Gloria Steinem represents second-wave American feminism. This new biography recounts her truly fascinating life, one that was remarkable even prior to her association with the feminist movement. Steinem was destined to succeed and showed extraordinary strength dealing with difficult family circumstances, a peripatetic upbringing, and financial straights that forced her as a teenager to support herself and her divorced, emotionally troubled mother. Brains and talent became her tickets to Smith College, travel, journalism, and worldwide fame as a feminist icon. Marcello's engaging narrative was written with Steinem's cooperation. New details and quotations are presented here for the first time. Students and others unfamiliar with Steinem's youth and pre-Ms. Magazine days will find much to respect in her character and achievements.

For over half a century, the countless organizations and initiatives that comprise the Women's Liberation movement have helped to reshape many aspects of Western societies, from public institutions and cultural production to body politics and subsequent activist movements. This collection represents the first systematic investigation of WLM's cumulative impacts and achievements within the West. Here, specialists on movements in Europe systematically investigate outcomes in different countries in the light of a reflective social movement theory, comparing them both implicitly and explicitly to developments in other parts of the world.

This edited collection examines the relationship between three central terms-capitalism, feminism, and critique-while critically celebrating the work and life of a thinker who has done the most to address this nexus: Nancy Fraser. In honor of her seventieth birthday, and in the spirit of her work in the tradition of critical theory, this collection brings together scholars from different disciplines and theoretical approaches to address this conjunction and evaluate Fraser's lifelong contributions to theorizing it. Scholars from philosophy, political science, sociology, gender studies, race theory and economics come together to think through the vicissitudes of capitalism and feminism while also responding to different elements of Nancy Fraser's work, which weaves together a strong feminist standpoint with a vibrant and complex critique of capitalism. Going beyond conventional disciplinary distinctions and narrow debates, all the contributors to this project share a commitment to critically understanding the connection between capitalism, exploitation, and the viable roads for emancipation. They recover insights provided by classical traditions of political and social thought, but they also open new research directions adapted to the global challenges of our time.

Feminist philosophers have been some of the most vocal critics of reason and rationality. While most feminists realize that rationality is a concept that cannot be entirely abandoned, few have considered how to construct a positive account of rationality. This book represents a sustained argument for a feminist theory of rationality. It opens by asking the question: is reason inherently masculine? Deborah K. Heikes goes on to answer this question negatively and to examine what feminists actually want from a theory of rationality, specifying what a virtue theory of rationality is and how it works. She identifies those features that feminists believe are central to reason, identifying four dichotomies that are central to feminist thinking (mind/body, reason/emotion, identity/difference, objectivity/subjectivity),and argues that they can be captured by conceiving of rationality as a virtue concept. She further demonstrates how a specifically feminist theory of rationality can provide objective grounds for feminists' moral, political and epistemic agendas.

From advertising to television and film, feminist media scholars have examined the changing nature of media representations form the 1990's onwards in comparison to the 1950s in the UK and the US. Many debates focus on the current ambiguity surrounding media representations which are inserted within post-feminist texts that tend to equate female empowerment with choice, individualism and consumerism. This has occurred in a context where there have been some achievements in gender equality worldwide, with women occupying more spaces in the marketplace, business and government. In the last decades, Latin America has been through many changes. Inequality levels have been reduced and political trends have resulted in the election of female politicians throughout the continent, corresponding with a revival of gender politics and feminist movements. At the same time, however, countries like Brazil are still home to gender discrimination and inequality, with high levels of domestic violence towards women, low levels of political representation, a culture of machismo, and the enduring predominance of stereotypical gender representations in the media. Globalization, Gender Politics, and the Media looks at the correlation between gender inequality in society with media representations, situating the case of Brazil and Latin America within the global quest for gender justice. It emphasizes the need to equate material and economic concerns with the examination of the reproduction of values and beliefs on gender through cultural and media outlets. Questions that are asked include, how can the media better contribute to assist in gender development and nation-building? How can online platforms make a difference? What can be done within the mainstream media to advance women's rights? What is understood by the myth of the "Brazilian woman," and how does this connect to other notions of what the "Third World woman" is? Using a triangulation methodology, this book includes a small selection of interviews with experts from international organizations, politicians in Brazil, and bloggers, as well as a sample of media analysis of ads, commercials, posters, campaign material, and feminist blogs to examine the challenges that gender equality faces in this country and the ways in which the media can make a difference.

