Feminism Beyond Left and Right

by Holly Lawford-Smith

An unquestioned assumption of contemporary politics is that the left owns minority groups, in the sense that the left, exclusively, champions the interests of minorities and is for that reason owed the allegiance of minorities. This, in turn, gives rise to the sense of dissonance created by right-wing dissenters—the black social conservative, the gay ultra-nationalist, the female libertarian, the poor pro-capitalist. This same dissonance exists for women and feminism, creating a default assumption that a feminist is a left-wing woman. We don’t make a distinction between left-wing feminists and feminists; we don’t need to.

There’s nothing a philosopher loves more than an unquestioned assumption, and in this book political philosopher Holly Lawford-Smith systematically dismantles the assumption that feminism is an exclusively left-wing project. Once dismantled, the path is clear to a new set of questions. Who counts as a feminist in the first place? If women from anywhere on the political spectrum can be feminists, who is it that feminists should—or shouldn't—be working with? And what can be said, more generally, about the ethics of alliances and coalitions?

In Feminism Beyond Left and Right Lawford-Smith makes the case for non-partisan feminism, feminism outside the constraints of the left-right political spectrum, a feminism for and about all women as women.

Genres: Feminism

164 pages, Hardcover

Published July 28, 2025

Reviews

[sjb · Rating 3 out of 5]

the best parts of this were the dworkin quotes

[Stacey Handler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed Lawford Smith's previous work, Gender Critical Feminism and looked forward to reading this. I agree with her hypothesis (if that's the right word), that left wing feminists have struggled working with 'the left' and have been forced into working with 'the right' and it hasn't changed what feminism is or what it needs to be. But the problem with this book is not the idea, it is the writing. I struggled to read this, and I hate to say it, because I've enjoyed the author's previous work and watch her yt channel etc. but this book was dull. I shall continue to read whatever the author publishes (except when it's incredibly expensive - sorry) but this one was not for me.

[Kafkasfriend · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've seen a review copy of this book and the title is the clue to how bad it is.
There should no no left and right, just feminism. There should not be a question of equality for women from the left or a question of returning women to the home from the right. There is no real attempt to square this circle, let alone a discussion of global poverty, exacerbated by the right (the richest 1% that exploit women).
The author is also strongly anti trans (women, not men, apparently a woman can become a man but a man cannot become a woman, which is part of the author's drive to keep women as child bearers and rearers). There is no explicit attack on women's independence but neither is its absence challenged, there is no debate on the poor in the world, leaving the bad taste of an argument based around the need for women in the board room, leaving the 99% still out in the cold.
Chapter on 1960s women 'leaving the left' is very misleading, highlighting small specific cases at a time when the women's movement was growing and occupying the left - and this included trans women in the vanguard