68

A. Kinds of Gender Discrimination Faced by Beauty in the Patriarchal Society ... 69

xi

a. Physical Violence ... 71

b. Psychological Violence ... 74

2. Subordination ... 77

a. Women’s Look are Determined ... 78

b. Women Ways of Dressing Up are Determined ... 79

3. Stereotyping ... 82

a. Women are Stereotyped as Inferior... 82

b. Women are Stereotyped as Submissive ... 86

c. Women are Stereotyped as Timid ... 91

d. Women are Stereotyped as Emotional ... 93

e. Women are Stereotyped as Artsy ... 96

f. Women are Stereotyped as Clumsy ... 98

g. Women are Stereotyped as Domestic ... 100

B. Kinds of Struggles that Beauty does against Patriarchal Society ... 102

1. Gaining Consciousness ... 103

a. Leaving the House... 103

b. Making Decisions ... 105

c. Expressing Her Opinion ... 110

2. Being bond in Sisterhood ... 112

a. Encouraging Her Mother... 113

b. Helping Her Mother ... 117

3. Optimizing the Opportunity to be Educated ... 119

xii

3. Strengthening Her Friendship ... 130

D. Discussions ... 132

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS ... 139

REFERENCES ... 142

APPENDIX I ... 147

APPENDIX II ... 150

SURAT PERNYATAAN TRIANGULASI I ... 187

xiii

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 1 : Women and Men Common Stereotypes……….… 31

Figure 1 : Theoretical Framework ……….. 60

Table 2 : The Example of the Data List ……… 65

xiv

By: Jehna Mayafani

12211144002

ABSTRACT

This research is aimed (1) to identify kinds of gender discrimination faced by Beauty in patriarchal society found in Jacqueline Wilson’s Cookie, (2) to explain the struggles that Beauty does to fight against gender discrimination in patriarchal society, and (3) to find out the impacts of struggles that Beauty does. Therefore, this research applied feminism theory that is combined with children’s literature and children’s empowerment since the novel is a children literature novel.

To analyze the data, this research used qualitative descriptive content analysis. The data of the research were the words, phrases, clauses and sentences related to (1) kinds of gender discrimination faced by Beauty in patriarchal society, (2) the struggles that Beauty does to fight against gender discrimination in patriarchal society, and (3) the impacts of struggles that Beauty does to gain independence which are embedded in Jacqueline Wilson’s Cookie. The primary instrument in this research was the researcher herself whereas the secondary instruments were any devices and media which were used in the data collection technique and data analysis process. To ensure the data trustworthiness, triangulation was applied in this research.

The results of this research show that there are three kinds of gender discrimination faced by Beauty in Patriarchal society: violence, subordination and stereotype. Beauty also does some struggles to survive against gender discrimination in patriarchal society: gaining consciousness, being bond in sisterhood, getting education and working. The third result is three impacts that Beauty gets to gain independence in patriarchal society: boosting her self-esteem, improving her pride and strengthening her friendship.

1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study

Gender discrimination becomes one of the big issues in many histories of human societies. It occurs as the problems for all members of society consisting of men and women because they are treated differently. Most cases of gender discrimination place women as the victims who are suffering from oppression. Women are oppressed by men and society because they see them as an object, rather than a subject that should be respected and treated equally. The discrimination towards women happens because of the culture or the perspective of society that sees women as weak and dependent to men. Society differentiates women and men by giving different rights and roles to them. As a result, women are put in the lower position than men in the society.

Gender discrimination toward women occurs in many aspects of women’s life such as in economic, politic, education, family, social, etc. It presents in the form of slavery, religious intolerance, racism, economic disparity, societal reservation, and many other forms. The practice of gender discrimination has existed since many centuries ago until today. For example, based on the transcription of Richards and Saba in Encyclopaedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line, in England, during industrial revolution, women and children were seen as inferior class in the society. They were forced in long hours of labours without equal payment. This action could be categorized as the form of slavery that

discriminates women and children. It caused family and society breakdown where many children were dying and many female workers were sick. Even though later, there were reformations that reformulated the policy of women and child labour but it only leads them especially women into another form of gender discrimination that was domestication. Women were returned to home to do house works without equal share of responsibility. Women did all of the house works such as cooking, cleaning, and child bearing but men did not play any role at all in the house. The work that women did in the house was also categorized as the form of labour in the household. It means that the condition of women before and after labour’s reformation remains static.

In today’s era, the practice of discrimination toward women can be seen clearly in the work field. Even though in modern society women are allowed to have careers but it does not prevent women to get equal treatment. The examples of discriminations toward women in the work place are in the forms of unequal payment, work load, and also discrimination in recruitment. Moreover, Topping reviews in business-humanrights.org says that according to UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission, 54,000 women lost their job due to pregnancy. The amount is almost twice in number calculated in 2005. Another discrimination toward women is perceived in the form of pay gap. International Labour Organisation (ILO) conducted a study of 83 countries and found women earn 10% until 30% less than men. The examples above are only a small part of gender discrimination toward women that happens in England.

3

Gender discrimination happens not only toward female adults but also female children. Both of them are the most potential objects of gender discrimination since they are seen as weak creatures that are easily oppressed. Therefore, they need to understand their rights as human being that they cannot be discriminated instead they should be treated equally in any aspects of life. They also need to realize that struggle against gender discrimination is important to do if they want to survive from discrimination. For female adult, to understand about gender discrimination is not a big deal. They can search any information related to the issue from any sources such as internet, book, or journal. However, the issues related to gender discrimination and the struggle against it are quite difficult to understand by female children because the issues are unfamiliar and difficult. Therefore, female children need to be introduced to gender discrimination and women’s struggle earlier to make them understand about the harms that can be caused by gender discrimination such as domestic violence, sexual abuse or bullying. The understanding of those issues can prevent both female adults and female children from any discrimination that happened in their life and it will also help them realize the rights that they actually have, that they are worth to be treated equally. The understanding about the rights that female adults and female children have will encourage them to take action if they suffer from discriminations.

Society places female adults and female children in inferior position because they judge them for having inferior traits such as weak, dependent, irrational, vulnerable and incapable of independent thinking. Society that unfairly

judges female adults and female children this way is called as patriarchal society. Patriarchal society exists because of male domination and false judgment toward women. Therefore, it becomes the main cause of gender discrimination toward women. Patriarchal society appears from a system called as patriarchy. Patriarchy is a system dominated by men whether in social, economy or justice. Walby (1990: 20) explains the concept of patriarchy as a system as:

“….patriarchy as a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women… the use of the term social structures is important here, since it clearly implies rejection both of biological determinism, and the notion that every individual man is in dominant position and every women is a subordinate one… patriarchy is composed of six structures: the patriarchal mode of production, patriarchal relation in paid work, patriarchal relations in the state, male violence, patriarchal relation in society, and patriarchal relations in cultural institutions…”

From this definition patriarchy is understood as the system in social structure and practices where men are dominating the society. Men believe that women are physically weak and inferior. The domination of men in the society causes oppression and exploitation toward women in six different area, they are in production, paid work, state, male violence, society and also in cultural institutions such as church or education. It means that patriarchy is very dangerous and harmful for women since it victimizes women from oppression and exploitation.

