Theorizing Patriarchy

Sylvia Walby provides an overview of recent theoretical debates - Marxism, radical and liberal feminism, post-structuralism and dual systems theory. She shows how each can be applied to a range of substantive topics from paid work, housework and the state, to culture, sexuality and violence, relying on the most up-to-date empirical findings. Arguing that patriarchy has been vigorously adaptable to the changes in women's position, and that some of women's hard-won social gains have been transformed into new traps, Walby proposes a combination of class analysis with radical feminist theory to explain gender relations in terms of both patriarchal and capitalist structure.

This updated edition provides an ideal teaching text for first-year university and college courses.

This valuable contribution to the exploration of masculinity as a gender construct and its manifestation in the Caribbean provides a fundamental resource that pays special attention to the interaction of power and sexuality in the creation of masculine identities in the region. Vital reading for policy makers and teachers and students of gender studies.

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.

„Motherhood in Patriarchy“ pioneers the argument that the current Western understanding of motherhood is a patriarchal one based on a long historical tradition of subjection and institutionalization. The book makes an important contribution to women’s studies on reproduction, feminist theory, motherhood and welfare politics, and offers alternative perspectives.

"Introducing Social Theory traces the development of social theorizing from the classical ideas about modernity of Durkheim, Marx and Weber, right up to a uniquely accessible review of contemporary theoretical controversies in sociology surrounding post-modernity and reflexive sociology. With great clarity, the authors explain the ideas of seminal thinkers such as Foucault, Bauman, Habermas, Beck, Bourdieu and Giddens, as well as paying increased attention to other important contributions from theorists such as Margaret Archer, Fredric Jameson and George Ritzer."--Publisher description.

In this updated text of sexual politics, bell hooks argues that the contemporary feminist movement must establish a new direction for the future. A leading cultural critic, she contends that feminism has not succeeded in creating a mass movement against sexism because the foundation of the women's movement has not fully accounted for the complexity and diversity of female experience. In order to fulfil its revolutionary potential, feminist theory must begin by consciously transforming its own definition to encompass the lives and ideas of women on the margin. This new edition includes an original preface by the author that brings it up to date.