Politics, Government and the State 63
The major strength of feminist political theory is that it provides a
perspective on political understanding that is uncontaminated by the gender
biases that pervade conventional thought. Feminism has not merely
reinterpreted the contribution of major theorists and shed new light upon
established concepts such as power, domination and equality, but also
introduced a new sensitivity and language into political theory related to ideas
such as connection, voice and difference. Feminism has nevertheless been
criticized on the grounds that its internal divisions are now so sharp that
feminist theory has lost all coherence and unity. Postmodern feminists, for
example, even questioned whether ‘woman’ is a meaningful category. Others
suggest that feminist theory has become disengaged from a society that is
increasingly post-feminist, in that, largely thanks to feminism, the domestic,
professional and public roles of women, at least in developed societies, have
undergone a major transformation.
Key figures
Mary Wollstonecraft (see p. 000) Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the
Rights of Women (1792) is usually regarded as the first text of modern
feminism and was written against the backdrop of the French Revolution,
many years before the emergence of the women’s suffrage movement. In
arguing that women should be entitled to the same rights and privileges as
men on the grounds that they are ‘human beings’, she established what was to
become the core principle of liberal feminism.
Simone de Beauvoir (1906–86) A French novelist, playwright and social
critic, Beauvoir helped to reopen the issue of gender politics and
foreshadowed some of the themes later developed in radical feminism. She
highlighted the extent to which the masculine is represented as the positive or
the norm, while the feminine is portrayed as ‘other’. Such ‘otherness’
fundamentally limits women’s freedom and prevents them from expressing
their full humanity. Beauvoir placed her faith in rationality and critical
analysis as the means of exposing this process and giving women
responsibility for their own lives. Her key feminist work is The Second Sex
(1949).
Kate Millett (1934– ) A US writer and sculptor, Millett developed radical
feminism into a systematic theory that clearly stood apart from established
liberal and socialist traditions. She portrays patriarchy as a ‘social constant’
running through all political, social and economic structures, and grounded in
a process of conditioning that operates largely through the family,
‘patriarchy’s chief institution’. She supports consciousness-raising as a means
of challenging patriarchal oppression, and has advocated the abolition and
replacement of the conventional family. Millett’s major work is Sexual
Politics (1970).