By all accounts, feminist theology is at a crossroads. Even as the longstanding consensus wanes that women's experience is the source and norm of feminist theology, the specific and often contradictory experience of different groups is now highlighted, and new theoretical frameworks are being proposed.

This landmark volume explores central issues of female subjectivity and feminist identity, gender and embodiment, tradition and norms, and their impact on theology. Leading thinkers in this new generation of feminist theologians rethink the central claims of feminist theology and offer proposals for the future.

Newman reinterprets an important moment in the history of the American women's movement. She traces the intellectual roots of the women's movement back to its beginnings, and reveals how it took on racial overtones. The study reveals that the white, middle-class women who were explicitly and implicitly influenced by the American offshoots of Darwin laid the intellectual groundwork for the social movements that followed.

Alerting readers to a body of recent work that has gone under-examined, Tania Modleski redraws in Old Wives' Tales the perimeter of popular culture. A critical analysis of films such as "The Ballad of Little Jo, The Piano" and "Dogfight, Old Wives' Tales" also takes up performance, autobiographical experience, and contemporary social issues to illustrate how women's genres mediate between us and reality. Modelski examines the changes occurring in traditional women's genres, such as romances and melodrama, and explores the phenomenon of female authors and performers who "cross-dress"--women, that is, who are moving into male genres and staking out territory declared off-limits by men and by many feminists.

Are women fighting over the same issues and for the same rights all around the world? What are the gains that have been made for women in different cultures over the past 200 years? Students will find answers to these and similar questions in this unique resource of fifteen case studies exploring the problems surrounding the fight for women's rights in different countries, ranging from Argentina to Zimbabwe. The history, the public perceptions, contemporary problems, the future of women's rights, and the roles of activists concerning these rights are examined. The detailed explorations provide readers with the opportunity to discover the different cultural attitudes toward women.

In order to facilitate comparisons, each chapter follows a similar outcome. The countries were chosen to represent every region of the world and to provide as broad a picture as possible of the issues presented by women's struggles for equality. Each case study asks how national, cultural, class, racial, and religious differences have influenced women's rights. These different views of ways in which women have sought their rights around the world will help students to understand the fight for women's rights in a broad sense as a social issue that affects all of humanity.

While its primary focus is the United States, Feminism also examines how multiculturalism and global thinking have infused today's feminists with a sense of widened responsibility for girls and women worldwide. Readers will find a cultural overview of society's changing perception of women and a thoughtful analysis of the directions feminism is taking today. Other sections include a chronology of significant events, a collection of biographical sketches, and annotated listings of organizations and print and nonprint resources, including Internet coverage. Rounded out by a comprehensive index, this volume is excellent for anyone seeking a one-stop reference work on feminism. Includes a chronology of significant events, a collection of biographical sketches, and a comprehensive index Provides annotated listings of organizations and print and nonprint resources, including Internet coverage

Historically, white women have had a tremendous influence on establishing the ideological, political, and cultural scaffold of American public schools. Pedagogical orientations, school policies, and classroom practices are underwritten by white, cisgender, feminine, and middle to upper class social and cultural norms. Labor trends suggest that students of color are likely to sit in front of many more white women teachers than males or non?white teachers, thus making it imperative to better understand the nature of white women's work in culturally diverse settings and the factors that most profoundly impact their effectiveness. This book examines how white women teacher dispositions (i.e. knowledge, beliefs, and skills) intersect (and/or interact) with their racial identity development, the concept of whiteness, institutional racism, and cultural perspectives of racial difference. All of which, as the authors in this volume argue, matter for nurturing a teaching practice that leads to more equitable schooling outcomes for youth of color. While it is imperative that the field of education recruits and retains more nonwhite teachers, it is equally important to identify research?supported professional development resources for a white woman?dominated profession. To that end, the book's contributors present critical insight for creating cultural contexts for learning conducive to effective cross?cultural and cross?racial teaching. Chapters in the first section explore white women's role in establishing and maintaining school environments that cater to Eurocentric sensibilities and white racial preferences for learning and social interaction. Authors in the second section discern the implications of white images, whiteness, and white racial identity formation for preparing and professionally developing white women teachers to be effective educators. Chapters in the third section of the book emphasize the centrality of race in negotiating academic interactions that demonstrate culturally responsive teaching. Each chapter in this book is written to investigate the intersectionality of race, cultural responsive pedagogies, and teaching identities as it relate to teaching in multiethnic environments. In addition, the book offers solution?oriented practices to equip white women (and any other reader) to respond appropriately and adequately to the needs of racially diverse students in American schools.

