Understanding Feminism

Understanding Movements in Modern Thought

by Peta Bowden, Jane Mummery

"Understanding Feminism" provides an accessible guide to one of the most important and contested movements in progressive modern thought. Presenting feminism as a dynamic, multi-faceted and adaptive movement that has evolved in response to the changing practical and theoretical problems faced by women, the authors take a problem-oriented approach that maps the complex strands of feminist thinking in relation to women's struggles for equal recognition and rights, and freedom from oppressive constraints of sex, self-expression and autonomy. Each chapter focuses on a different cluster of concerns, demonstrating key moves in second-wave feminist thought, as well as some of the diversity in response-strategies that encompass both socio-economic and cultural-symbolic concerns. This approach not only shows how central feminist insights, theories and strategies emerge and re-emerge across different contexts, but makes clear that far from being 'over', feminism remains a vital response to the diverse issues that women (and men) find pressing and socially important.

Genres: Feminism, Philosophy, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published May 31, 2009

Reviews

[Edwin Dalorzo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not recommended

I've been very interested in the topic of feminism lately because I realized it was a complex matter and I wanted to understand it better. I had read other books of this series in the past and I found them to be quite good, but this one was the exception. The material is hard to follow, arguments are presented without enough substance, without examples and without a proper introduction for those of us who are not experts on the subject under discussion. Most chapters try to cover too much, but without delving deep in anything. I reached half the book and got completely bored. I simply could not finish this book. I will try somewhere else.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin, really. Not revolutionary, but a good introduction and summary to the development of feminist thinking and the problems facing it today.