Feminisms and Women's Movements in Contemporary Europe, explores new developments in the theory and practice of European feminists. It assesses the significance of recent trends both in terms of a possible convergence of identities and issues across national boundaries and of the continuing relevance and vitality of feminist thinking and female activism in the 1990s. The book focuses on Europe, East and West, paying particular attention to the former USSR.

This seven-volume collection brings together the known works of Mary Wollstonecraft, the eighteenth-century philosopher, writer and women's rights advocate. Condemned by her contemporaries for her unconventional lifestyle, Wollstonecraft was later recognised as a founding figure of the feminist movement. She was also an acute observer of the political upheavals of the French revolution and advocated educational reform. Wollstonecraft's writings, which include A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, are recognised as cornerstone texts in the development of feminist thought. This book is therefore a vital reference to the student of feminist history, and will also be of value to any reader interested in the origins of feminism.

Geography is a subject which throughout its history has been dominated by men; men have undertaken the heroic explorations which form the mythology of its foundation, men have written most of its texts and, as many feminist geographers have remarked, men's interests have structured what counts as legitimate geographical knowledge. This book offers a sustained examination of the masculinism of contemporary geographical discourses.
Drawing on the work of feminist theories about the intersection of power, knowledge and subjectivity, different aspects of the discipline's masculinism are discussed in a series of essays which bring influential approaches in recent geography together with feminist accounts of the space of the everyday, the notion of a sense of place and views of landscape. In the final chapter, the spatial imagery of a variety of feminists is examined in order to argue that the geographical imagination implicit in feminist discussions of the politics of location is one example of a geography which does not deny difference in the name of a universal masculinity.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of 21st-Century Feminist Theory was a PROSE Award finalist. The Bloomsbury Handbook of 21st-Century Feminist Theory is the most comprehensive available survey of the state of the art of contemporary feminist thought. With chapters written by world-leading scholars from a range of disciplines, the book explores the latest thinking on key topics in current feminist discourse, including: * Feminist subjectivity - from identity, difference, and intersectionality to affect, sex and the body * Feminist texts - writing, reading, genre and critique * Feminism and the world - from power, trauma and value to technology, migration and community Including insights from literary and cultural studies, philosophy, political science and sociology, The Bloomsbury Handbook of 21st-Century Feminist Theory is an essential overview of current feminist thinking and future directions for scholarship, debate and activism.

This book offers a review and a feminist critique of mother-daughter literature. The barriers erected by patriarchal, racist, classist and homophobic knowledge between mothers and daughters are explored. Women's writing is used to explore the existing and potential connection and cooperation between mothers and daughters, emphasising the importance of social context for an understanding of mother-daughter relationships. Motherhood is emphasised as a developmental process.

Introducing the work of three French feminists - Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray and Michele L Doeuff - "Sexual Subversions" provides access to the work of these writers. In doing so this book raises some key issues of relevance to feminist research, addressing debates around the nature of feminist theory; the relationship between feminist thinking theory; the relationship between feminist thinking and male-dominatd areas of knowledge; the strategies appropriate for developing non-patriarchal or woman-centred knowledges.;While Kristeva, Irigaray and Le Doeuff do not present a common political or theoretical position, each usefully highlights the differences of the others. Each addresses the questions of women's autonomy from male definition, seeking out a femininity women can use to question patriarchy norms and reject the pre-ordained positions partriarchy allots to woman.;No book on French feminists would be complete without including the contributions of Kristeva and Irigaray. The inclusion of Le Doeuff's work, which brings a different perspective to bear on the question of sexual difference, provides a counterbalance to literary appropriations of French feminism by Anglo--American readerships. Kristeva, Irigaray and Le Doeuff are the focal points of this study, precisely because each highlights the differences of the others, revealing the frameworks to which the others are committed. Nevertheless, while these writers do not present a common political or theoretical position or form a school, each does address the question of women's autonomy from male definition, affirms the sexual specificity of women, seeks out a feminity women can use to question the patriarchal norms and ideals of feminity and rejects the preordained positions patriarchy allots to woman.;"Elizabeth Grosz teaches philosophy at the University of Sydney and is the author of a forthcoming study of Jacques Lacan. Among the many works to which she has contributed are "Feminist challenges" and "Crossing boundaries" (both Allen & Unwin).".;This book is intended for students and researchers in women's studies , philosophy and feminism.