Helen Tookey examines the work of Anaïs Nin (1903-77) - and the different versions of Nin herself, as woman, writer, and iconic figure - through the lens of cultural and historical contexts. She focuses particularly on questions of identity and femininity, exploring how the self, for Nin, is constructed through narratives and performances of various kinds, and shedding light on key issues and conflicts within feminist thinking since the 1970s, particularly questions of identity, femininity, and psychoanalysis.

"Ilene Rose Feinman shows us how feminist theorizing grows out of feminist activist engagementaand then is tested through direct action and refined. The questions she raises hereaabout the meanings and practices of citizenship and the impacts of soldiering on democratic lifeaare urgent as we move into a new century."
--"Cynthia Enloe, author of Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives"

"It is pure polemic. Those already converted will be inspired."
-- Gerard J. DeGroot, "The Journal of American History"

"Disputes about who should or should not be permitted to serve in the military have almost always centered on the perceived impact of a given group on military effectiveness. Feinman takes a fresh approach to the subject of women and the military by placing citizenship, rather than war, at the center of her analysis. In a volume that addresses a complicated set of issues with great clarity and respect, Citizenship Rites asks what the relationship is between citizenship and soldiering, and between soldiering and feminism. It makes a unique and valuable contribution to a discussion that has been largely absent from the broader rhetoric over issues of gender, peace, and war."
--"Melissa S. Herbert, author of Camouflage Isn't Only for Combat: Gender, Sexuality, and Women in the Military"

In the United States, the question of women in the armed services has been continuously and hotly debated. Among feminists, two fundamentally differing views of women in the military have developed. Feminist antimilitarists tell us that militarism and patriarchy have together pressed women into second class citizenship. Meanwhile, feminist soldiers and theiradvocates regard martial service as women's right and responsibility and the ticket to first class citizenship.

Citizenship Rites investigates what is at stake for women in these debates. Exploring the perspectives of both feminist antimilitarists and feminist soldiers, Ilene Feinman situates the current combat controversy within the context of the sea change in United States politics since the 1970s-from ERA debates over drafting women to recent representations of military women such as the film "GI Jane," Drawing on congressional testimony, court cases, feminist and antiracist political discourse, and antimilitarist activism, Feinman addresses our pressing need for an analysis of women's increasing inclusion in the armed forces while providing a provocative investigation of what this changing role means for women and society alike.

Feminist philosophy identifies tensions within mainstream theories of knowledge. To create a more egalitarian epistemology, solutions to these problems have been as diverse as the traditions of philosophy out of which feminists continue to emerge. This book considers two equally formidable approaches theorized by Louise Antony and Lynn Hankinson Nelson. The American philosopher W.V.O. Quine locates knowledge as a branch of empirical science. Shuford shows how both Antony and Nelson use Quine's 'naturalized epistemology' to create empirically robust feminist epistemologies. However, Shuford argues that neither can include physical embodiment as an important epistemic variable. The book argues that John Dewey's theory of inquiry extends beyond Quine's insight that knowledge must be interrogated as an empirical matter. Because Dewey insists that all aspects of experience must be subject to the experimental openness that is the hallmark of scientific reasoning, Shuford concludes that physical embodiment must play an important part in knowledge claims.

The concepts of purity and pollution are fundamental to the worldview reflected in the Hebrew Bible yet the ways that biblical texts apply these concepts to sexual relationships remain largely overlooked.
Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible argues that the concept of pollution is rooted in disgust and that pollution language applied to sexual relations expresses a sense of bodily contamination resulting from revulsion.
Most texts in the Hebrew Bible that use pollution language in sexual contexts reflect a conception of women as sexual property susceptible to being "ruined" for particular men through contamination by others. In contrast, the Holiness legislation of the Pentateuch applies pollution language to men who engage in transgressive sexual relations, conveying the idea that male bodily purity is a prerequisite for individual and communal holiness.Sexual transgressions contaminate the male body and ultimately result in exile when the land vomits out its inhabitants.
The Holiness legislation's conception of sexual pollution, which is found in Leviticus 18, had a profound impact on later texts. In the book of Ezekiel, it contributes to a broader conception of pollution resulting from Israel's sins, which led to the Babylonian exile. In the book of Ezra, it figures in a view of the Israelite community as a body of males contaminated by foreign women. Yet the idea of female pollution rooted in a view of women as sexual property persisted alongside the idea of male pollution as an impediment to holiness.
Eva Feinstein illuminates why the idea of pollution adheres to particular domains of experience, including sex, death, and certain types of infirmity. Sexual Pollution in the Hebrew Bible allows for a more thorough understanding of sexual pollution, its particular characteristics, and the role that it plays in biblical literature.

