Description
Book SynopsisIn 1949 Simone de Beauvoir asked, What does it mean to be a woman? Her answer to that question inaugurated a radical transformation of the meaning of woman that defined the direction of subsequent feminist theory.
Trade ReviewSusan Hekman has written a brilliant and much needed book. She encourages contemporary scholars to pursue the radical, boundary-breaking project of bringing ‘woman’ into philosophical traditions and offers a shrewd analysis of what has impeded this project. This accessible book will be of great value to students of feminist philosophy, feminist theory, gender studies, and in fact, anyone who recognizes that the search for ‘woman’ is on-going and continues to evolve
Carol Gilligan, New York University
Feminist theorists are fortunate that Susan Hekman has written this well-argued book. It will no doubt be read with interest and delight and assigned to students for classes. It is a pleasure to see a mature scholar take account of the field with an engaging thesis.
Eloise Buker, Saint Louis University
In The Feminine Subject, Susan Hekman has crafted an original account of feminist theory as a positive cumulative enterprise with discernible lineages to Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. The intriguing result of this approach, which treats feminist theory as an ‘evolving tradition,’ is a feminism that embraces its differences within, rather than being undone by them.
Christine Di Stefano, University of Washington
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements
Chapter 1: Simone De Beauvoir and the Beginnings of The Feminine Subject
Chapter 2: Difference I: The “French Feminists”
Chapter 3: Difference Ii: Radical Feminism and the Relational Self
Chapter 4: Continuing the Tradition: Liberalism and Marxism
Chapter 5: From Difference to Differences: Postmodernism, Race, Ethnicity, and Intersectionality
Chapter 6: The Material Subject
Bibliography