Highlighting Bethune's global activism and her connections throughout the African diaspora. This book examines the pan-Africanism of Mary McLeod Bethune through her work, which internationalized the scope of Black women's organizations to create solidarity among Africans throughout the diaspora. Broadening the familiar view of Bethune as an advocate for racial and gender equality within the United States, Ashley Preston argues that Bethune consistently sought to unify African descendants around the world with her writings, through travel, and as an advisor. Preston shows how Bethune's early involvement with Black women's organizations created personal connections across Cuba, Haiti, India, and Africa and shaped her global vision. Bethune founded and led the National Council of Negro Women, which strengthened coalitions with women across the diaspora to address issues in their local communities. Bethune served as director of the Division of Negro Affairs for the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, and later as associate consultant for the United Nations alongside W.E.B. DuBois and Walter White, using her influence to address diversity in the military, decolonization, suffrage, and imperialism. Mary McLeod Bethune the Pan-Africanist provides a fuller, more accurate understanding of Bethune's work, illustrating the perspective and activism behind Bethune's much-quoted words: "For I am my mother's daughter, and the drums of Africa still beat in my heart. Publication of this work made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Porcelain on Steel is an insider's tour of one of America's most storied institutions and shares with the reader what it takes to succeed in the high-pressure, high-performance, high-testosterone lab that produces leaders for the Army and for our Nation. In an era where the American public is saturated with women selling sexuality, this book highlights those who, blessed with strong character traits, use them to make a positive contribution to society. Leadership is a matter of character; leadership is matter of how to be, not how to do it. Leadership is something that is instilled in you-and great leaders in turn instill the ability in others. The women in Porcelain on Steel exemplify this-for all ages and wisdom for all time. Their qualities and strength of character would lead to success in any era but most importantly, their stories are especially relevant now, in today's times. This is a book for your daughter, your sister, your best friend, and most of all, yourself. *** The women in Porcelain on Steel are genuine role models. America's youth, whether male or female, as well as parents in search of stories of inspiration, courage, loyalty, public service and leadership that set a positive direction for our young people, should read this book. This is a powerful and inspirational portrait of the women who serve-not just our country, but their families, their communities, and their own commitment to a purposeful and meaningful life. These women, like the author Donna McAleer herself, had the courage and strength to attend West Point-the toughest and most elite military school in the nation-and have the heart and soul to be role models for women everywhere. We can find courage in their courage, faith in their faith, and our own best selves in them. West Point is an indispensible institution that has helped sustain our democracy for more than 200 years. About the Author: Donna McAleer graduated from West Point in 1987 and served as an Army Officer. Actively involved in the West Point community, she serves as Class President and is an Admissions Field Representative. Donna was elected to the boards of directors of the West Point Association of Graduates, the West Point Women's Network, and is an advisor to West-Point.org. She is the co-founder of Bugle Notes, an on-line community for West Point graduates and cadets. (www.buglenotes.com). She earned a master's degree from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia. An outdoor enthusiast with a particular passion for skiing, Donna lives in Park City, Utah with Ted, her husband, Carlyn Ann, their daughter and Col. (ret) Thayer, their dog. Porcelain on Steel is her first book.

