Why Feminism?: Gender, Psychology, Politics - Softcover

Segal, Lynne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0745623476 ISBN 13: 9780745623474

Publisher: Polity, 1999

Synopsis

This major new book explores the peculiar place of feminism in contemporary culture.

About this title

Review:

From the beginning of the Women's Liberation Movement in the 1960s there has been an acute tension in feminist theory; feminists have been arguing simultaneously for the abolition of gender difference and for the unique nature of women; for social equality and a better understanding of subjectivity. In Why Feminism? Segal traces an intellectual history of the movement and its internal conflicts--with a view to showing why, despite its many apparent failures, feminism remains crucially significant and challenging.

In pursuit of this thesis Segal examines in turn the intellectual origins of feminism and its move into the academy; competing theories of gender; the dangers of the new biologism and the current fixation with genetics; debates about memory and the psyche; the deficiencies of psychology; the emerging focus on masculinity; and--last but not least--the fraught relationship between feminism and psychoanalysis.

Segal is well equipped for her complicated task. First of all she is extraordinarily well read--it's not just that she has read everything, she has thought about it as well! She is a socialist feminist at heart but writes with respect and generosity about ideas with which she does not agree (except for the Genome Map, which she treats with a forceful disdain). Even in these muddy waters, and without finding many certain answers, she writes with great clarity and a sense of political awareness--pure theory at least trying to be of service to social and political transformation.

None of which makes this an easy read. It can't be. This is a history of ideas where both the history and the ideas themselves are extremely complex, nuanced, uncertain (the final chapter is titled "Only Contradictions On Offer"). But if you seriously want to know (seriously enough to put some work in) what feminist theory has been and is now thinking about and why this might matter, it would be hard to think of a better place to go. --Sarah Maitland

Review:

'Her thesis is immediately engaging in its refusal to apply itself to the red herrings: is feminism still relevant? Are men in crisis? Is feminism dead? Who cares? ... We've become used to texts that are saturated with easy-access pop-cultural reference points. But Segal is good at asking the right questions of the right people ... it's liberating to read a book that makes no apology for dignifying the Women Question with a serious academic inquiry.' The Guardian

'Lynne Segal is one of the most capacious readers of feminism and sexuality studies I have ever encountered. Rooted in a socialist feminism and open to new theory, she brings forward the best of the former tradition and sets it into a dynamic and provocative dialogue with contemporary scholarship and activism, including psychoanalysis in both its social and clinical dimensions. Her writing is marvellously clear, to the point, and trenchant. And she brings us all into a critical conversation that we sometimes did not know we could have. The passion, intelligence, and intellectual candour of this book are exemplary.' Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature,University of California at Berkeley

'Lynne Segal brings her unique capacity for clarity and wit, along with her courage of the intellect, to bear on the key paradox faced by feminists: how to hold on to what being a woman means, while contesting the cultural and social meanings given to 'femininity'. This is a book which travels between disciplines with remarkable erudition, providing concise and intelligent accounts of the context of debates in women's studies, queer theory, sociobiology, psychoanalysis and psychology. It is as illuminating on genetics as it is on gender.' Sheila Rowbotham, University Research Fellow in Sociology, Manchester University

'In this provocative history of the changing face and fortunes of feminism since the 1970s, Lynne Segal gives us a vivid account both of feminist debate and its increasingly conservative context. Rejecting the dualistic thinking which pits activism against theory, Segal argues persuasively both for the reinvigoration of feminism's political will and its continuing exploration of subjectivity and difference.'Cora Kaplan, University of Southampton -- Reviews

About this edition

• Publisher: Polity
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0745623476
• ISBN 13: 9780745623474
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 294