A nice quote from a book by Alice Kessler-Harris described the power of ideas or rather “worldviews” to shape history:
This book is not so much about women as it is about the power of gendered worldviews…to construct the circumstances of history by shaping the parameters with which people see. (Kessler-Harris, In Pursuit of Equity).
Obviously, this is not a unique insight these days, but I think it is put in particularly clear terms here. I also like how Kessler-Harris closely links her description of the power of gender to institutions. This is not just some set of ideas floating around and implicitly affecting social existence. IN some ways, the ideas have no significance at all in her work, except for the fact that they are invoked in the process of making decisions about how to shape social policy and “state action.” So she writes:
I look at how the concept of gender shaped definitions and state actions, how it was reciprocally altered by state intervention, and how it was sanctioned by state efforts. I try to show how policies that appear neutral on their face emerge from deeply embedded belief systems that accentuate particular politics, how they play themselves out in ways that inform these polices and the politics that surround them, and how ideas of gender are in turn shaped by the discussions as well as by the polices themselves. (14)
That’s some pretty powerful and nuanced stuff…wonder if she actually pulls it off? We’ll see, but it strikes me this combination of focuses is rare. It’s not just about detected the existence of cultural patterns in history, but showing their complex realtionship to power structures and to the state.