Feminist legal theory is one of the most dynamic fields in the law, and it affects issues ranging from child custody to sexual harassment. Since its initial publication in 2006, Feminist Legal Theory: A Primer has received rave reviews. Now, in the completely updated second edition of this outstanding primer, Nancy Levit and Robert R.M. Verchick introduce the diverse strands of feminist legal theory and discuss an array of substantive legal topics, pulling in recent court decisions, new laws, and important shifts in culture and technology. The book centers on feminist legal theories, including equal treatment theory, cultural feminism, dominance theory, critical race feminism, lesbian feminism, postmodern feminism, and ecofeminism. Readers will find new material on women in politics, gender and globalization, and the promise and danger of expanding social media. Updated statistics and empirical analysis appear throughout. The authors, prominent experts in the field, also address feminist legal methods, such as consciousness-raising and storytelling. The primer offers an accessible and pragmatic approach to feminist legal theory. It demonstrates the ways feminist legal theory operates in real-life contexts, including domestic violence, reproductive rights, workplace discrimination, education, sports, pornography, and global issues of gender. The authors highlight a sweeping range of cutting-edge topics at the intersection of law and gender, such as single-sex schools, abortion, same-sex marriage, rape on college campuses, and international trafficking in women and girls. At its core, Feminist Legal Theory shows the importance of the roles of law and feminist legal theory in shaping contemporary gender issues.

It is virtually impossible to generalize about the degree to which women in early America were free. What, if anything, did enslaved black women in the South have in common with powerful female leaders in Iroquois society? Were female tavern keepers in the backcountry of North Carolina any more free than nuns and sisters in New France religious orders? Were the restrictions placed on widows and abandoned wives at all comparable to those experienced by autonomous women or spinsters? Bringing to light the enormous diversity of women's experience, Women and Freedom in Early America centers variously on European-American, African-American, and Native American women from 1400 to 1800. Spanning almost half a millenium, the book ranges the colonial terrain, from New France and the Iroquois Nations down through the mainland British-American colonies. By drawing on a wide array of sources, including church and court records, correspondence, journals, poetry, and newspapers, these essays examine Puritan political writings, white perceptions of Indian women, Quaker spinsterhood, and African and Iroquois mythology, among many other topics. Larry Eldridge is Assistant Professor of History at the College of Arts and Sciences at Widener University and author of the acclaimed A Distant Heritage: The Growth of Free Speech in Early America, also from NYU Press.

The three waves of feminism are explored through the lives of the women who made history in bringing women's issues to the forefront of American society. Many early feminists supported not only women's rights, but also rights of slaves and contributed to the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment, granting emancipation to slaves. They continued to work towards women's suffrage and were hopeful the Fourteenth Amendment would provide universal suffrage. However, women were not granted suffrage until the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment, nearly fifty years later. It was women's fundamental need for independence and an identity of their own, separate from that of men, which thrust the women's movement forward and continues to propel it today. Many notable women, such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Billie Jean King, Betty Friedan, Helen Gurley Brown, Jane Fonda, and Sandra Day O'Connor, are included in this history of the women's movement in America. The biographical entries cite works for further reading, and the volume closes with a bibliography. The Shapers of the Great Debate series takes a biographical approach to history, following the premise that people make history in the circumstances in which they find themselves. Each volume in this series examines the lives and experiences of the individuals involved in a particular debate through both major and minor biographies.

From the debris of her troubled early life, Lidia Yuknavitch weaves an astonishing tale of survival. It is a life that navigates, and transcends, abuse, addiction, self-destruction and the crushing loss of a stillborn child. A kind of memoir that is also a paean to the pursuit of beauty, self-expression, desire - for men and women - and the exhilaration of swimming, The Chronology of Water lays a life bare.