Patriarchal society believes that men hold the highest authority. Therefore, men have abundant power and control over women. Men in patriarchal society construct women only to be wives and mothers who have no rights to participate in any valuable activities. As a result, patriarchal structure allows men to do unfair

5

treatment in many different forms. For example in family, women are not seen as human beings that have the same rights and opportunities because the husband can do anything they want to women. Weitz (in Johannsdottir, 2009: 3) explains that men make women only to be their husband’s property just like any property because women are supposed to be obedient and show submissions. In the house, women do household labour and should serve man’s need, as the return, they will get maintenance from men. However, men take properties and inheritances that women have. It means women work for men without getting equal treatment.

Gender discrimination that happens in a patriarchal society triggers women to take a real action to fight against it. The way women fight against gender discrimination becomes the cause of the emergence of women’s movement, which tries to erase the issues of gender discrimination. The movement is called as feminist movement. Feminist movement reacts based on the idea of feminism. Feminism has been constructed as an ideological category that “promotes gender equality and emancipation” (Gamble, 2001: 47). Feminist movement arise based on a belief that there should not be any different rights between men and women. Thus, feminist movement appears as the representation of women protests toward gender discrimination.

Women’s movement appears in the nineteenth century and it still continues until today. The struggles of this movement to fight against gender discrimination vary in form. Some women’s activists voice their thought through campaign and literary works. They want to help other women to change their condition. The example is Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who is known as one of the

great feminists, helps women by pleading for women’s equal rights concern in ownership, voting rights and more. In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft published, A Vindication of the Rights of Women in England which shouted for full political, social, and economic rights for women. Those ideas spread over to the United States and gave birth to the early American women’s rights movement. It is continued to spread widely in other Western countries and embarked feminist movement into wider scales (Tong, 2009: 14).

After the long process of struggles, women started to have brighter life. As the twentieth first century continues, women gradually dominated the majority of students at every level of educations. At working sphere, there is higher chance for women to be a CEO or leader in public institutions. Women nowadays are allowed to go out from the house and divorce their husband. However, it does not mean that discrimination towards women is totally extinct. In some cultures and countries, the practice of discrimination still exists until today. Because of this condition, women’s struggle becomes the prominent source to diminish gender discrimination and patriarchal society, as the cause of it. Therefore, women should continue to struggle in order to seek for freedom and equality. Women’s struggles impose that women should not be oppressed and discriminated whereas women should be appreciated and respected by men and other members of the society. Women need to fight because gender discriminations can be diminished only by women. Only women who understand the experience of oppression and discrimination. This statement emphasizes by Morris (1993: 2), she says that men can identify and criticize the form of gender discrimination, but they cannot

7

experience them as women. Therefore, women’s struggle is the only way for women to get equal rights and freedom as human.

The source that can give understanding about the issues of gender discrimination toward women and women’s struggle is from literature. The heavy issue such as gender discrimination and women’s struggle can be easily digested by children because the language used in literature is easier to understand. Female children who often become the object of discrimination like women, also need literature to be able to understand about the issues of gender discrimination and women’s struggle. However, children need special kinds of literature that intentionally made for them, that is children’s literature. Children’s literature is the best source offered to them to understand about gender discrimination and women’s struggles issues. By reading children’s literature such as children novels or picture books, children will be attracted to read the story as well as to gain understanding from it. The author of those literary texts chooses the language carefully, therefore children can easily understand, as well as enjoy and get values from the story even though the stories are gloomy, sad or contain unfamiliar and sensitive issues. According to Lukens (1999: 10), “literature is more than a piece of writing that clarifies; it gives the child pleasure as well as understanding.” Literature, especially children’s literature helps children and adults to understand life’s problems such as divorce, death, gender discrimination and sexual abuse from the story and the value embodied in the works. When children read some children’s literature works they will be able to learn without experiencing the events in the story directly. It means that literature is a bridge to connect children

with the real world and the condition in it to make them realize and be well prepared before they face it in the future.

Children’s literature becomes the best literary genre offers to children to deliver the understanding about gender discrimination and women’s struggles topics. Children’s book will give the vivid portrayal of gender discrimination problems in the real life with the content that is already adjusted with children’s ability to digest the story. Moreover, it can give understanding to children that they need to do something to change their conditions if they face difficulty in their life. The book that depicts gender discrimination issue should contain the image of a strong female character to show and to inspire children that they should struggle to fight against discrimination when they face this problem in their lives. Morris (1993: 7) explains positive images of female experiences and qualities can be used to raise women’s self-esteem and lend authority to their political demands. In other words, a strong female character is needed to be presented in children’s literature in order to make women and children become more confident and brave to take part in social activities. A strong female character rejects false women’s stereotypes in a patriarchal society that see women and children as weak and dependent. It will help female children who experience discrimination to be encouraged to struggle. The character is presented by having strong personal traits that are usually own by men. The image of a strong female character gives enlightenment that female hero is equal to male hero. Children’s book that offers good example of a strong female character is Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling. Hermione Granger, the female main character, is portrayed as a female heroine

9

who helps the hero to fight against the villains. Hermione Granger has strong personal traits such as smart, brave, responsible, reliable, strong and independent that are usually depicted in hero character. She helps and even saves the male hero in the story. Children’s book such as Harry Potter series encourages female children to be strong and brave to struggle and fight against any problems in life such as gender discrimination.

One of the great authors who writes many stories with strong female child as the main character is Jacqueline Wilson. She writes plenty female children’s stories that contain sensitive issues such as divorce, illness, violence, gender discrimination, abandonment and death. She wins several awards for her works in children’s literature. One of her works that tells about the struggles of female adults and female children against gender discrimination is entitled Cookie. This book becomes one of her books which portrays gender discrimination problems in England modern society that is relevant with the condition of the society in this era.

Cookie tells about the struggle of Beauty, a female child, against gender discrimination in patriarchal society. She is an elementary student who lived in an elite neighbourhood with her parents. This family looks fine and happy from the outside with all of the glamour and fancy facilities that they have in the house. However, Beauty and her mother feel the opposite because of the father’s treatment. Beauty’s father is very arrogant and will easily get mad if he sees something did not happened like he wants. He creates rules and forces it towards his daughter and wife. This action makes them always feel afraid and intimidated.

Beauty feels afraid and insecure when her father is having a bad mood because he will mad at her for any small mistake she does. Furthermore, when Beauty is sent to an elite girl school, she is being bullied by all of her friends. She gets bullied because her friends think that she is ugly and fat. They call her with inappropriate nicknames, such as ugly-wugly and brainbox. Therefore, Beauty is discriminated from her social life because no one wants to be her friends.

Beauty suffers from discrimination and oppression in the family and the society. She tries to bear it but then she realizes that her father and her friends would not stop the harm that they do to her. When she begins to realize that she needs to struggle against the discriminations where patriarchy system strongly affects it, she gains her courage and start to fight against the discriminations by doing several forms of struggle. She does certain actions to prevent her father discriminating her and tries to change her friend’s attitudes towards her. Beauty is portrayed from weak to strong female child character who is able to fight to get equality and happiness and to make a new life that free from discrimination by her own ability.