Katie Mitchell: Beautiful Illogical Acts offers the first comprehensive study of Britain's most internationally recognised, influential, and controversial theatre director. It examines Mitchell's innovations in fourth-wall realism, opera, and Live Cinema across major British and European institutions, bringing three decades of practice vividly to life. Informed by first-hand rehearsal observations and in-depth conversations with the director and her collaborators, Fowler investigates the intense and immersive qualities of Mitchell's distinctive theatrical realism and challenges mainstream narratives about realism as a defunct or inherently conservative genre. He explores Mitchell's theatre-and its often polarised reception-to question familiar assumptions governing contemporary performance criticism, including common binaries that pit realism against radical experimentation, auteurs against texts, feminists against Naturalism, and Britain against Europe. By examining a career trajectory that intersects with huge cultural change, Fowler places Mitchell at the centre of urgent contemporary debates about cultural transformation and its genuinely inclusive potential. This is an essential book for those interested in Katie Mitchell, British theatre, directing, the transformative power of realism and feminism in contemporary theatre practice, and challenges to hierarchical distributions of power inside the mainstream.

'Powerful and provocative' - Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of the Sunday Times bestselling How to be an Antiracist 'A MUST read for any white women who consider themselves "feminist"' - Scarlett Curtis, author of the Sunday Times bestselling Feminists Don't Wear Pink 'An explosive and revelatory argument for deconstructing and confronting the entrenched notions of white supremacy and superiority that still reign today.' - Mireille Harper 'How is it that we have been so conditioned to privilege the emotional comfort of white people?' White tears possess a potency that is rarely acknowledged or commented upon, but they have long been used as a dangerous and insidious tool against people of colour, weaponised in order to invoke sympathy and divert blame. Taking us from the slave era, when white women fought in court to keep 'ownership' of their slaves, through centuries of colonialism, when women offered a soft face for brutal tactics, to the modern workplace, in which tears serve as a defense to counter accusations of bias and micro-aggressions, White Tears/Brown Scars tells a charged story of white women's active participation in campaigns of oppression. It offers a long-overdue validation of the experiences of women of colour and an urgent call-to-arms in the need for true intersectionality. With rigour and precision, Hamad builds a powerful argument about the legacy of white superiority that we are socialised within, a reality that we must all apprehend in order to fight.

Sex Work in Russia weaves together a wide range of materials to examine the figure of the female sex worker in Russia from the early twentieth century to the present day. This book offers readers both an expansive and nuanced discussion of the significance of this archetypal female who appears with remarkable frequency in literature, film, and other cultural productions. Emily Schuckman Matthews explores the ways in which the fictional sex worker (and her real-life counterpart) has become a symbolic representative of social and moral instability, economic volatility, political, social, and ideological revolutions, and changing concepts of gender, sexuality, and the nation itself. Focus is given to the movement of the female sex worker from marginal foil to a hero in her own right, even finding a voice of her own in recent years. Works featuring this alluring and complex figure reveal critical insights into the changing position of women and other marginalized people in a volatile Russia.

'The classic assertiveness bible' GUARDIAN Do you sometimes struggle to state what you want (or don't want)? Do tricky conversations go wrong? Does it at times seem easier to suffer in silence? This book has the solutions you need. Despite recent advances in gender equality in education, the workplace and the home, in practice many women and girls still find it a challenge to speak up and be heard. Assertiveness - defined by psychologist and assertiveness trainer Anne Dickson as clear, honest and direct communication - is an art, which can be learned. Instead of being governed by the desire to please - the Compassion Trap - assertiveness teaches us to take charge of our own feelings and behaviour, without blaming others. In her pioneering handbook, now fully updated to mark its 40th anniversary, Dickson draws on her long experience of in-person training to give all women the practical skills and tools we need to assert what we feel and want, manage difficult conversations, avoid being sidetracked by culturally learned behaviours, say 'No', and find self-acceptance.