The American idealist movement started in St. Louis, Missouri in 1858, becoming more influential as women joined and influenced its development. Susan Elizabeth Blow was well known as an educator and pedagogical theorist who founded the first public kindergarten program in America (1873-1884). Anna C. Brackett was a feminist and pedagogical theorist and the first female principal of a secondary school (St. Louis Normal School, 1863-72). Grace C. Bibb was a feminist literary critic and the first female dean at the University of Missouri, Columbia (1878-84). American idealism took on a new form in the 1880s with the founding of the Concord School of Philosophy in Massachusetts. Ellen M. Mitchell participated in the movement in both St. Louis and Concord. She was one of the first women to teach philosophy at a co-educational college (University of Denver, 1890-92). Lucia Ames Mead, Marietta Kies, and Eliza Sunderland joined the movement in Concord. Lucia Ames Mead became a chief pacifist theorist in the early twentieth century. Kies and Sunderland were among the first women to earn the Ph.D. in philosophy (University of Michigan, 1891, 1892). Kies wrote on political altruism and shared with Mitchell the distinction of teaching at a coeducational institution (Butler College, 1896-99). These were the first American women as a group to plunge into philosophy proper, bridging those years between the amateur, paraprofessional and professional academic philosopher. Dorothy Rogers's new book at last gives them the attention they deserve.

When Verschuur-Basse, a French sociologist specializing in the family, was invited by the Academy of Social Sciences to Beijing in 1985, she interviewed women from three generations and a variety of professions about their lives as women, wives, mothers, and daughters-in-law. Over a five-year period she conducted in-depth, non-directed interviews with educated women who were able to analyze and interpret their lives in the context of important formative factors such as the Cultural Revolution, the one-child policy, and other social reforms. The difference between urban and rural expectations from women is particularly apparent in the life stories of the 13 women included in this book. The women voice common concerns as wives and mothers who work outside the home and comment on the prevalence of abortion and preference for male children, the increase in divorce rates, and the place of women as decision-makers in the family. Originally published in French as "Paroles de Femmes Chinoises: La Famille Autrement" (Harmattan, 1993), the study received critical acclaim from academy and media as a revealing portrayal of social reality in China.

Phyllis Moen describes the meshing of work and family roles not only as the private dilemma of individual women and their families but also as a public dilemma for the nation. This is an issue linked to deep apprehensions about families' and children's well-being, to demands for gender equality, to the outcry of some for a return to the traditional wife-as-homemaker role, and to growing concerns about labor market needs, productivity, and economic competitiveness.

Moen addresses the following central question: What are the major implications--for society, families, husbands, children, and women themselves--of the substantial and progressive movement of American women into the labor force? The dominant focus is on employed mothers of young children (those under the age of six) since it is these women who have experienced the greatest change and who encounter the greatest difficulty in reconciling employment demands and family responsibilities. An overriding theme is the unevenness of social change: American mothers of young children may be moving into the labor force in unprecendented numbers, but husbands, employers, and public policies are slow to accommodate this emerging reality. The issues raised are of concern to a broad spectrum of the educated public, but the book should be no less valuable to social scientists seeking to extend their knowledge of issues in this area of growing concern and can be used in courses relating to the sociology of the family, social problems, gender roles, and social policy.

An updated edition of this influential feminist text.

One of the major tools of attaining proper development all around the world is complete financial inclusion, such that all classes of people can secure their lifestyles through access to financial services from formal sectors. Expanding access to resources and increasing self-employment opportunities help reduce poverty and improve social development. The Handbook of Research on Microfinancial Impacts on Women Empowerment, Poverty, and Inequality is an essential reference source that discusses the role of financial inclusion in gender equality, as well as economic independence and self-employment. Featuring research on topics such as inequality, collaborative economy, and social responsibility, this publication is ideally designed for policy makers, economic researchers, and academicians seeking coverage on social mobilization, capital formation, capacity building, and pro-poor economy designs.

The Danish director Lars von Trier is undoubtedly one of the world's most important and controversial filmmakers, and arguably so because of the depiction of women in his films. He has been criticized for subjecting his female characters to unacceptable levels of violence or reducing them to masochistic self-abnegation, as with Bess in Breaking the Waves, 'She' in Antichrist and Joe in Nymphomaniac. At other times, it is the women in his films who are dominant or break out in violence, as in his adaptation of Euripides' Medea, the conclusion of Dogville and perhaps throughout Nymphomaniac. Lars von Trier's Women confronts these dichotomies head on. Editors Rex Butler and David Denny do not take a position either for or against von Trier, but rather consider how both attitudes fall short of the real difficulty of his films, which may simply not conform to any kind of feminist or indeed anti-feminist politics as they are currently configured. Using Lacanian psychoanalysis and acknowledging the work of prior scholars on the films, Lars von Trier's Women reveals hidden resources for a renewed 'feminist' politics and social practice.