I am interested in exploring the usefulness and limits of traditional categories of feminist theory, such as those laid out by Alison Jaggar. I begin the analysis by critically comparing various treatments of liberal feminism. I focus throughout this investigation on uncovering ways that current frameworks privilege white authors and concerns, recreate the split between theory and activism, and obscure long histories of theoretical and practical coalition and alliance work.

Gender representations reproduce and legitimate gender systems. To examine this aspect of the gendered social order, we analyze the representation of males and females in the titles and central characters of 5,618 children’s books published throughout the twentieth century in the United States. Compared to females, males are represented nearly twice as often in titles and 1.6 times as often as central characters. By no measure in any book series are females represented more frequently than males. We argue that these (...) disparities are evidence of symbolic annihilation and have implications for children’s understandings of gender. Nevertheless, important differences in the extent of the disparity are evident by type of character, book series, and time period. Specifically, representations of child central characters are the most equitable and animals the most inequitable; Little Golden Books contain the most unequal representations; and the 1930s-1960s—the period between waves of feminist activism—exhibits greater disparities than earlier and later periods. Examining multiple types of books across a long time period shows that change toward gender equality is uneven, nonlinear, and tied to patterns of feminist activism and backlash throughout the century. (shrink)

This article explores the life and work of Emma Goldman to formulate a radical critique of intimacy. Goldman’s theory of sexual freedom and revolutionary love offers a feminist vision that challenges contemporary debates concerning uses of the language of feminine desire. Goldman appealed to ideals of feminine instinct and feminine desire in order to challenge the conventional meanings attached to femininity in her day. Her views on marriage, love, sexuality and the feminine are analysed alongside her writings on her own (...) personal experience, in order to illuminate the continuing paradoxes feminists face in regard to definitions and experiencesof femininity. (shrink)

The article argues that feminist emancipation, understood as practices and discourses of self-development and of solidarity as empowerment, has become entangled with the neoliberal project. Indeed, emancipation as self-improvement has become synonymous with moral regulation projects that seek to adapt women to global capitalism. The article explores the relation between emancipation and neoliberal regulation from a situated approach by addressing the experience of Latin American feminisms, with a particular focus on Chile. This approach recognizes by implication that Latin American feminisms (...) are co-extensive, or coeval, with North American and European ones, and are not merely derivative forms. (shrink)

I am interested in exploring the usefulness and limits of traditional categories of feminist theory, such as those laid out by Alison Jaggar (1977; 1983). I begin the analysis by critically comparing various treatments of liberal feminism. I focus throughout this investigation on uncovering ways that current frameworks privilege white authors and concerns, recreate the split between theory and activism, and obscure long histories of theoretical and practical coalition and alliance work.

This research provides a history of women's domestic duties in the care of the dead prior to its transformation into a male-dominated market activity. The author presents data on the position of importance women held in the premarket care of the dead as well as on the knowledge necessary to prepare the body for burial. Both the positions and the knowledge women held were later appropriated into the more “advanced” practices by the newly developing funeral industry in the mid-19th century; (...) moreover, the position women held as “shrouding women” was largely unacknowledged by the emerging funeral industry. (shrink)

By understanding better how certain socioeconomic systems work, what chances for transformation they contain, and hence determining on these bases how they may evolve, we will be in a better position to look for the compatibilities and synergies that may be established among economic activities, social policies, and interventions in defense of environmental equilibria. It will also become clearer if, and how, it is possible to make these different needs interact for the better of all concerned. The research project illustrated (...) here intends to contribute to our knowledge in this sense. (shrink)

Although physicians have attempted for centuries to uncover the biological differences between men and women with regard to mental illness, they continue to face the challenges of untangling biological factors from social and cultural ones. This article uses examples from history to illustrate three common problems in trying to establish biological differences: identifying factors as sex-based when they are really gender-based; overlooking changes in masculine and feminine roles over time; and placing too great an emphasis on hormones. By using the (...) benefit of hindsight to identify problems from the past, we can think more critically about these issues in the present and the future. (shrink)

Constructions of women’s activism as social service, volunteer, or charity work contribute to the relative invisibility of these forms of activism. The author conducted field research at an affiliate office of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. She analyzes how these women volunteers resist the label “activist” at the same time that they engage in activities that resemble activism. The author also examines the reasons for their resistance to the term. Her analysis shows that implicit connections between constructions of (...) activism and gender shape the extent to which volunteers think of their work either as political or as activism. In light of Komen’s heteronormative gender ideology, the author concludes by raising questions about the relationships among gender, activism, and civic participation. (shrink)