Every woman and female child should be free from any discrimination and inferior judgment because they have the rights to get freedom and fair treatment. Therefore, the researcher believes based on some reasons that conducting a study about gender discrimination is mandatory. First, there are still gender discrimination issues faced by women and female children in every life aspect and social class. Second, female children understanding about gender discrimination issue is more challenging and difficult compared to female adults. Third, gender

11

discrimination is very harmful for both female children and female adults because it can make them suffering in their lives.

Based on those reasons, the researcher considers that study about gender discrimination and women’s struggle in children’s literature is very important to be studied deeper to give more awareness and understanding to the reader that gender discrimination and women’s struggles issues remain important. From this study, adults can be encouraged to introduce about gender discrimination and women’s struggle to female children since their early age. It will make them realize that they have the rights to get equal treatment like men. Thus, Beauty’s struggles to fight against patriarchal society become something interesting to discuss. The revelation of Beauty’s struggles signifies that women especially female children are not weak and they are not dependent to men. They can be independent and become valuable for other people as well as for themselves. Beauty’s struggles also signify that it is possible for female children to change the harmful condition that they face using their own ability and courage.

B. Research Focus

Jacqueline Wilson’s Cookie is a children’s literature novel that tells about Beauty who suffers from gender discrimination and her struggle to fight against it. She faces various kinds of gender discrimination problems in her life and she reacts upon it. First, she suffers from discrimination in patriarchal family and the society where she lives bound by rules and judgments toward women in patriarchy. Second, she responds to patriarchy from her struggle to fight against

discrimination and to gain equal rights and independence. Third, she gets some good impacts for herself from the struggle that she does against gender discrimination.

The text depicts different kinds of gender discriminations suffered by Beauty and the struggles done by her. The text also portrays how hard the situation that should be faced by Beauty. It makes the reader can imagine and understand how hard the struggle that Beauty does to survive in situation that discriminate her existence. Therefore, the researcher uses this text to be analyzed using feminist theory.

One of the feminist and postfeminist theories that are used by the researcher is the theory proposed by Sarah Gamble entitled Feminism and Postfeminism and Pam Morris entitled Literature and Feminism. The theory is used to explain about Beauty’s struggles to fight against patriarchal society that are also in line with feminism ideas. Besides, the researcher believes that the idea of struggle from female children character denotes individual’s empowerment. Because of this reason, the researcher uses children’s empowerment theory proposed by John Lord and Peggy Hutchinson entitled The Process of Empowerment: Implications of Theory and Practice. In order to understand more about children’s literature that also becomes the object of the research, the researcher uses children’s literature theory proposed by some researchers such as Rebecca J Lukens’s A Critical Handbook of Children’s Literature, Peter Hunt’s Criticism, Theory and Children’s Literature, Carrie Hintz and Eric L. Tribunella Reading Children’s Literatureand Perry Nodelman’s The Hidden Adult.

13

Beauty does many efforts to cope with gender discrimination. She represents female child who changes her negative to positive behaviour to fight against gender discrimination. Therefore, this research focuses on the struggles of female child character against gender discrimination in a patriarchal society.

In accordance with the background and research focus in this study, the researcher decides the formulation of the research questions would be:

1. What kinds of gender discrimination are faced by Beauty in patriarchal society in Jacqueline Wilson’s Cookie?

2. How does Beauty’s struggle against gender discrimination in patriarchal society in the novel?

3. What are the impacts of Beauty’s struggles to gain independence in the novel?

C. Research Objectives

The objectives of this research are:

1. to identify kinds of gender discrimination faced by Beauty in patriarchal society in Jacqueline Wilson’s Cookie.

2. to explain Beauty’s struggles against gender discrimination in patriarchal society in the novel.

3. to find out the impact of Beauty’s struggle’s to gain independence in the novel.

D. Research Significances

This research is expected to give contribution to these groups of people: 1. to the society

This study is expected to give more understanding and knowledge about gender issues, especially gender discrimination in children’s literature including the causes, effects and the struggles to fight against it. Therefore, the society becomes aware and understands that women and also female children have ability to fight against this problem.

2. to student of English Literature

Hopefully, this research can improve understanding about feminist study, especially in children’s literature. The researcher also hopes that it can encourage more student to conduct a study about feminist children’s literature.

3. to other researchers

From the discussion and findings in this research, the researcher hopes that this study can be the references for other researchers who conduct an analysis about feminist children’s literature.

15

CHAPTER II

LITRATURE REVIEW

A. Feminism and Postfeminism

Since many years ago, women lived under oppression and discrimination. Their existences were not much respected and accepted compared to men. Society prohibits women to have a chance to get their basic rights; to vote, to get education, to work and to speak in public. Women’s role in the society is only to be mothers and housewives. Therefore, they lose their equal chance to get their basic rights such as getting education, speak in front of public and voice their opinion. This social construction narrows women’s rights because society judges that man is more reliable and powerful. This condition remains static if there was no struggle from women to cope with this problem. When women start to realize that men oppress them, it triggers some women to create a movement that aims to free women from discrimination and gain equality. The movement is called as feminism. Freedman (in Meade and Hanks, 2004: 186) defines feminism as:

“A belief that women and men are inherently of equal worth. Because most societies privilege men as a group, social movements are necessary to achieve equality between women and men, with the understanding that gender always intersects with other hierarchies.”

The above quotation maintains that women have the same rights like men. There should be no limitation for women to access their basic needs and there should be no boundaries in the society that prevent them from doing anything that they want. The other scholar, Hooks (2000: 1) explains the term of feminism as “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression”. This definition means not to

consider men as the enemy for women but it refers directly to the sexist thinking. Sexist thinking is the belief that differentiates women and men based on biological and genetic appearance. Sexist thinking and action not only preserved by men but it can be done by women themselves.

Feminism has developed through times and it has different focus of fields in each era. In the eighteenth century, feminism was the movement to fight for equal education. At this time, women were not allowed to make their own decisions because their knowledge and skills were limited. Nevertheless, education is very important because it gives power to fight against any kinds of discrimination. Tong (2009: 14) says, “truly educated woman will be a major contributor to society’s welfare.” It means to say that if women have chances to pursue higher education they will have significant roles to develop and to create better society. Educated women can nurture and teach their children better and they will be able to implement their ideas to influence other people to develop the society.

Feminism in the nineteenth century focuses in campaigning for equal liberty in economic, politics and education. Feminism in this era believes that women need to be autonomous decision makers, need the same political rights, education and economic opportunities because women have capability in independent thinking and making decision (Tong, 2009: 14). Moreover, Meade and Hanks explain that in 1920s, feminism was a term to describe the struggle of gaining economic, social and sexual rights. In 1960s, feminism extends in multiple aspects of women’s life including politics regardless their skin colour,

17

class, social status and sex. In this era, feminism encourages all women from any background to participate actively in many aspects of life including political activities. It makes women realize that all women from any race, culture, class, religion and sexual orientation should be free from oppression and gain the equal rights (1999: 187). The struggles of women in this era had created improvement that acknowledge women in any condition that they should be treated equally. The struggle of feminism continues to spread all over the world to make sure women are free from any kinds of oppressions whether in a public or a domestic area because every women deserve to be equal.

