Women and Social Transformation: Translated by Jacqueline Vaida

by Elizabeth Beck-Gernsheim, Judith Butler

Women and Social Transformation brings three women from different countries together into dialogue. Judith Butler is the most referenced author in current feminist literature, and we find the latest developments of her work in this book; Lídia Puigvert has recently reached international relevance with her contribution about the «other women», who have not yet had a voice in feminism; and Elizabeth Beck-Gernsheim complements this debate with her work about immigrant women. The authors argue the need to open feminism to the plurality of all women’s voices, especially those who are in the margins. Women and Social Transformation is a debate, and speaks about transforming gender relations, taking a distance from postmodern stances, and insisting on the need for egalitarian dialogue among women. This book gives back the meaning of the feminist struggle.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction

149 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2003

Reviews

[Mimar Ramis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Puigvert's work on dialogic feminism and the contributions of the Other women s one of the most relevant insights of feminism in the last decades. The advances of these traditionally neglected voices bring truth and meaning to feminism but also to social sciences. Puigvert's work pioneered the practice of co-creation with the other women, which is currently a requirement in scientific research, and a practice that leads to increasing social impact and deeply change the way we understand academic work in science in general and the social sciences in particular.

[Bridgitte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Butler's reasoning seems more based in materiality here than in other books...materiality in a real way. Performance of gender shapes bodies, and she still talks about bodies as discursive products, but she also talks about the concretes of real, lived bodies. I like a lot of what she is saying here. I don't feel any "hallelujahs" bursting forth, as I do when I read Braidotti and Alaimo/Hekman, but I AM nodding my head.