Quote my Gender -A feminist inquiry into the impediments of demanding rights in the name of women, and the emancipatory potentials of the feminist figuration of the cyborg

摘要

What can be demanded in the name of women, if “women” are a construct and these demands reinforce the myths of stability and essence? I refer to this problem as the paradox of feminism, and in my thesis I exemplify it through the notion of gender quotas. I pose the thesis statement:How are women discursively produced by gender quotas? And what emancipatory potential can the feminist cyborg figuration contribute to in the study of this question?Methodologically I approach this question through an interdisciplinary inquiry. First, I conduct a theoretical contemplation of the paradox of feminism through feminist theoretical perspectives mainly offered by Foucault, Butler, and Haraway within the field of Philosophy and Science. Second, I conduct a discourse analysis of Danish newspaper articles on the topic based on the theory presented in the preceding chapter. I further employ Carol Bacchi’s ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’-approach in order to disclose the knowledges of women shaped in the representation of the problem. This second part is conducted within the field of Communication Studies in the sociocultural tradition.Finally, I discuss the emancipatory potentials of the cyborg in order to present perspectives for new ways of engendering unity on the basis of affinity and situated knowledges.