The Politics of Affirmative Action: ′Women′, Equality and Category Politics

by Carol Lee Bacchi

`This book makes a major contribution to an issue of central concern to feminists. It is well written, thoroughly researched and thoughtfully argued. Wide-ranging and comprehensive in scope, the book is carefully structured, using different countries to illustrate the specific ways in which affirmative action is co-opted and contained in practice′ - Jeanne Gregory, Middlesex University This timely and incisive book brings a theoretical lens to the debates around affirmative action. It presents a comparative analysis of those countries reputed to be leading the way in policies for women - the United States, Canada, Australia, Sweden, The Netherlands and Norway. Carol Lee Bacchi draws upon curre

208 pages, Hardcover

First published September 24, 1996

About the author

Carol Bacchi is Professor Emerita of Politics in the School of History and Politics, University of Adelaide. She received her PhD in History from McGill University in 1976.

Her PhD thesis on the ideas of the English-Canadian suffragists became the basis of her first book, Liberation Deferred? She migrated to Australia in 1976 and joined the Politics Department in 1984. Her major publications since that time include: Same Difference: Feminism and sexual difference (1990), The Politics of Affirmative Action: 'Women', Equality and Category Politics (1996), Women, Policy and Politics: The construction of policy problems (1999), Fear of Food: A diary of mothering (2003), Analysing Policy: What's the problem represented to be? (2009), (with Joan Eveline) Mainstreaming Politics: Gendering practices and feminist theory (University of Adelaide Press, 2010; available free online).