For and Against Feminism: A Personal Journey into Feminist Theory and History

by Ann Curthoys

Written between 1970 to 1986, these essays chart the thinking emerging from, and the debates within, Women’s Liberation in Australia, showing how it grew into a diverse, complex, and lively feminist movement.

First published in 1988, this edition of For and Against Feminism has a new introduction from the author putting the work in the context of today’s feminist debates.

Ann Curthoys AM has published extensively with a focus on Australian history, cultural studies, gender and feminist theory. Her books include Freedom A Freedom Rider Remembers (2002), and with John Docker Is History Fiction? (2006). Her most recent work, with Jessie Mitchell, is Taking Indigenous Rights and Settler Self-Government in the Australian Colonies, 1830–1890 (2018).

164 pages, Paperback

Reviews

[Lia Perkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic introduction to many of the key debates of Marxist feminism. I thought the chapter providing a history of women’s lib was particularly useful because Curthoys traced the history of the ideas alongside the movement. As a theoretical text, its flaw is that it’s a collection of essays rather than a coherent argument, so it doesn’t go as deep as required on many of the debates