Contesting Feminisms

Creates a new space for hybrid feminist analysis of Asian Muslim women’s lives. Contesting Feminisms explores how Asian Muslim women make decisions on appropriating Islam and Islamic lifestyles through their own participation in the faith. The contributors highlight the fact that secularism has provided the space for some women to reclaim their religious identity and their own feminisms. Through compelling case studies and theoretical discussions, this volume challenges mainstream Western and national feminisms that presume homogeneity of Muslim women’s lives to provide a deeper understanding of the multiple realities of feminism in Muslim communities. “Contesting Feminisms attempts to offer nuanced understandings of Muslim women’s struggles that are firmly rooted in close attention to local social, economic, and historical contexts with an eye to opening up theoretical spaces in which to examine local and transnational feminist Muslim activism. As such, the volume offers rich insights into women’s lives and struggles in moving away from the reductionist frame of a strictly Qur’anic view of women that is mobilized by both Western detractors and Islamic normativizers to constrain women’s agency, and instead brings into view the heterogeneity of Muslim women’s lives and struggles.” — Zayn Kassam, editor of Women and Islam

Focusing on femicide, this book draws upon, whilst also providing a contemporary re-evaluation of, Carol Smart's innovative approach to the law question as first outlined in her ground-breaking book, Feminism and the Power of Law (Routledge 1989).

In Fundamental Feminism, Judith Grant explores the evolution of feminist theory as well as the state of today's feminist thought. Pointing to the main problems within feminism, Grant calls for a substantial revision of the core concepts responsible for shaping today's feminist theory. Grant identifies and critiques three core concepts in feminist theory--"woman," "experience," and "personal politics"--from their origins in pamphlets and writings in the early women's liberation movement to their current construction in feminist thought. She connects a number of key debates in feminism today to the longstanding influence of these core assumptions. These debates include the hegemony of the white female perspective, the tension between anti-pornography and pro-sex feminists, and the challenges presented by postmodernism. Fundamental Feminism is provocative reading for anyone interested in the future of feminist theory and the power of feminist politics.

A unique combination of the activist and the academic, Feminist Review has an acclaimed position within women's studies courses and the women's movement. It publishes and reviews work by women; featuring articles on feminist theory, race, class and sexuality, women's history, cultural studies, black and third world feminism, poetry, photography, letters and much more.

Since second-wave feminism of the 1970s, women's rights and opportunities in education and employment have increased across the globe, but has equality, whether social, political or legal, really been achieved? In this fascinating book, Miriam E. David, a well-known and influential feminist in higher education, celebrates the achievements of international feminists as activists and scholars. She provides a critique of the expansion of global higher education masking their pioneering zeal and zest for knowledge. Looking at the changing zeitgeist, David contends that feminism has yet to have an enduring influence, despite how generations of women have felt empowered. She illustrates the power of patriarchal social relations and how everyday sexism or misogyny is keenly felt. This impassioned book asks whether a feminist-friendly future is possible, or indeed, desirable.

Women Challenging Unions is a collection of original papers that presents a vision of an invigorated and vibrant labour movement, one that would actively seek the full participation of women and other traditionally excluded groups, and that would willingly incorporate a feminist agenda. This vision challenges union complicity in the gendered segmentation of the labour market; union support for traditionalist ideologies about women's work, breadwinners, and male-headed families; union resistance to broader-based bargaining; and the marginalization of women inside unions. All of the authors share a commitment to workplace militancy and a more democratic union movement, to women's resistance to the devaluation of their work, to their agency in the change-making process. The interconnected web of militancy, democracy, and feminism provides the grounds on which unions can address the challenges of equity and economic restructuring, and on which the re-visioning of the labour movement can take place. The first of the four sections includes case studies of union militancy that highlight the experiences of individual women in three areas of female-dominated work: nursing, banking, and retailing. The second and third sections focus on the two key arenas of struggle where unions and feminism meet: inside unions, where women activists and staff confront the sexism of unions, and in the labour market, where women challenge their employers and their own unions. The fourth section deconstructs the conceptual tools of the discipline of industrial relations and examines its contribution to the continued invisibility of gender.

By allowing the reader to draw comparisons between women's movements in Canada and the United States, Challenging Times shows that certain political and theoretical issues transcend international borders, ebbing and flowing between the two countries symbiotically. Topics discussed include the origins of "second-stage feminism," the strength of the women's movement within academic structures, and the challenges posed by racial, ethnic, and class diversity; violence against women; the promise and limits of legal reform; reproductive technology; and economic discrimination. Readers who are interested in the recent history of the North American women's movement will find answers to many of their questions about the victories, defeats, and fundamental challenges facing modern feminism. Those who have been active in the current wave of feminism, either as central participants or serious critics, will find Challenging Times equally fascinating because it endeavours to provide answers to pressing questions about the nature of feminism, the inter-relationships and tensions between different sectors of the movement, and the prospects for future growth. Many of the contributors to this volume have lived through and personally shaped the unfolding of the rich history of North American feminism. In addition to Backhouse and Flaherty, the contributors are Catharine A. MacKinnon, Greta Hofmann Nemiroff, Monique Bégin, Mariana Valverde, Naomi Black, Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Micheline de Sève, Micheline Dumont, Margrit Eichler, Sara M. Evans, Marianne A. Ferber, Lorraine Greaves, Marjorie Heins, M. Patricia Fernández Kelly, Patricia A. Monture-Okanee, Arun Mukherjee, Jean F. O'Barr, Christine Overall, Glenda Simms, and Jill Vickers.

Through four case studies Contesting Publics: Feminism, Activism, Ethnography analyses the challenges facing activists to connect gender with issues of race and class. Lynne Phillips and Sally Cole examine women's projects for social change in Latin America. Using these examples, they argue that feminism can produce both new spaces for participation and new silences, exclusions and re-inscriptions of inequalities. The examples thus speak to a larger theoretical question: what is the meaning of 'public' in the spaces of a broadening and deepening democracy? Contesting Publics considers current debates among feminists on the merits of a variety of strategies, goals and issues, drawing out vital lessons for students, researchers and activists in anthropology and gender studies.