Even though the belief of feminism changes from time to time, this movement still has the same idea. It is the movement that wants to fight oppression and discrimination in order to gain equal rights for women. Feminism exists to banish all forms of discriminations toward women and to make sure it will never happen again in women’s life. Feminism campaign is not only covered public sphere such as giving women right to vote, to get education, to own property and to pursue carrier but it also covers domestic sphere such as providing fair treatment for women in marriage life and divorce. Thus, basically the struggle of women in feminism is the form of women consciousness to be free from any discrimination that occurs to them both in public and domestic spheres.

Different from feminism, postfeminism appears as women’s protest toward feminism which cannot cover the rights of woman with their diversity. If feminism is identified as struggle to gain gender equality, postfeminism deals with broader aspects of women’s lives. This idea is strongly promoted through media

where women start to claim male privileges and attitudes through their appearance in the magazine, book and television. However, it will be quite hard to describe what is postfeminism since there are a lot of debates among scholars on it. According to Coppock, et all (in Gamble, 2006: 36) there is no single definition to explain the term postfeminism because it is only “the product of assumptions.” It means that there is no single term that is exactly right to describe what postfeminism is because of the difference perceptions among the scholars. It will invite a lot of debates and different interpretations in defining postfeminism depending on the contexts and discussions where and when this term is being used.

Before exploring postfeminism deeper, it is important to discuss about the meaning of prefix ‘post’ first. The prefix ‘post’ in feminism has similar function just like in postmodernism, postcolonialism and poststructuralism. However, this prefix causes a lot of arguments caused by disagreement and multiple meaning in the representation of postfeminism itself. There are some scholars who try to explain the meaning behind the prefix ‘post’. Genz and Brabon (2009: 3) become the first scholars who define it; they explain the meaning of ‘post’ as a time ‘after’ feminism. Therefore, post feminism indicates the era after feminism. The next scholar is Amelia Jones in (Genz and Brabon, 2009: 3) who defines ‘post’ as “the signification of a kind of termination – a temporal designation of whatever it prefaces as ended, done with, obsolete”. It means that postfeminism marks the end of the era of feminism where formerly women have different understanding about the relationship between women and men. Feminism believes that men are the enemy of women who oppress and try to limit the rights of women. On the other

19

hand, postfeminism transforms the old tenets of feminism into broader scope that can reach small aspects of women’s life and tend to be heterosexist in orientation.

Generally speaking about the purpose of postfeminism, it has purpose to develop and respect every aspect of women’s life with their uniqueness. Phoca and Wright (1999: 6) explain that at the beginning, postfeminism movement has two purposes. First, it concerns with equality. Second, it concerns with identity that is “the uniqueness as of the other and not as sameness.” It shows that postfeminism concerns with the diversity of women who have different importance in life. The need of one woman will be different from other women depending on where they live and how the condition that they face. Therefore, postfeminism treats women differently based on their individual distinctiveness and need to respect differences.

Gamble (2006: 36) emphasizes that the agenda of postfeminism is “to crystallize around issues of victimization, autonomy and responsibility.” Postfeminism concerns with the issues of women which is not only about women as the victim of men’s oppression but also about the quality of women to be independent and responsible toward the family and public. Postfeminism wants to show that women have quality to be equal to men without rejecting their femininity. This assumption is supported by Alice (in Brooks, 2003: 3), she says that “postfeminism is offered as an escape from the imposition of being ‘superwoman’ in order to fulfil a feminist image of success.” In postfeminism, women reject the belief that women can do anything that men can do which refers to the term of ‘superwoman’, it is more on how women can perceive their success

through their femininity. This belief embraces a flexible ideology that can be adjusted with individual needs and desires of women. Therefore, the view of women as the victim in postfeminism tends to be very sceptical because postfeminism tend to be heterosexist which positioning men not as the oppressors but as lovers, father, husband and also friends for women.

Since postfeminsim has broader scope, it is not only concerns with anything related to feminism but it covers most aspects of women’s life. Genz and Brabon (2009: 6) signify:

“postfeminism’s frame of reference opens out to include not just – as the term suggests – a conceptual and semantic bond with feminism but also relations with other social, cultural, theoretical and political areas – such as consumer culture, popular media and neo-liberal rhetoric – that might be in conflict with feminism.”

It can be seen from the above theory that the scope of postfeminism covers beyond what feminism covers and often intersects with feminism. Postfeminism covers social, culture, politic and theoretical aspects of women’s life that are closely related to the image of women in the media and industrial era that tends to be more braver in exploring women’s body. It can be said that postfeminism is a dynamic movement that challenge the hegemony and yet appreciating difference.

The difference rights of women in the society become the main concern of postfeminism and its agenda tend to be broader. It is not merely seeks for equality to men but it also see different need of every individual. Brooks (in Gamble, 2006: 41-42) adds that:

“postfeminism replaces dualism with diversity, consensus with variety, and thus ‘establish[es] a dynamic and vigorous area of intellectual debate, shaping the issues and intellectual climate that has characterised the move from modernity to postmodernity in the contemporary world’”

21

It means that postfeminism does not see the different rights between men and women but it respects the diversity of the society because the era, the need and the condition are different from the era of feminism. The perceptions of women about men in the contemporary society are also different. Women see men as a part of their life not as their enemy. Women need men to appreciate, support, admire and respect them as their wife, mother, lover and friends. The role of men in women’s life becomes very significant to not destroy women’s life but to acknowledge women’s femininity.

It can be concluded that postfeminism is “a movement beyond feminism, to a more comfortable zone where women are now free to choose for themselves” (Beck in McRobbie, 2004: 259). If feminism believes women need to get equal rights by neglecting their role as women in domestic spheres because it becomes the form of discrimination, postfeminism has different view about equality. Postfeminism respects women’s individual rights where if women do domestic courses it does not mean they are being oppressed it is because women can choose anything they want based on their own consent. They can cook for their husband or educate their children as a mother because those belong to their individual rights as a woman. It means that in postfeminist women can choose what they want to be without rejecting their femininity. They can do feminine works such as cleaning, cooking, nurturing, and educating without losing their equality because it becomes the part of women’s rights.

1. Patriarchy

Gender discrimination is one of the problems in a patriarchy system. According to Walby (1990: 20), patriarchy is “a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women.” This belief is socially constructed in the society which considers men are more superior to women. Another scholar, Millet (in Carter, 2006: 94) explains patriarchy as “all -pervasive and treats females universally as inferior. In both public and private life the female is subordinate.” Both scholars argue that patriarchy is the form of women subordination that oppress and exploit women in family and social life. In patriarchy, women are subordinated and men hold the highest authority. Men control women in all of life aspects. Another scholar Morris (1993: 4) defines patriarchy as “self-sustaining structures of power, by means of which women’s interests are always ultimately subordinated to male interests.” It means that in patriarchy, men suspend women’s rights to do what they want. Therefore, women in patriarchal society are always subordinated by men power and right. This belief constructs patriarchy as an ideology, which is widely and universally accepted by people who live in patriarchal society.

