Erika Bachiochi offers an original look at the development of feminism in the United States, advancing a vision of rights that rests upon our responsibilities to others. In The Rights of Women, Erika Bachiochi explores the development of feminist thought in the United States. Inspired by the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, Bachiochi presents the intellectual history of a lost vision of women's rights, seamlessly weaving philosophical insight, biographical portraits, and constitutional law to showcase the once predominant view that our rights properly rest upon our concrete responsibilities to God, self, family, and community. Bachiochi proposes a philosophical and legal framework for rights that builds on the communitarian tradition of feminist thought as seen in the work of Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Jean Bethke Elshtain. Drawing on the insight of prominent figures such as Sarah Grimke, Frances Willard, Florence Kelley, Betty Friedan, Pauli Murray, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Mary Ann Glendon, this book is unique in its treatment of the moral roots of women's rights in America and its critique of the movement's current trajectory. The Rights of Women provides a synthesis of ancient wisdom and modern political insight that locates the family's vital work at the very center of personal and political self-government. Bachiochi demonstrates that when rights are properly understood as a civil and political apparatus born of the natural duties we owe to one another, they make more visible our personal responsibilities and more viable our common life together. This smart and sophisticated application of Wollstonecraft's thought will serve as a guide for how we might better value the culturally essential work of the home and thereby promote authentic personal and political freedom. The Rights of Women will interest students and scholars of political theory, gender and women's studies, constitutional law, and all readers interested in women's rights.

We are now more than thirty years away from the Supreme Court case of Roe v Wade, yet the controversy over abortion has not diminished. Although the 'pro-choice' forces increasingly acknowledge the central claim of the 'pro-life' side -- that abortion is a morally portentous act -- they continue to insist that the well-being of women is absolutely dependent on the legal right to abortion. The twelve essays in The Costs of 'Choice', all written by women active in the public square, dispute this claim. These authors argue that over the last three decades, legal abortion has had harmful effects on women -- socially, medically, psychologically and culturally. reaction she experienced when she 'chose' to carry to term a child with Down syndrome, and she argues that a widespread acceptance of eugenic abortion has made us see what is a moral issue in narrow cost/benefit terms. Dr Angel Lanfranchi, co-founder of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, presents evidence supporting a link between induced abortion and increased risk of breast cancer. spiritually affected the lives of women she has treated. Including essays by eminent figures such as Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and Elizabeth Fox Genovese, Eleonore Raoul Professor of the Humanities at Emory University, The Cost of 'Choice' captures the moral, legal, medical and political complexities surrounding abortion. Agree or disagree, the reader will concur that the gravity that should accompany any discussion of this difficult subject is fully on display in this insightful and instructive book.

Erika Bachiochi offers an original look at the development of feminism in the United States, advancing a vision of rights that rests upon our responsibilities to others. In The Rights of Women, Erika Bachiochi explores the development of feminist thought in the United States. Inspired by the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, Bachiochi presents the intellectual history of a lost vision of women's rights, seamlessly weaving philosophical insight, biographical portraits, and constitutional law to showcase the once predominant view that our rights properly rest upon our concrete responsibilities to God, self, family, and community. Bachiochi proposes a philosophical and legal framework for rights that builds on the communitarian tradition of feminist thought as seen in the work of Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Jean Bethke Elshtain. Drawing on the insight of prominent figures such as Sarah Grimke, Frances Willard, Florence Kelley, Betty Friedan, Pauli Murray, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Mary Ann Glendon, this book is unique in its treatment of the moral roots of women's rights in America and its critique of the movement's current trajectory. The Rights of Women provides a synthesis of ancient wisdom and modern political insight that locates the family's vital work at the very center of personal and political self-government. Bachiochi demonstrates that when rights are properly understood as a civil and political apparatus born of the natural duties we owe to one another, they make more visible our personal responsibilities and more viable our common life together. This smart and sophisticated application of Wollstonecraft's thought will serve as a guide for how we might better value the culturally essential work of the home and thereby promote authentic personal and political freedom. The Rights of Women will interest students and scholars of political theory, gender and women's studies, constitutional law, and all readers interested in women's rights.