From Feminism To Liberation

At the end of the 1960s, the women's liberation movement proc laimed the emergence of a new American feminism which would make the leap from feminism to liberation. In the second decade of the feminist revival in America, the women's movement feels a collective responsibility to make an interim report, to record the history of the movement for those who come after its ecstatic beginnings. Moreover, a decade seems a natural interval to evaluate the errors and the lasting triumphs of this developing movement.

Introduction origins and reproductions -- Printing feminism -- Locating feminism -- Doing feminism -- Invitations to women's liberation -- Imaging and imagining revolution -- Conclusion feminism redux

At the end of the 1960s, the women's liberation movement proc laimed the emergence of a new American feminism which would make the leap from feminism to liberation. In the second decade of the feminist revival in America, the women's movement feels a collective responsibility to make an interim report, to record the history of the movement for those who come after its ecstatic beginnings. Moreover, a decade seems a natural interval to evaluate the errors and the lasting triumphs of this developing movement.

'Voices of Feminist Liberation' brings together a wide range of scholars to explore the work of Rosemary Radford Ruether, one of the most influential feminist and liberation theologians of our time. Ruether's extraordinary and ground-breaking thinking has shaped debates across liberation theology, feminism and eco-feminism, queer theology, social justice and inter-religious dialogue. At the same time, her commitment to practice and agency has influenced sites of local resistance around the world as well as on globalised strategies for ecological sustainability and justice. 'Voices of Feminist Liberation' examines the potential of Ruether's thinking to mobilize critical theology, social theory and cultural practice. The scholars gathered here present their personal engagements with Ruether's thinking and teaching. The book will be invaluable to scholars, policy-makers, and activists seeking to understand how colonial and patriarchal oppression in the name of religion can be confronted and defeated.

In The Liberation of Women, Roberta Hamilton explores two of the key questions that have been systematically raised by the Women's Liberation Movement: why have women occupied a subordinate position in society and how can the variation in the forms and intensity of their exploitation and oppression be explained? Within the Women's Liberation Movement there have been seen to be two different and opposed answers to these questions: a feminist answer and a Marxist one. This new work attempts to examine this debate in specific analytical terms through a study of the changing role of women during a particular historical period - the seventeenth century. In the course of less than one hundred years the rise of capitalism and the acceptance of Protestantism had separately and together radically altered every aspect of a woman's life. Can both a feminist and a Marxist analysis account for these changes? Do such accounts conflict with each other, making a choice inevitable? Do they overlap to such an extent that retaining both would be redundant? Or, finally, are they complementary, can they usefully coexist? The Liberation of Women will be of particular interest to students of history, sociology and Women's Studies and to those who have been involved in the Women's Liberation Movement. In particular, it will prove essential basic reading for an ever-growing number of courses on sexual divisions in society and the role of women.

In The Liberation of Women, Roberta Hamilton explores two of the key questions that have been systematically raised by the Women’s Liberation Movement: why have women occupied a subordinate position in society and how can the variation in the forms and intensity of their exploitation and oppression be explained? Within the Women’s Liberation Movement there have been seen to be two different and opposed answers to these questions: a feminist answer and a Marxist one. The feminist analysis has addressed itself to a patriarchal ideology, locating the source of male domination and female subordination in the biological differences between the sexes. Marxists, on the other hand, have seen the origins of female subordination in the growing phenomenon of private property, which, in their view, has made possible and necessary the exploitation of these biological differences in the modern world. This new work attempts to examine this debate in specific analytical terms through a study of the changing role of women during a particular historical period – the seventeenth century. In the course of less than one hundred years the rise of capitalism and the acceptance of Protestantism had separately and together radically altered every aspect of a woman’s life. Can both a feminist and a Marxist analysis account for these changes? Do such accounts conflict with each other, making a choice inevitable? Do they overlap to such an extent that retaining both would be redundant? Or, finally, are they complementary, can they usefully coexist? To answer these questions Roberta Hamilton tries to work out the changes that can be attributed to the emergence of capitalism (a Marxist explanation) and those that stemmed from the transformation in patriarchal ideology (a feminist explanation). The Liberation of Women will be of particular interest to students of history, sociology and Women’s Studies and to those who have been involved in the Women’s Liberation Movement. In particular, it will prove essential basic reading for an ever-growing number of courses on sexual divisions in society and the role of women.