This collection of eleven new essays contains the latest developments in analytic feminist philosophy on the topic of pornography. While honoring early feminist work on the subject, it aims to go beyond speech act analyses of pornography and to reshape the philosophical discourse that surrounds pornography. A rich feminist literature on pornography has emerged since the 1980s, with Rae Langton's speech act theoretic analysis dominating specifically Anglo-American feminist philosophy on pornography. Despite the predominance of this literature, there remain considerable disagreements and precious little agreement on many key issues: What is pornography? Does pornography (as Langton argues) constitute women's subordination and silencing? Does it objectify women in harmful ways? Is pornography authoritative enough to enact women's subordination? Is speech act theory the best way to approach pornography? Given the deep divergences over these questions, the first goal of this collection is to take stock of extant debates in order to clarify key feminist conceptual and political commitments regarding pornography. This volume further aims to go beyond the prevalent speech-acts approach to pornography, and to highlight novel issues in feminist pornography-debates, including the aesthetics of pornography, trans* identities and racialization in pornography, and putatively feminist pornography.

This book is the first to formulate an ideology of emancipation for women in Morocco. Beginning with constructs of the body, femininity and masculinity, it analyzes the central role played by the sociopolitical writing of sexuality in creating gender hierarchy. The author focuses on Morocco, while drawing parallels with Hollywood cinema, one of the great producers of femininity and masculinity, and conducts an exhaustive examination of constructs of femininity and masculinity in language, social practices, cultural productions and legal texts. The objectives of this project are tripartite: it exposes the dynamics that devalue women's humanity; it charts the schemas of their sexual, economic and sociopolitical exploitation; and it advances concrete solutions for re-establishing women's human dignity.

The conventional lineage of World Literature starts with Goethe and moves through Marx, Said, Moretti, and Damrosch, among others. What if there is another way to trace the lineage, starting with Simone de Beauvoir and moving through Hannah Arendt, Assia Djebar, Octavia Butler, Donna Haraway, Karen Barad, and Gayatri Spivak? What ideas and issues get left out of the current foundations that have institutionalized World Literature, and what can be added, challenged, or changed with this tweaking of the referential terminology? Feminism as World Literature redefines the thematic and theoretical contents of World Literature in feminist terms as well as rethinking feminist terms, analyses, frameworks, and concepts in a World Literature context. Other ideas built into World Literature and its criticism are viewed here by feminist framings, including the environment, technology, immigration, translation, work, race, governance, image, sound, religion, affect, violence, media, future, and history. The authors recognize genres, strategies, and themes of World Literature that demonstrate feminism as integral to the world-making gestures of literary form and production. In other words, this volume looks to readings and modes of reading that expose how the historical worldliness of texts allows for feminist interventions that might not sit clearly or comfortably on the surfaces.

This pioneering book explores the notion of 'radical decadence' as concept, aesthetic and lived experience, and as an analytical framework for the study of contemporary feminist textile art. Gendered discourses of decadence that perpetuate anxieties about women's power, consumption and pleasure are deconstructed through images of drug use, female sexuality and 'excessive' living, in artworks by several contemporary textile artists including Orly Cogan, Tracey Emin, Allyson Mitchell, and Rozanne Hawksley. Perceptions of decadence are invariably bound to the negative connotations of decay and degradation, particularly with regard to the transgression of social norms related to femininity and the female body. Excessive consumption by women has historically been represented as grotesque, and until now, women's pleasure in relation to drug and alcohol use has largely gone unexamined in feminist art history and craft studies. Here, representations of female consumption, from cupcakes to alcohol and cocaine, are opened up for critical discussion. Drawing on feminist and queer theories, Julia Skelly considers portrayals of 'bad girls' in artworks that explore female sexuality - performative pieces designed to subvert and exceed feminine roles. In this provocative book, decadence is understood not as a destructive force but as a liberating aesthetic.

Researching War provides a unique overview of varied feminist contributions to the study of war through case studies from around the world. Written by well-respected scholars, each chapter explicitly showcases the role of feminist methodological, ethical and political commitments in the research process. Designed to be useful for teaching also, the book provides insight into feminist research practices for students and scholars wanting to further their understanding what it means to study war (and other issues) from a feminist perspective. To this end, every author follows a four-part structure in the presentation of their case study: outlining a research puzzle, explaining the chosen approach, describing the findings and, finally, offering a reflection on the feminist commitments that guided the research. This book: Provides a multi-disciplinary perspective on war by drawing on disciplines such as anthropology, history, literature, peace research, postcolonial theory, queer studies, security studies, and women's studies; Showcases a multiplicity of experiences with war and violence, emphasizing everyday experiences of war and violence with accounts from around the world; Challenges stereotypical accounts of women, violence, and war by pointing to contradictions and unexpected continuities as well as unexpected findings made possible by adopting a feminist perspective; Teases out linkages between various forms of political violence (against women, but increasingly also by women); Discusses theoretical and methodological innovation in feminist research on war. This book will be essential reading for advanced students and scholars of Security Studies, Gender and Conflict, Women and War, Feminist International Relations and Research Methods.

