This book draws on the insights of Third World women's activism to develop feminist theory.

Drawing on theoretical insights from Third World women's activism, Political Theory and Feminist Social Criticism develops democratic theory as a critical theory relevant to dealing with real world inequalities. Brooke Ackerly examines the methods by which real world feminist activists have criticized society, and argues that their activities show how feminist theory can move beyond its theoretical impasse toward articulating social criticism with critical teeth. Her book will be of interest to political and social theorists, and to students and scholars of women's studies, feminism, and human rights.

This book draws mutually enlightening parallels between controversial themes in contemporary feminist thought and Hegel's political philosophy. Jeffrey A. Gauthier argues that feminism can gainfully employ Hegel's historicizing of Kant's ethics of universality, as well as his socializing of Kant's conception of autonomy, in defense of a number of controversial feminist claims. Hegel and Feminist Social Criticism brings the Hegelian texts into a critical dialogue with the work of a number of important contemporary feminist theorists, including Annette Baier, Cheshire Calhoun, Drucilla Cornell, Marilyn Friedman, Marilyn Frye, Sandra Harding, Luce Irigaray, Alison Jaggar, Helen Longino, and Catharine MacKinnon. In a series of discussions taking up issues such as consciousness-raising, standpoint theory, sexist agency, critiques of universalism, the emotions, systematic violence against women, and "difference" theory, the book offers a sustained argument not only for the importance of Hegel for feminist thought but for the significance of feminism in clarifying and developing certain key Hegelian ideas as well.

The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory provides a rich overview of the analytical frameworks and theoretical concepts that feminist theorists have developed to analyze the known world. Featuring leading feminist theorists from diverse regions of the globe, this collection delves into forty-nine subject areas, demonstrating the complexity of feminist challenges to established knowledge, while also engaging areas of contestation within feminist theory. Demonstrating the interdisciplinary nature of feminist theory, the chapters offer innovative analyses of topics central to social and political science, cultural studies and humanities, discourses associated with medicine and science, and issues in contemporary critical theory that have been transformed through feminist theorization. The handbook identifies limitations of key epistemic assumptions that inform traditional scholarship and shows how theorizing from women's and men's lives has profound effects on the conceptualization of central categories, whether the field of analysis is aesthetics, biology, cultural studies, development, economics, film studies, health, history, literature, politics, religion, science studies, sexualities, violence, or war.

This important text introduces students to both feminism and other social and political theories via an examination of the inter relationship between different feminist positions and key contemporary debates. The book takes each debate in turn, outlines the main themes, discusses different feminist responses and evaluates the implications for real-life political and social issues. This user-friendly structure effectively redraws the map of contemporary feminist thought, offering a fresh and succinct summary of an extensive range of material and graphically demonstrating the ongoing relevance and value of a feminist perspective.

The Oppositional Imagination draws together elements from Marxism, analytical philosophy, post-structuralism, and post-colonial criticism to analyse the elusive interplay of culture and power. It focuses its attention on cultural domination, opposition and evasion in the realm of sex and gender. Joan Cocks reflects on questions crucial to both political theorists and feminists: the relationship between political theory and practical life; the possibility of bringing together a philosophical and a literary language to comprehend and evoke concrete experience; and the reconciliation of radical political commitment with an appreciation of shades of grey in the social world. She explores the variety of ways in which power and eroticism intersect; the liberating and tyrannical impulses of marginal cultures; and the place of the loyalist, the eccentric, the critic, the traitor, and the rebel in the sexual struggle. The Oppositional Imagination reaffirms the centrality of political theory and feminist practice while at the same time challenging certain of their key principles in thought-provoking ways.