UNDERSTANDING FEMINISM

Understanding Feminism provides an authoritative guide to one of the most important and contested movements in progressive modern thought. Presenting feminism as a dynamic, multifaceted and adaptive movement that has evolved in response to the changing practical and theoretical problems faced by women, the authors take a problem-oriented approach that maps the complex strands of feminist thinking in relation to women’s struggles for equal recognition and rights, and freedom from oppressive constraints of sex, self-expression and autonomy.

Each chapter focuses on a different cluster of concerns, demonstrating key moves in second-wave feminist thought, as well as some of the diversity in response strategies that encompass both socioeconomic and cultural – symbolic concerns. This approach not only shows how central feminist insights, theories and strategies emerge and re-emerge across different contexts, but makes clear that far from being “over”, feminism remains a vital response to the diverse issues that women (and men) find pressing and socially important.