In the past three decades, feminist scholars have produced an extraordinary rich body of theoretical writing in humanities and social science disciplines. This revised and updated second edition of Theorizing Feminism: Parallel Trends in the Humanities and Social Sciences, is a genuinely interdisciplinary anthology of significant contributions to feminist theory.This timely reader is creatively edited, and contains insightful introductory material. It illuminates the historical development of feminist theory as well as the current state of the field. Emphasizing common themes and interests in the humanities and social sciences, the editors have chosen topics that remain relevant to current debates, reflect the interests of a diverse community of thinkers, and have been central to feminist theory in many disciplines.The contributors include leading figures from the fields of psychology, literary criticism, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, art history, law, and economics. This is the ideal text for any advanced course on interdisciplinary feminist theory, one that fills a long-standing gap in feminist pedagogy.

Providing a survey of approaches to theoretical issues raised by the quest for gender justice, this text is for use in interdisciplinary feminist theory courses. With an aim to provide an overview of feminist responses to, including a critique of these questions, its organising questions are: What is sexist oppression? What must be done about it?

". . . innovative and important thinking about the various relations between feminist theory, queer theory, and lesbian theory, as well as the possibility that liberation can be mutual rather than mutually exclusive." —Lambda Book Report When feminism meets queer theory, no introductions seem necessary. The two share common political interests—a concern for women's and gay and lesbian rights—and many of the same academic and intellectual roots. And yet, they can also seem like strangers, needing mediation, translation, clarification. This volume focuses on the encounters of feminist and queer theories, on the ways in which basic terms such as "male" and "female," "man" and "woman," "black," "white," "sex," "gender," and "sexuality" change meaning as they move from one body of theory to another. Along with essays by Judith Butler, Evelynn Hammonds, Biddy Martin, Kim Michasiw, Carole-Anne Tyler, and Elizabeth Weed, there are interviews: Judith Butler engages Rosi Braidotti and Gayle Rubin in separate revealing discussions. And there are critical exchanges: Rosi Braidotti and Trevor Hope exchange comments on his reading of her work; and Teresa de Lauretis responds to Elizabeth Grosz's review of her recent book.

Geetha points out that 'gender is everywhere', and when we allocate to the male and female sexes, specific and distinctive attributes and roles, we are 'doing' gender. She suggests insightfully that gender 'is both part of the world we live in, as well as a way of understanding the world'. Provocative and jargon-free, the book shows how gender identities mesh with those constituted by caste, class, religion and sexual preferences, forming a set of arrangements that have evolved through history. It enables the reader to undertake a fresh and critical analysis of what we consider to be normal and given, to ask questions, to take stock of the self and the world.

At no point in recorded history has there been an absence of intense, and heated, discussion about the subject of how to conduct relations between women and men. This Handbook provides a comprehensive guide to these omnipresent issues and debates, mapping the present and future of thinking about feminist theory. The chapters gathered here present the state of the art in scholarship in the field, covering: Epistemology and marginality Literary, visual and cultural representations Sexuality Macro and microeconomics of gender Conflict and peace. The most important consensus in this volume is that a central organizing tenet of feminism is its willingness to examine the ways in which gender and relations between women and men have been (and are) organized. The authors bring a shared commitment to the critical appraisal of gender relations, as well as a recognition that to think ‘theoretically’ is not to detach concerns from lived experience but to extend the possibilities of understanding. With this focus on theory and theorizing about the world in which we live, this Handbook asks us, across all disciplines and situations, to abandon our taken-for-granted assumptions about the world and interrogate both the origin and the implications of our ideas about gender relations and feminism. It is an essential reference work for advanced students and academics not only of feminist theory, but of gender and sexuality across the humanities and social sciences.

A strong collection of essays in a field hungry for texts Provides theoretical basis for a developing subject International - authors from US, Ghana, Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria Deals with important current issues - AIDS in Africa and the US; reproductive rights; the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas controversy Four colour cover

"Everything you might want to know about the history and practice of feminist criticism in North America". -Feminist Bookstore News

The State will not protect us from gender violence. Our feminism must be anti-racist and decolonial, and must fight for everyone's safety

In Fundamental Feminism, Judith Grant explores the evolution of feminist theory as well as the state of today's feminist thought. Pointing to the main problems within feminism, Grant calls for a substantial revision of the core concepts responsible for shaping today's feminist theory. Grant identifies and critiques three core concepts in feminist theory--"woman," "experience," and "personal politics"--from their origins in pamphlets and writings in the early women's liberation movement to their current construction in feminist thought. She connects a number of key debates in feminism today to the longstanding influence of these core assumptions. These debates include the hegemony of the white female perspective, the tension between anti-pornography and pro-sex feminists, and the challenges presented by postmodernism. Fundamental Feminism is provocative reading for anyone interested in the future of feminist theory and the power of feminist politics.

The book argues that the category of mother is distinct from the category of woman, and that many of the problems mothers face—social, economic, political, cultural, psychological, and so forth—are specific to women’s role and identity as mothers. Indeed, mothers are oppressed under patriarchy as women and as mothers. Consequently, mothers need a feminism of their own, one that positions mothers’ concerns as the starting point for a theory and politic of empowerment. O’Reilly terms this new mode of feminism matricentic feminism and the book explores how it is represented and experienced in theory, activism, and practice. The chapter on maternal theory examines the central theoretical concepts of maternal scholarship while the chapter on activism considers the twenty-first century motherhood movement. Feminist mothering is likewise examined as the specific practice of matricentric feminism and this chapter discusses various theories and strategies on and for maternal empowerment. Matricentric feminism is also examined in relation to the larger field of academic feminism; here O’Reilly persuasively shows how matricentric feminism has been marginalized in academic feminism and considers the reasons for such exclusion and how such may be challenged and changed.