Patriarchal ideology is the cause of gender discrimination that distinguishes men and women based on their biological traits and it constructs women role. Millet (in Tong, 2009: 52) states that patriarchal ideology “exaggerates biological differences between men and women, making certain that men always have the dominant, or masculine roles, and women always have the subordinate, or feminine ones.” In other words, patriarchal ideology works based

23

on the distinction between physical appearance of men and women and form what so called as masculine and feminine. Masculine roles dominate the society and subordinated feminine roles. Patriarchal ideology is strongly dominant in oppressing women in many institutions such as church, family even states because discrimination is the core in patriarchy.

Patriarchy prohibits women not only to participate in social agenda but also limits the rights of women in the domestic life. Eisenstein (in Beechey, 1978: 67) argues that patriarchy manifests in women’s role as mother, domestic labourer and consumer in the family. In other words, women have no opportunity to devote themselves outside the family. Hence, they cannot develop themselves to gain their rights in public life. In patriarchy, domestic and private sphere are deserved for women who have role as housewives and mothers while political sphere and public sphere are exclusively for men.

Unfortunately, patriarchy takes control over not only women but also children. Lerner (in Sultana, 2011: 3) defines patriarchy in wider definition as “the manifestation and institutionalization of male dominance over women and children in family and society in general.” Based on the above quotation, it is clear that patriarchal society also sees children as inferior because they are less capable and less skilled than adult. Therefore, children will be easily oppress and discriminate because society think that children will accept any oppression and discrimination without having power or willingness to fight against it. Thus, patriarchal society intimidates weak objects; women and children, to be under the controlled of men’s authorities.

2. Gender Discrimination toward Women

Gender discrimination is a term used to describe unfair treatment based on gender. Many people often misunderstand the concept of gender because they often relate it to sex. The term of gender and sex seem related but they are, in fact, not related even not synonymous to each other. Gender is different from sex and vice versa. According to Rubin (in Hintz and Tribunella, 2013: 390):

‘”sex” is used to refer to a system of biological designations such as male, female or intersexed based on genetic and anatomical features; the term “gender” refers to the system of culturally specific characteristics and behavior sets such as masculinity, femininity, manhood, and womanhood.’ In other words, sex is identified as biological traits that both men and women possess since they were born. The traits differentiate women from men on their physical appearance. On the other hand, gender is created based on society’s construction. The society distinguishes the role of men and women called as gender role into femininity and masculinity.

The idea of gender is supported by West and Zimmerman (in Eckert and McConnell-Ginet, 2003: 9) saying that gender is not something people are born with and something people have, but this is something that people do. Their idea suggests that gender role in society is constructed by the activities that women and men do. It is not something that people get since they were born, but on how people do certain actions in social life. The example is when a small girl puts red lipstick on her lips and wears bracelet on her hands because she sees her mother always does that. What the girl does is not because she is born as the creature that should use red lipstick and wear bracelet but she does that because her mind is affected by her habitual surrounding. Furthermore, Eckert and McCConnell-Ginet

25

(2003: 9) emphasize that gender is “embedded so thoroughly in our institutions, our actions, our beliefs and our desires, that it appears to use to be completely natural.” Therefore, wearing red lipstick and bracelet is the form of gendered actions and behavior that women do.

Gender difference between femininity and masculinity become the main cause of gender discrimination. As stated by Morris (1993: 1) that “gender difference is the foundation of a structural inequality between women and men, by which women suffer from systematic social injustice.” The behaviors and characteristics which embedded to men and women create different treatments between men and women. Women are valued as weak creature whereas men are seen as powerful. Men have power and authority to take control over women and this causes gender discrimination towards women. Gender discrimination happened toward women in many different forms. Fakih (2012: 12-13) categorizes gender discrimination into five kinds; marginalization, subordination, stereotype, violence and work load.

a. Marginalization

Marginalization, which is also known as alienation, occurs toward women as the form of gender discrimination. Young (1990: 53) explains marginalization or alienation oppresses people by expelling them from valuable participations in social life. Some people being marginalized from public sphere because they have no power or become the part of inferior class. Marginalized people are prohibited to participate in any social activities such as getting health facilities, getting

education or involving in political agenda. Furthermore, Young (1990: 53) argues that marginalization is the most dangerous form of oppressions because it can make people suffer from material deprivation and even extermination. Young states that marginalization is a kind of oppression that is harmful for women because it means that women are not allowed to own property and money. Men will take all of the inheritance owned by women because men think that they have full authority over women.

Marginalization towards women occurs in almost all aspects of life such as in work field, marriage, social, culture and even state (Fakih, 2008: 15). Marginalization occurs everywhere and many women suffer from it. In work field, women have less opportunity than men to get higher position and promotion. Sen (2001: 2) explains “in employment as well as promotion in work and occupation, women often face greater handicaps than men.” It means that work place become the source of marginalization where women do not have equal payment and promotion to men. Many jobs required men to fill the positions and it does not provide opportunity for women. The jobs that are available for women are less skilled job that does not have proper salary. As a result, women face more obstacles in the work field compare to men because men cannot accept that women can do better than men at work.

In the family, marginalization of women is strengthened by culture, custom, and religious interpretation. It causes women get less inheritance than men (Fakih, 2008: 15). Sen emphasizes Fakih’s idea (2008: 3) stating that, “In many societies, the ownership of property can also be very unequal. Even basic

27

assets such as homes and land may be very asymmetrically shared.” In other words, men will get more inheritance because society think that men able to handle and manage the property better than women. Therefore, it is clear that women do not have equal rights to own assets and property possessed by their family and it makes women suffering not only in economics but also in social life. In short, women discrimination in patriarchal society that occurs in the form of marginalization excludes women to participate in any activities that are useful and valuable for them. It happens in many aspects of life such as work field, public and family.

b. Subordination

Subordination is a term to describe “the inferior position of women” (Sultana, 2010: 7). Women are often seen as weak creatures that are lack of ability and power. It makes the society labelled them as inferior. According to National Organization of Women (NOW) (in Tong, 2009: 2):

“women subordination is rooted in a set of customary and legal constraints that blocks women’s entrance to and success in the so-called public world. To the extent that society holds the false belief that women are, by nature, less intellectually and physically capable than men, it tends to discriminate against women in the academy, the forum, and the marketplace.”

In other words, subordination refers to the domination of patriarchal society that prevents women to take part in public life because the society has wrong assumptions and beliefs that women are weak and lack of skills and education. This wrong assumptions and beliefs cause discrimination toward women in economic, state and education.

Patriarchal system becomes the cause of women’s subordination in all spheres of women’s life. Men hold the authority and power in the family, society and state. Meanwhile, women belong to the second-class group in the society. Sultana (2010: 8) states, “women’s subordination means the social situation in which women are forced to stay under the control of men.” Thus, subordination puts women under control of men. Men control women by creating certain customs and roles that makes women lose their rights and forced them to accept the situation.

Different perception of society toward women that sees women as weak, irrational, and less intelligent than men puts women in unimportant position. Women subordination occurs in many forms, which are different based to the place and time. One example is in Java where in the past people believe that woman did not need to pursue higher education because they will only end up in the kitchen. Moreover, in poor family only boy who got priority to go to school (Fakih, 2015: 16-17).

