Reclaiming Susan Okin for Feminist Democratic Theory : Revealing the Limitations of a Liberal Approach to Multiculturalism

In this paper I reclaim Susan Okin's provocative essay, 'Multiculturalism Bad for Women' (1999) for feminist democratic theory. The motivating question for feminist democratic theory in this case is what place women residing in minority cultural communities should have in the democratic process. I return to this groundbreaking piece in an attempt to excavate what I see to be Okin's central thesis from a conspicuous and troubling 'other' language whereby minority cultures are seen as fundamentally barbaric, backwards, and patriarchal. In contradistinction to many of her critics, I take her central thesis not to be synonymous with this othering project, but rather to be that we must treat 'culture' as a fundamentally political opposed to private matter and that we must privilege the voices of women within minority cultures. In this way, Okin renewed a participatory democratic spirit that privileges more active participation on the part of marginalized members and avoids treating liberal principles as trumps over the voices of the most vulnerable. Such a conclusion, I will argue, forces us to reconsider whether liberalism offers a useful framework for addressing questions of multiculturalism