Modern Feminist Thought
This text ended my long search to find a book that offered clear explanation of how the main theories of feminism evolved and interacted.
The main schools of thought are covered, running in a loose chronological order beginning with the liberal feminism of Betty Freidan and moving in succession through Marxist and Socialist feminism, radical feminism, lesbian and then black feminism. The strength of the text sits in these chapters, with careful exploration of the differences between Marxist and Socialist feminism, the relationship that the Cartesian mind/body dichotomy and liberal capitalism has with liberal feminism, and the evolution of the status of the personal/public divide so actively challenged in radical feminism. Whelehan also keeps a firm gaze on the general socio-political developments that accompanied each school of thought; ensuring readers get the wider picture of the conditions that provoked feminist groupings of thought.
Part two is a less coherent and more organic exploration of how feminism presented in the 90s and the predicted problems it faces in the future. There’s scathing emphasis on the rise of liberal feminists like Naomi Wolf. The author’s tone changes here, her pen growing more critical and harsh as if registering her own disappointment with the refusal of modern feminist theorists to confront patriarchy.
A notable omission in her discussion on the evolution of thought is the French psychoanalysts like Kristeva, Irigaray and Cixous. For me, this highlights the US and UK focus of her canvas. Asian and European thinkers are barely mentioned, despite the explosion of feminist critique in Japan in the late eighties and nineties.
Overall, an accessible journey through the main Anglo schools of thought in second wave feminism.
Whelehan, I. (1995.). Modern Feminist Thought: From Second Wave to 'Post Feminism'. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press.