Another example of women’s subordination in patriarchal society is the preference of boys over girls (Sen, 2001: 1). This kind of discrimination is the manifestation of gender inequality, which occurs in male-dominated societies. In some of East Asian countries, parents are able to perform abortion if they do not want to have girls. Boys are more preferable because society has an assumption that boys are more precious and high valued. Boys will make the family get higher status and respected.

29

Subordination of women also occurs in some public facilities. As stated by Sen (2010: 5) in most part of the world, women “receive less attention and health care than men” whereas girls “acquire less support than boys.” It means that not only women that receive subordination, young girls also suffer from subordination but in different form. Discrimination towards girls happens since they are young. For example, boys get more attention and care from the family compared to girls. Boys will get more previleges and opprtunities in getting access to be involved in social activities, on the other hand, girls are often prohibited to do what they want because their family limit their access to join public activities. It can be concluded, that patrairchy makes women and young girls suffering from different types of subrodination in public and family institutions.

c. Stereotype

Stereotype is labeling or classifying a group which leads into negative and injustice acts (Fakih, 2008: 17). There are many stereotypes that are made by society and labelled to certain group of people. Some of the stereotypes are based on gender which is called as gender stereotype. The stereotypes consist of social norms that demand women and men to behave in different ways. Stereotype constructs women and men behavior to act in the society based on the norm. The common role for women and men has been formed distinctively to differentiate them. (Aksu, 2005: 14).

Gender stereotype is the cause of gender discrimination which sees women having the opposite of men stereotype such as weak and less intelligent. Beauvoir

(in Atwood, 2007: 261) explains “stereotype or patterns of feminine” behavior creates a false authority and entraps women in certain models or image. Women will be judged by the society having such negative traits and they will determine the role that suits with the traits. Unfortunately, the role that women get neglects the rights that they should have. Thus, stereotype limits and weakens women in many life aspects and it makes them suffering.

Women suffer from many unfair treatments because of negative label that society makes for women. Fakih states (2008: 17) when women experience sexual abuse or sexual harassment, society will blame women because of woman’s stereotype in which women are falsely belief to dress up to attract men’s attention. This stereotype towards women is actually wrong, because women dress up is not merely to attract men but it can be to satisfy women themselves. They make themselves looking beautiful to build confident and sense of proud toward themselves for being a woman.

According to Brennon (2004: 160) “gender stereotype is very influential because it affects conceptualization of women and men and establishes social categories for gender.” The categories represent society thought, even when the beliefs are different from the reality. The stereotype can be a powerful force in judgment of self and others since it forced the object to belief in a certain label.

Women stereotype occurs because women are judged by society, family or even by themselves to have certain stereotype. Aksu (2015: 13-14) divides women and men stereotype into some common stereotypes:

31

Table 1: women and men common stereotypes No. Common Gender Stereotypes

Associated with Women

Common Gender Stereotypes Associated with Men

1. submissive aggressive

2. emotional no emotions

3. quiet loud

4. neat messy

5. clean athletic

6. clumsy math and science oriented

7. artsy money maker

d. Violence

Violence is the most visible and obvious form of discrimination that sometimes can be seen physically. Fakih argues violence as an attack or assault toward physical and mental psychology of a person (2008: 18). Violence is the effects of gender discrimination where women suffer psychologically and physically. The United Nations (in FRA, 2014: 9) also defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely result in, physical abuse, sexual abuse or emotional abuse harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty.” Violence threats women in many different forms which make them suffer sexually, physically and psychologically. Violence makes women lose their freedom since it forces women to be under men’s control. As a result, women lose their liberty

and live in unpleasant condition. In other words, violence is harmful and it makes women suffering in many life aspects.

According to Ganley (1995: 18-21), there are four types of violence behaviour that often occur in both domestic and public sphere. The first and the most visible violence is physical violence. It has different form that includes beating, kicking and slapping. The second type of violence is sexual violence that is often occurs in family and society in the form of pressured sex, sexual assault and marital rape and any sexual activity that force without consent. The next type of violence is psychological violence which is the form of violence that hurts and affects the dignity of women. It includes threat, isolation, words ferocity, and any action that result to psychological distress. The last type of violence is economic violence. It includes limiting, preventing and exploiting amount of economic resources of women. Even though women are suffering badly from violence, they are afraid to talk about this issue. They think that it only makes them more suffering, indeed it makes them devastated.

Violence towards women occurs because of different gender perception, the condition where society puts women in lower position than men. Brownmiller (in Walby, 1990: 134) argues, “male violence is the result of the basis of men’s control over women.” Men’s control over women makes men thought that they are allowed to use violence to settle the problems because they thought that they have masculine traits. Masculine traits that they possess make them have limitless power over women. Men perform violence toward women in anywhere and

33

toward anyone despite their age and background. As a result, women are really suffering and it will cause different effects on women.

Most of women who suffer from violence should cope with negative impacts of it such as trauma, feeling vulnerable, anxiety and loss; and the worse effect is suicide. Walby (1990: 128) states that male violence is widely considered to be “individually motivated and have few social consequences” such as trauma. Violence towards women is consciously done by men because men choose and triggered to do that over women to show their power and authority. However, men do not realize that doing violence acts will make women suffer from trauma that will last in women’s life. The effect of the trauma could be worse because it makes women feel desperate and devastated with their condition, at worst it can cause suicide. In other words, violence is very harmful because it hurts and causes many effects over women. Most of the effects of violence make women traumatized and haunted by the experience that they have been trough physically, sexually, psychologically and economically. Therefore, violence in any kinds of forms are dangerous and terminate women’s life.

e. Work Load

Gender discrimination also occurs in the family arrangement. In family, there is no fair arrangement in sharing burden between husband and wife. The inequality of burden in marriage occurs “in terms of sharing burden of housework and childcare” (Sen, 2001: 3). Because women’s role in society is taking care of children and family, women hold more works and responsibilities for the family.

Society thinks that women have traits such as diligent and caring that are not suitable to be a breadwinner, therefore all of the responsibility of domestic courses belongs to women (Fakih, 2008: 22).

In poor families, where women should go to work, women have double burdens. It is because women should combine the job outside the house with all of the domestic courses that are unequally shared for them (Fakih, 2008: 22-23). Moreover, Sen (2003: 3) explains household duty as “a division of labour” in which women combine such work with various inescapable and unequally shared household burdens. The inequality of burden not only happens in family but also in derivative inequalities in employment and recognition in the outside world in which women suffer from “accumulation of burden”. Therefore, many women accept the unequal shared of burden because they take it for granted their role in the society.

3. Women’s Struggles against Gender Discrimination

The word “struggle” becomes a common term in feminism. Struggle against gender discrimination is generally accepted and agreed by feminism (Gamble, 1998: viii). They see their struggle as an effort used to reach the goal in this context is the struggle against gender discrimination. Women struggle against gender discrimination appear in male dominated system that is called as patriarchy.