This is an exciting and innovative book which provides a thorough introduction to contemporary social theory by examining the way in which the widespread existence of violence against women is explored. A wide range of theories from liberalism to evolutionary psychology are considered culminating in the development of a distinctive feminist realist position. The theories discussed are tested against a large-scale survey, the findings of which challenge many conventional wisdoms as to the patterning of violence in contemporary society.

This book investigates the relation between left-wing populism and feminist politics by analysing three specific aspects. First, whether left-wing populist parties promote gender equality policies, against charges of a general inconsistency between both political projects; Second, how do these parties form their policy-making coalitions in the field of gender equality; Third, how much impact on policy do women's movements have when left-wing populists are in power. The book is focused on the case of Bolivia during the first twelve years of Evo Morales's presidency. The empirical analysis is based on the qualitative content analysis of documents and semi-structured interviews with women's movements' activists, policy-makers and experts in women's movements. The central issue of the book is present throughout the volume, but each empirical chapter can be also read as a semi-autonomous analysis of a specific aspect of the relation between left-wing populism and feminist politics, which increases the interest of the book for different audiences including experts in gender and politics and feminist activists, specialists in Latin American politics, indigenous politics and social movements.

"Critical examination of the role of identity in academic and activist feminism."
--"Women's Review of Books"

"This lively, well-edited collection of papers offers an excellent introduction to many of the issues and interests at stake."
--"The European Legacy"

In recent years, identity has come to be seen as a process rather than a fact or deterministic force. Yet, recognizable identity traits continue to draw people together and provide them with a sense of empowering commonality. Although the plasticity afforded identity has freed up rigid definitions and guidelines for affiliation, some believe that nebulous demarcations of identity may deprive women of a solid position from which to effectively contest centers of power.

Bringing together articles by well-known authors and theorists such as Audre Lourde, June Jordan, Daphne Patai, Barbara Smith, Marilyn Frye, Shane Phelan, Leila J. Rupp, Hazel Carby, and Adrienne Rich with lesser-known writers and scholars, this broad-based anthology ranges widely from personal narratives to empirical research. The book unpacks issues of race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, and age, contributing a mA(c)lange of sharp, lively perspectives to current debate.

In a postmodern era of feminism, how do women come to identify, organize and mobilize themselves within a complex global network of relationships? Identity Politics in the Women's Movement offers critical examination of the inescapable role of identity in academic and activist feminism and the opportunities, challenges and conflicts identity politics pose.

We are women, we are men. We are refugees, single mothers, people with disabilities, and queers. We belong to social categories and they frame our actions, self-understanding, and opportunities. But what are social categories? How are they created and sustained? How does one come to belong to them? Asta approaches these questions through analytic feminist metaphysics. Her theory of social categories centers on an answer to the question: what is it for a feature of an individual to be socially meaningful? In a careful, probing investigation, she reveals how social categories are created and sustained and demonstrates their tendency to oppress through examples from current events. To this end, she offers an account of just what social construction is and how it works in a range of examples that problematize the categories of sex, gender, and race in particular. The main idea is that social categories are conferred upon people. Asta introduces a 'conferralist' framework in order to articulate a theory of social meaning, social construction, and most importantly, of the construction of sex, gender, race, disability, and other social categories.

In Feminist Film Theory and Pretty Woman, Mari Ruti traces the development of feminist film theory from its foundational concepts such as the male gaze, female spectatorship, and the masquerade of femininity to 21st-century analyses of neoliberal capitalism, consumerism, postfeminism, and the revival of "girly" femininity as a cultural ideal. By interpreting Pretty Woman as a movie that defies easy categorization as either feminist or antifeminist, the book counters the all-too-common critical dismissal of romantic comedies as mindless drivel preoccupied with trivial "feminine" concerns such as love and shopping. The book's lucid presentation of the key concerns of feminist film theory, along with its balanced reading of Pretty Woman, shed light on a Hollywood genre often overlooked by film critics: the romantic comedy.

This book examines the fourth wave of feminism within the United Kingdom. Focusing on examples of contemporary activism it considers the importance of understanding affect and temporality in relation to surges of feminist activity. Examining the wave's historical use in the feminist movement, the book redefines the symbol in an attempt to overcome difficulties of generations, identities and divisions. The author contends that feminism must develop its own methods for time keeping, in which past activism and future aspirations touch on the present moment. Through this unique temporality, she continues, feminism can make space for affective ties to create intense moments of activism, in which surges of feeling catalyse and sustain mass action. This thought-provoking book, with its exploration of the relationship between feeling, the personal and political, will appeal to students and academics working in the fields of gender studies, feminism and affect studies.

