Feminist Theorists: Three Centuries of Women's Intellectual Traditions

by Dale Spender

Feminist Theorists Three Centuries of Women's Intellectual Traditions

Genres: Feminism, Philosophy, Feminist Theory, History, Nonfiction, Biography, Womens Studies

Paperback

First published December 12, 1983

About the author

Dale Spender (born 1943) is an Australian feminist scholar, teacher, writer and consultant.

Spender was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, a niece of the crime writer Jean Spender (1901–70). The eldest of three, she has a younger sister Lynne, and a much younger brother Graeme. She attended the Burwood Girls High School, in Sydney. In her youthful days she was a Miss Kodak girl. In the later half of the 1960s she also taught English Literature at Dapto High School. She started lecturing at James Cook University in 1974, before going to live for a while in London and publishing the book Man Made Language in 1980.

She is co-originator of the database WIKED (Women's International Knowledge Encyclopedia and Data) and founding editor of the Athene Series and Pandora Press, commissioning editor of the Penguin Australian Women's Library, and associate editor of the Great Women Series (United Kingdom).
She is the author of a witty literary spoof, The Diary of Elizabeth Pepys, 1991 Grafton Books, London, a feminist critique of women's lives in 17th Century London, purportedly written by Elisabeth, the wife of Samuel Pepys.
Today Spender is particularly concerned with intellectual property and the effects of new technologies: in her terms, the prospects for "new wealth" and "new learning". For nine years she was a director of Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) in Australia and for two years (2002–2004) she was the chair. She is also involved with the Second Chance Programme, which tackles homelessness among women in Australia.

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection pulls together the profiles and theories of 21 unknown and less well known feminists from the past 300 plus years, showing that there is a lot that history doesn't record and that each generation ends up relearning. Spender has tried to focus each profile on the salient points of those women discussed summarising their lives and how it influenced their views, how they portrayed these views (be it through writing, action or living it) and how they have been lost, misunderstood or misconstrued over the years. Spender also links the theories to the modern feminist waves and shows how they have been achieved/progressed, or in most cases, how they are still relevant today. Personally, I would've liked a clearer separation between the biographies and the theories but I can understand how the two are often so intertwined it is hard to do this. This book is both an excellent starting point for those new to feminist theories and an excellent reminder for those of us who have been feminists for years.

[marieostin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Це була одна із найнудніших книг, що я коли-небудь читала