Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political Thought

by Jean Bethke Elshtain

Focusing on the Western philosophical tradition and the work of contemporary feminists, Jean Elshtain explores the general tendency to assert the primacy of the public world―the political sphere dominated by men―and to denigrate the private world―the familial sphere dominated by women. She offers her own positive reconstruction of the public and the private in a feminist theory that reaffirms the importance of the family and envisions an "ethical polity."

Genres: Philosophy, Feminism, Politics, Sociology, Gender, Nonfiction, Academia

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Jean Bethke Elshtain is an American political philosopher. She is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School, and is a contributing editor for The New Republic. She is, in addition, newly the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Chair in the Foundations of American Freedom at Georgetown University. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and she has served on the Boards of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and the National Humanities Center. She is also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and has received nine honorary degrees. In 2002, Elshtain received the Frank J. Goodnow award, the highest award for distinguished service to the profession given by the American Political Science Association.

The focus of Elshtain's work is an exploration of the relationship between politics and ethics. Much of her work is concerned with the parallel development of male and female gender roles as they pertain to public and private social participation. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks she has been one of the more visible academic supporters of U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Jean Bethke Elshtain, scholar of religion and political philosophy, 1941-2013 http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2013...

Reviews

[Heather Denigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a looooong time to read. A good refresher on some of the highlights of Western philosophy—such as Plato, Aristotle, Martin Luther, Machiavelli, Hegel, Kant, Marx. The last third addressing feminist philosophy highlights that there is no single feminist philosophy. And I came to the conviction that Feminism isn’t the one single destroyer of Western civilization the way you often hear it depicted among conservative Christian circles. Feminist philosophy is a response to western philosophy and western philosophy’s uneasy response to women. (Remember that Plato’s ideal society only includes a few women and that women, should they get pregnant when the state dictates that they may, may not nurse their own children?) It’s no wonder feminism has long been ambivalent about family life.

[Ash Ulo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice overview of western political theory, good snapshot of early Elshtain.

[Annerieke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a very complete overview of every philosopher who had something to say about families and the connection between the public and the private sphere. The ongoing argument is interesting and the writer is not so overly feminist that all her arguments are only valid in that sphere. Drawback is the writing style, which can be laborious, in some parts.