Why Women are Oppressed

PB: $36.95
EAN: 978-1-56639-111-5
Publication: Jan 94
HC: $78.50
EAN: 978-1-56639-110-8
Publication: Jan 94
Ebook: $36.95
EAN: 978-1-4399-0879-2
Publication: Jan 94
312 pages
6 x 9
3 tables
A feminist of international standing strives toward a theory about the web of relations between the sexes
Read Chapter 1 (pdf).Description
Why Women are Oppressed offers a much-needed radical feminist perspective on the "political conditions of sexual love." Recognizing that "sexual life always exists in definite socioeconomic contexts," Anna G. Jónasdóttir develops a theory that elucidates the question: Why does men's social and political power persist even in Western societies where women have socioeconomic equality?
Throughout, Jónasdóttir gives empirical relevance to her theorizing. She cites situations in various spheres of society where men and women compete and where men come out as "winners" for no obvious reason other than their malehood. Her account of women as loving caretakers "for" men, rather than desiring, interested subjects in reciprocally erotic relations stirs debate about women's needs and interests.
Reviews
"...thorough attempt to revitalize one of the most provocative early themes of America's women's liberation movement." —New York Times Book Review
Table of Contents
Foreword Kathleen B. Jones
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: Patriarchy as a Problem in Political Theory
2. Sex/Gender, Power, and Politics: Patriarchy in the Formally Equal Society
Feminist Questions
Socialist Feminist Theory
The Sexual Struggle Today
3. Common Oppression and Specific Experiences: Abstraction and Concretization in Feminist Theory
Basic Theory
Partial Theories and Middle-Range Models
Sex, Class, and Race
Specifying "The Common"
4. Patriarchy, Marxism, and the Dual Systems Theory
The Dual Systems Theory
Marxist Method and Feminist Questions
Hartmann's Concept of Patriarchy
Conclusion
5. Beyond "Oppression": The Exploitation of Women
"Exploitation": Used and Dismissed in Feminist Theory
"Exploitation" and the Norm of Reciprocity
Older Usage of the Term
The Marxian Concept
Farr Tormey's Conceptual Analysis
Using the Marxist Method to Serve Feminist Theory
Sexual "Exploitation Proper": A Preliminary Typology
6. Her for HimHim for the State: The Significance of Sex and Marriage in Hobbes's and Locke's Political Theories
Thomas Hobbes
John Locke
7. The Concept of Interest, Women's Interests, and the Limitations of Interest Theory
Women's Studies and Views on Interests
Points of Conflict
History of the Concept of "Interest"
The Present Is Also History
Another Theory of Interest
8. Does Sex Matter to Democracy?
Women's Citizenship as Constrained by Individuality
The Relevance of "Difference" and "Individuality"
Sexual Equality and Women-Worthy Society
9. Taking Sex Seriously
The Impasse of Socialist Feminist Theory: A Radical Critique
Critical Theses
Toward a Reoriented Feminist Materialist Analysis
Constructive Theses
If Sex Were Taken Seriously
Toward a "Womanish"-Feminist Continuum
Notes
References
Index