In recent years, feminist theory has increasingly defined itself in opposition to universalism and to discourses of human rights. Rejecting the troubled legacies of Enlightenment thinking, feminists have questioned the very premises upon which the international human rights movement is based. Rather than abandoning human rights discourse, however, this book argues that feminism should reclaim the universal and reconstruct the theory and practice of human rights. Discourse ethics and its post-metaphysical defence of universalism is offered as a key to this process of reconstruction. The implications of discourse ethics and the possibility of reclaiming universalism are explored in the context of the reservations debate in international human rights law and further examined in debates on women's human rights arising in Ireland, India and Pakistan. Each of these states shares a common constitutional heritage and, in each, religious-cultural claims, intertwined with processes of nation-building, have constrained the pursuit of gender equality. Ultimately, this book argues in favour of a dual-track approach to cultural conflicts, combining legal regulation with an ongoing moral-political dialogue on the scope and content of human rights.

What does it mean to be 'bad' at money? Money is not a maths problem. Spending, saving, splitting the bill or asking for a pay rise - these are moments dominated by our own hang-ups, habits, anxiety and ambitions. Money features in our friendships, family life, our choice of late-night treat and who we date. And yet it's so often hidden behind shame and silence. We need to start talking about it.

Funny, frank, and filled with insights, practical advice and conversations with everyone from company CEOs to debt advisors to housemates, Open Up is the book that will transform your relationship to money. It shows how talking can change your life, relationships and bank balance, and influence bigger issues like pay gaps or the living wage. This book strips away the awkwardness to help you gain knowledge, take control of your finances and finally get 'good' with money.

Against Marriage is a radical argument for the abolition of state-recognised marriage. Clare Chambers argues that state-recognised marriage violates both equality and liberty, even when expanded to include same-sex couples. Instead Chambers proposes the marriage-free state: an egalitarian state in which religious or secular marriages are permitted but have no legal status. Part I makes the case against marriage. Chambers investigates the critique of marriage that has developed within feminist and liberal theory. Feminists have long argued that marriage is a violation of equality since it is both sexist and heterosexist. Chambers endorses the feminist view and argues, in contrast to recent egalitarian pro-marriage movements, that same-sex marriage is not enough to make marriage equal. Chambers argues that state-recognised marriage is also problematic for liberalism, particularly political liberalism, since it imposes a controversial, hierarchical conception of the family that excludes many adults and children. Part II sets out the case for the marriage-free state. Chambers critically assesses recent theories that attempt to make marriage egalitarian, either by replacing it with relationship contracts or by replacing it with alternative statuses such as civil union. She then sets out a new model for the legal regulation of personal relationships. In the marriage-free state regulation is based on relationship practices not relationship status, and these practices are regulated separately rather than as a bundle. The marriage-free state thus employs piecemeal, practice-based regulation. Finally, Chambers considers how the marriage-free state should respond to unequal religious marriage. The result is an inspiring egalitarian approach that fits the diversity of real relationships.

This text documents the changing position of women in Malaysia. It is divided in three sections, each of which correspond to a different theme. The first section focuses on the role of the state in agricultural modernization and its impact on rural women and the gender division of labour; the second explores the relationship of technological innovation and changing employment patterns in the industrial and digital economy. The final section attempts to link feminist theory and practice as articulated in the nascent Malaysian women's movement, and discusses the relevance of feminist theories in explaining the experiences of women in the developing world. The book is aimed at departments of women's studies, Asian studies, development studies; politics (courses on class relations, labour studies); sociology (courses on gender and labour); and some general interest.

Challenges the notion of how early modern women may or may not have spoken for (or even with) nature. By focusing on various forms of 'dialogue, ' these essays shift our interest away from speaking and toward listening, to illuminate ways that early modern Englishwomen interacted with their natural surroundings