Women’s struggle in patriarchy system started since eighteenth century when some women writers vocalized their ideas about gender discrimination through literary works. As stated by Cuddon (199: 316), feminism begins in the

35

late of 18th century, which has purpose to fights for women’s rights. At that time, some notable writers are actively campaigning to voice about gender discrimination through their writing. It was Marry Wollstonecraft with her works A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1972 that widely known as the first works which voiced for women’s rights. According to Tong (2004: 14), Wollstonecraft denies that women are, by nature, more “pleasure seeking and pleasure giving than men”. Furthermore, she also emphasizes that men should not consider women as their sexual object, where men can fulfil their sexual desire and women do not think that men is their toy where they can get sexual pleasure from them. If the inferior assumptions toward women still exist, it will make men become more selfish and superior. This work encourages women to be autonomous, brave and independent to fight against any gender discrimination and making decision by their own.

Other figures who voice their thought to motivate women fight against gender discrimination are John Stuart Mill with The Subjection of Women (1859) and Harriet Taylor with Enfranchisement of Women (1851). Both of them were a couple bounded in unconventional relationship. They worked together by producing several writings that mainly talked about marriage and divorce. Their belief inspired by Wollstonecraft by insisting that women not only should get sexual equality but also gaining equality in politics, economy and education (Tong, 2004: 15). Both of them agreed that women and men have the same intellectual capability. Therefore, men and women have the same ability and rights to choose

what they want to do in their lives. They also highlight that men and women have the same opportunity and choice to be happy in their lives.

Furthermore, Tong (2004: 21) states that both John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill believe women need to voice their thought about their rights in order to become men’s equals. The suffrage should reach all of life aspects including politics, economy and education. This idea, triggered some real actions to fight for women’s vote in political agenda. One of the movements happened in 1848, where three hundred of men and women gathered in Seneca Falls, New York, and created a Declaration of Sentiments and twelve resolutions. This declaration contains the need of reformation in some issues that already brought by Mill and Taylor including divorce, marriage, property and children custody laws whereas the twelve resolutions concern on the rights of women to voice their ideas in public.

The focus of women’s struggle in early feminism is on basic equality that women should acquire in their lives. Feminist thought has changed people mind especially women towards gender discrimination, as stated by Hooks (2000: x) feminism can touch and change every women’s lives in every part of the world because feminism is for everybody. Women start to fight against any form of gender discrimination. In education, women struggle to get the same rights like men to pursue higher education. In economy, women demand to be able to work and get the same opportunity to get economic sources. In social life, women attempt to get the same opportunity to do something that they want. In family, women attempt to get fair treatment in marriage, to own property, and to divorce.

37

In politics, women want to have chances to express their opinion in front of people and to have rights to participate in any political agenda. Nowadays, women still struggle in order to get fair treatment in all of life aspects and get acknowledgement that women are as important as men.

In order to understand about women’s struggles against gender discrimination, it is important to scrutinize about the form of struggles that women can do. The first form of women’s struggles has purpose to give women the opportunity to get education. Education becomes a powerful tool to change biased perception about women in patrarichal society. Through education, it can slowly change people’s perception that women are inferior creature. Hooks (2000: 19) states education in feminism is important to understand about sexist perspective toward women in patriarchy society. From this understanding, people especially women will be able to fight agains sexist thought and change the condition which is not fair for women. Education helps women to shape their thought and practice to struggle against gender discrimination. Women become more aware and getting their confidence to fight for the rights that they deserve from the guidance of education. Furthermore, Hooks also argues (2000: 21) that formal education of women's studies helps to spread the idea of feminism. It also provides opprtunity to change women condition through new developed ideas about feminism. Through education especially women’s studies, women will be able to realize about gender discrimination and encourage them to change the unfair situations.

The second form of struggles is bonding in sisterhood. According to Gamble (2001: 298) sisterhood is a women’s movement that “places stress on female solidarity and co-operation.” In other words, this is the term to describe women’s relationship because they have the same concern, problems, experiences and goals. Hooks adds (2000: 3) women who have the same experiences and problems will be able to share their understanding and also support to fight against any oppressions. Even though female bonding are not allowed in patriarchy system, Hooks (2000: 14-15) emphasizes that “sisterhood is still powerful”. She also argues that “Feminist movement created the context for female bonding. We did not bond against men, we bonded to protect our interests as women.” It means that if women together put their effort and power to fight against gender discrimination in sisterhood, it can be a powerful tool to diminish all of the unfair treatments in patriarchal society. Hooks also emphasizes that if all women bond in sisterhood, they will be able to fight against patriarchy system (2000: 39-40). Thus, women can work together to end sexist bias perception, gender discrimination and other forms of oppressions by working together in sisterhood.

The third form of struggles is working. Society’s perception that see women are incapable to work makes them become inferior. In patriarchy, men see women as dependent creature who are financially dependent to men. Therefore, women are seen as incapable and powerless to gain financial resources. Working becomes a way that makes women able to achieve fair treatment because they are seen as independent creature who can gain money and show their capability in

39

doing the works. Hooks (2000: 50) explains that working becomes the way women can gain self esteem and share their thought. Furthermore, they can get better acceptance in the society. Women who work inside the house as housewives suffer to feel isolated, depressed and lonely while women who work outside the house will be able to interact and share their burdens and problems with other people. Thus, working becomes the opportunity for women to show their capability and strength to get their rights as the part of big society.

Those forms of struggles are very important to do by women to speak out about women’s problems in patriarchal society in order to get equality and freedom. Women should take real actions and challenge the oppression and discrimination that trapped them to change not only people perception but also the condition. Therefore, women’s struggles can be categorized as the form of empowerment to get equality and freedom.

4. Feminist Literary Criticism

Feminist literary criticism appears as a respond towards the emergence of feminist movement in 1960s. Cuddon (1999: 315) defines feminist literary criticism as an attempt to examine and to explain women’s lives and experiences in any kind of literature, such as novel, drama and poetry. Cuddon says that feminist literary criticism used to explore and scrutinize lives and experiences of women in society in the form of literature. It facilitates feminist reading practices to explore more about women in different literary forms. Moreover, it can give

more understanding and opportunity for the feminist readers to read poetry, novels or prose and criticize male-based perception on it.

Plain and Seller (2007: 2) explain that feminist literary criticism appears as the result of women’s writing, women’s and men’s writing about “women’s minds, bodies, arts and ideas.” It means that feminist literary criticism analyses women as writers and figures, in literary works. Furthermore, feminist literary criticism can be applied in literary works written by both men and women. This criticism gains its popularity since its first appearance and it invites more people to analyse literary works about women in order to understand more about women’s problems.

Feminist literary criticism becomes the only way to explore about women in the text. Hogeland (in Gamble, 2006: 103) argues that feminist literary criticism as a kind of literacy to read about women’s texts and everyday life from a certain perspective. However, in many male-authored works that can be considered as canonical texts, male authors construct their ideas about women based on their own perceptions. As stated by Gamble (2009: 103) in canonical text, women are usually portrayed “as a part of crude sexual binary.” They are portrayed as virgins or whores. Those men writers use binary opposition and gender stereotype to describe women. Therefore, women are falsely judged with negative traits and stereotype that is believed by large society. Thus, people use the feminist literary criticism to criticize deeply about women’s issues in the patriarchal society. Gamble explains (2009: 103) this criticism used to find out stereotypes of women and as a means to identify the ways of this judgement strengthen women’s

41

oppression. Therefore, feminist literary criticism seeks the wrong believes about women imposed by negative stereotype and false judgement.

