Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives

by Ruth Lister

The competing pressures of globalization and immigration have forced people everywhere to think long and hard about what it means to be a citizen. In Citizenship , Ruth Lister argues for a new feminist notion of citizenship, one that can accommodate difference.
Lister argues that citizenship has traditionally been a tool of social and political exclusion, inequality, and xenophobia. How, then, she asks, can it offer a solid foundation for progressive, non-discriminatory policymaking? Lister explores a range of disciplines and a burgeoning international literature on citizenship, pinpointing important theoretical issues and recasting traditional thinking about it, while exploring its political and policy implications for women in all their diversity. Themes of inclusion and exclusion (at the national and international level), rights and participation, inequality and difference are thus brought to the fore in the development of a "woman-friendly" theory of citizenship.
Wide-ranging, stimulating, and accessible, this pathbreaking book will be of particular interest and relevance to students, activists, and policymakers.

Genres: Feminism

1 pages, Paperback

First published August 13, 1957

Reviews

[Sam Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I have just about had it with prescriptivist definitions of citizenship, and this is NOT one of the most sophisticated I have read. What this DOES have that I found useful is a 64 page bibliography that is cited throughout. Also, to be fair, I did appreciate the review of a lot of the common discourses of citizenship in the '90s with particular attention to how feminists were (and weren't) using it.

[Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an American historian, Lister's work is a bit frustrating as she definitely writes from a British viewpoint. Her examples are drawn from all over the world, which is a benefit, but not 100% useful if one is looking for specific history or studies about the United States. Her work draws from a wide variety of fields, which is very helpful/illuminating for those trained in just one discipline.