A fearless writer in the Miami wilderness. Journalist, activist, and adventurer, Jane Wood Reno (1913-1992) was one of the most groundbreaking and colorful American women of the twentieth century. Told by her grandson, George Hurchalla, The Extraordinary Life of Jane Wood Reno is an intimate biography of a free thinker who shattered barriers during the explosive early years of Miami. Easily recognizable today as the mother of former attorney general Janet Reno, Jane Wood Reno's own life is less widely known. Born to a Georgia cracker family, Reno scored as a genius on an IQ test at the age of 11, earned a degree in physics during the Depression, worked as a social worker, explored the Everglades, wrestled alligators, helped pioneer scuba diving in Florida, interviewed Amelia Earhart, downed shots with Tennessee Williams, traveled the world, and raised four children. She built her own house by hand, funding the project with her writing. Hurchalla uses letters he unearthed from the family homestead and delves into Miami newspaper archives to portray Reno's sharp intelligence and determination. Reno wrote countless freelance articles under male names for the Miami Daily News until she became so indispensable that the paper was forced to take her on staff and let her publish under her own name. She exposed Miami's black-market baby racket, revealed the abuse of children at the now infamous Dozier School for Boys, and supported the Miccosukee Indians in their historic land claim. Reno's life offers a view of the Roaring Twenties through the 1960s from the perspective of a swamp-stomping woman who rarely lived by the norms of society. Titan of a journalist, champion of the underdog, and self-directed bohemian, Jane Wood Reno was a mighty personality far ahead of her time.

Contributors to this volume demonstrate how a feminist approach is strategically necessary for the community engagement movement in higher education to achieve its goals and illustrate the transformative potential of merging feminist theory with social action.

In this volume, 15 feminist scholars from five continents, who participated in the 1998 conference co-sponsored by Research Committee 32, Women in Society, of the International Sociological Association (WISISA) and the Centre for Research and Teaching on Women at McGill University, consider, critique and construct theories of society. Their papers examine four inter-related themes: an explicit or implicit acknowledgment and critique of the European Enlightenment as a basis for the modern production of knowledge; the use and utility of "gender" as a concept; problems and solutions in feminist theories of development; and the place of feminism in the production of knowledge and on-the-ground change. Each paper reflects the author's experience as a researcher, theorist or change agent, as well as the discussion and dialogue of the five-day conference.

This book discusses men's friendships in relation to queer, discursive, and intersectional feminist theories. It analyses stories of intimacy, touch, hugs, and conversations, connecting these with current discussions within feminism and critical masculinity studies on "new" men, men's political activism, and how friendships are lived and conceptualised in relation to heteronormative relationship ideals. Drawing on individual and dyadic interviews with middle-class Swedish men, all engaged in or sympathetic to feminist issues in some sense, this volume shows that Swedish gender equality ideologies as well as feminist, therapeutic, neo-liberal, and individualist discourses prevalent in the Western world structured the men's friendships and their engagement with gender politics. Chapters cover friendship temporalities, gendered friendship ideals, friendship as men's politics, and friendship as performed in interaction. Bridging the literatures of feminist research and friendship, the author points to tensions and contradictions in pro-feminist men's political projects and in contemporary masculine positions.

'Powerful, intelligent and vital - one of the year's must-reads' Hannah Nathanson, Features Director, ELLE Featuring contributions from Candice Carty-Williams, Jessica Horn, Ebele Okobi, Funmi Fetto and Freddie Harrel. In the vein of Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist, but wholly its own, Girl is a provocative, heartbreaking and frequently hilarious collection of original essays on what it means to be black, a woman, a mother and a global citizen in today's ever-changing world. Black women have never been more visible or more publicly celebrated. But for every new milestone, every magazine cover, every box office record smashed, the reality of everyday life remains a complex, nuanced, contradiction-laden experience. Award-winning journalist and American in London Kenya Hunt threads razor sharp cultural observation through evocative and relatable stories, both illuminating our current cultural moment and transcending it.

Drawing on extensive research with a diverse group of seventy teen girls, Zaslow offers a critical account of the girl power moment in which feminism and femininity are shrink-wrapped together in one market-friendly package. With a focus on pop music and television, she skillfully explores the negotiative processes of teen girls as they make sense of girl power's new cultural narratives of femininity as well as its failure to offer strategies for real social change. Written in highly accessible language, this book charts new territory as it offers a rich account of the ways in which teen girls understand style, sexuality, motherhood, and feminism in girl power media culture, and how their desires, social experiences, and imaginings of the future are shaped in their relationship with a neoliberal girl power discourse.