Since the popularity of feminist literary criticism has aroused, many female writers are encouraged to write about women’s problems. Virginia Woolf is one of the noticeable feminist writer examples who writes about women’s problems. She writes A Room of One’s Own in 1929 as one of the feminist literary criticisms that tells about women suffering from economic and cultural conflict. In her work, she criticizes that there are not many women who write because they do not have the opportunity to write. The other feminist writer is Simone de Beauvoir who criticized about political argument towards women’s cultural identification entitled Le Deuxieme Sexe in 1949. In this seminal work, she criticizes about the position and role of women in society. She also becomes the first feminist who attempts to examine the way men depict women in fictional works (Cuddon, 1999: 316-317).

The above examples of feminist literary criticism explain about women’s values and position in society who depict the writer’s idea in the form of literary criticism. Feminist literary criticism clarifies male-based perception to be a neutralized perception in literature because literature plays an important role to shape society mind-set. This criticism will be able to clarify about women’s capabilities and nature, which is seen from women’s perspective. Thus, it will help women to be able to change society’s perspective about women and help women to survive from harms caused by gender discrimination.

B. Children’s Literature

Literature is a means used to entertain, convey ideas, and values through language. Literature can be enjoyed not only by adults but also by children. Children can enjoy reading literature that is intentionally made for them called as children’s literature. The development of children’s literature started when it still became one of the most debatable topics among many scholars. Some of the scholars argue about the importance of children’s literature and how to define it because there are no single definitions to explain about children’s literature.

Hunt (1991: 61) tries to define children’s literature. He defines it as “books read by, especially suitable for, or especially satisfying for, members of the group currently defined as children.” From this definition, Hunt wants to explain that children’s literature is book that provide supreme values and pleasure for children. Furthermore, Wooden (in Hintz and Tribunella, 2013: 51) argues “a literary work becomes ‘children’s books’ when a child finds pleasure in it. Children themselves claim their own literature.” From these definitions, a book can be categorized as children’s literature if children can enjoy reading the story through each page without any pressure.

There are various genres in literature and children’s literature becomes one of the genres. Children’s literature according to Nodelman (in Hintz and Tribunella, 2013: 52-53) “… is a specific genre of fiction whose defining characteristics seem to transcend specifics of time and place, cut across other generic categories such as fantasy or realism, and even remain consistent despite variations in the ages of intended audiences.” Therefore, people should understand

183

No. Page Data Category Sub-Category

‘That’s cool. I like being the only Princess. Well, Jordan’s little girl is called Princess too, but I tell everyone she copied me.’ Princess chuckled. ‘And you’re Beauty. That’s an unusual name too. I don’t think I’ve heard of any other Beauty so your name even more unusual than mine. Hey, maybe we can start an unusual name club, you and me? Would you like that?’ ‘Oh yes!’ I said.

10. 296 ‘I know one thing,’ said Mum. ‘I’m not really on my own. I’ve got you, babes. I couldn’t managewithout you. We’re a team, you and me, Beauty.’

Mum and I were a real team when it came to cookie baking.

Impact of struggles

Improving Her Pride

11. 317 ‘Oh wow, Beauty, they look fantastic!’ said Miranda. ‘May I have one?’

‘Of course,’ I said. ‘They’re for everyone. Though Simon has to have lots because he says he’s a growing boy.’ They both laughed as if it was my joke.

‘Now, you’re not just a good cook, you’re also brilliant at drawing, Beauty. Will you draw a bunny for us?’ said Simon, his mouth full of cookies. ‘Mm, these are delicious.’

I started drawing on the pad he gave me – while to my embarrassment Miranda held up lots of my Sam and Lily pictures to the camera.

Impact of struggles

Improving Her Pride

12. 305 ‘Oh, you darling!’ said Mum. ‘You’re the best daughter in the whole world.’

‘And you’re the best mum,’ I said.

Impact of struggles

184

No. Page Data Category Sub-Category

13. 315 ‘Hey hey, stop messing about, you two,’ said Miranda. ‘OK, Beauty, tell us how to make your special bunny cookies. I hear they’ve become ever so popular where you live, in Rabbit Cove. That’s a lovely name!’

‘It’s a lovely place. It’s the seaside and it’s so special,’ I said, suddenly not shy at all. ‘My mum’s great at making all sorts of cookies and I’m her number-one helper. Now we specialize in making these bunny cookies with this special cutter.’

Impact of struggles

Improving Her Pride

14. 320 ‘You were so great, Beauty,’ said Miranda. ‘You’re a little natural,’ said Simon. ‘A total little beauty!’

‘Well done, babes!’ Mum shouted.

But I hardly heard them. I stroked Lily and looked at Sam – and he smiled specially for me.

Impact of struggles

Improving Her Pride

15. 317 ‘Oh wow, Beauty, they look fantastic!’ said Miranda. ‘May I have one?’

‘Of course,’ I said. ‘They’re for everyone. Though Simon has to have lots because he says he’s a growing boy.’ They both laughed as if it was my joke.

‘Now, you’re not just a good cook, you’re also brilliant at drawing, Beauty. Will you draw a bunny for us?’ said Simon, his mouth full of cookies. ‘Mm, these are delicious.’

I started drawing on the pad he gave me – while to my embarrassment Miranda held up lots of my Sam and Lily pictures to the camera.

Impact of struggles

185

No. Page Data Category Sub-Category

16. 318 ‘I love the oil paintings, Beauty,’ she said.

‘My special artist friend Mike showed me how to use oils,’ I said proudly.

‘There, that’s a lovely rabbit,’ said Simon, peering at my page.

Impact of struggles

Improving Her Pride

17. 291 I started off just sharing cookies with my best friend and fellow UNCle, Princess, but soon I started taking a little bag of cookies each day and handing them round to anyone who seemed left out or lonely. Then the whole school got involved in raising money for some poor children in Africa. We were told to bring in cakes and biscuits to sell to each other at lunch time.

Impact of struggles

Strengthening Her Friendship

18. 288 Hey, maybe we can start an unusual name club, you and me? Would you like that?’

‘Oh yes!’ I said.

We got it all sorted out at lunch time. Princess and I were UNCles – founder members of the Unusual Name Club. We discussed letting other children join too. There was an Anastasia in our class, and also a Britney-Lee but we decided these weren’t quite unusual enough. There was a boy called Ezra which definitely qualified as unusual, but we decided we didn’t really want boys in our club.

Impact of struggles

Strengthening Her Friendship

19. 289 Then we shared our packed lunches. Princess had chicken in hers, and a special little pot of rice and peas. I just had cheese sandwiches and an apple – but Mum had made a special batch of cookies on Sunday. She’d found a little rabbit

Impact of struggles

Strengthening Her Friendship

186

No. Page Data Category Sub-Category

cookie cutter in amongst a whole load of kitchen junk at the Sunday car-boot fair at the Rabbit Cove community centre. She’d made her first bunny batch of cookies last night, and given them white icing fur. I had two in my lunch bag so I gave one to Princess.

‘Oh wow, bunny cookies!’ she said. ‘They are so cute! They taste great too. I’m so glad you’re my friend, Beauty.’.

Impact of struggles