This volume uncovers the ideas concerning everyday life circulating in the burgeoning feminist periodical culture of Britain in the early twentieth century. Barbara Green explores the ways in which the feminist press used its correspondence columns, women's pages, fashion columns and short fictions to display the quiet hum of everyday life that provided the backdrop to the more dramatic events of feminist activism such as street marches or protests. Positioning itself at the interface of periodical studies and everyday life studies, Feminist Periodicals and Daily Life illuminates the more elusive aspects of the periodical archive through a study of those periodical forms that are particularly well-suited to conveying the mundane. Feminist journalists such as Rebecca West, Teresa Billington-Greig, E. M. Delafield and Emmeline Pethick Lawrence provided new ways of conceptualizing the significance of domestic life and imagining new possibilities for daily routines. /p>

This timely new book explores the formation of the Radical Feminist Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, its prominent leaders and organizations, and the issues it sought to address. Radical Feminists: A Guide to an American Subculture provides a current, comprehensive introduction to the Radical Feminists of the 1960s and 1970s, familiarizing readers with the individuals, organizations, actions, and philosophies that comprised this now-historic movement. Of course, the feminists of the 1960s and 1970s stood on the shoulders of the crusaders who came before. Thus, the book looks at important historical events that paved the way for Radical Feminism, also examining the influence of the Women's Suffrage, Civil Rights, and New Left Movements. Specific social and political issues that concerned the Radical Feminists are explored, including sexuality, sex roles, contraception, and abortion; equal opportunity; feminism in the media; and women in leadership. Finally, the work scrutinizes the fate of the Radical Feminists and their legacy, discussing how their work affected the women's movement overall and how it affects the women-and men-of today. Biographical profiles of prominent individuals and organizations involved in Radical Feminism A primary documents section, highlighting important works from the Radical Feminist era Photographs and illustrations Tables and sidebars Timelines of the Radical Feminist era and its historical precedents A glossary defining terms pertinent to Radical Feminism

Through original interviews and research, Llewellyn uses spirituality to uncover new commonalities between the second and third feminist waves, and sacred and secular experiences. Her lively approach highlights the importance of reading cultures in feminist studies, connecting women's voices across generations, literary practices, and religions.

Critically examines the usefulness of the 'household; concept within the historically and culturally diverse context of Indonesia, exploring in detail the position of women within and beyond domestic arrangements. So far, classical household and kinship studies have not studied how women deal with two major forces which shape and define their world: local kinship traditions, and the universalising ideology of the Indonesian regime, which both provide prescriptions and prohibitions concerning family, marriage, and womanhood. Women are caught between these conflicting notions and practices. How they challenge or accommodate such forces is the main issue in this book.

According to Jane Roland Martin, philosophical thinking in education for some time has focused on a limited range of questions and endorsed a deficient theory of curriculum. Martin has responded by widening the scope of thinking and recognizing the significance of gender and women's experience for education and schooling. Her ideas are innovative and forceful and make a strong case for a reassessment of contemporary mainstream educational thought.

The present book responds to Martin by addressing the issues she raises, with particular reference to issues in gender, curriculum, and schooling in need of urgent attention by theorists and practitioners alike. This is accomplished through analysis and response to three areas of Martin's thought: (1) her critique of conventional thinking in curriciulum in which she challenges traditional assumptions regarding knowledge and the goals of education, (2) her gender critique of educational thought and practice in which she examines the extent to which gender bias is reflected in influential educational theories of the past and present that underlie current practice, and (3) her alternative vision for schooling founded upon the acceptance of women's experience, caring, and a widened concept of cultural wealth and its implication for the school curriculum.

At first sight, tattoos, nudity, and veils do not seem to have much in common except for the fact that all three have become more frequent, more visible, and more dominant in connection with aesthetic presentations of women over the past thirty years. No longer restricted to biker and sailor culture, tattoos have been sanctioned by the mainstream of liberal societies. Nudity has become more visible than ever on European beaches or on the internet. The increased use of the veil by women in Muslim and non-Muslim countries has developed in parallel with the aforementioned phenomena and is just as striking. Through the means of conceptual analysis, Veils, Nudity, and Tattoos: The New Feminine Aesthetics reveals that these three phenomena can be both private and public, humiliating and empowering, and backward and progressive. This unorthodox approach is traced by the three's similar social and psychological patterns, and by doing so, Veils, Nudity, and Tattoos hopes to sketch the image of a woman who is not only sexually emancipated and confident, but also more and more aware of her cultural heritage.

A critical assessment of Structuralism and Post-Structuralism and their significance to Marxism and feminism. Assiter challenges commonly held views regarding Althusser's contribution to Marxism and offers an alternative to radical feminism.;The author's books include "Pornography, Feminism and the Individual" and she has edited "Radical Philosophy" for twenty years.