Materialist Feminism: A Reader in Class, Difference, and Women's Lives

by Rosemary Hennessy (Editor), Chrys Ingraham (Editor)

During the 1980s, capitalism triumphantly secured its global reach, anti-communist ideologies hammered home socialism's inherent failure, the New Left increasingly moved into the professional middle class--and many of feminism's earlier priorities were marginalized. "Identity politics", often formulated in terms of social reconstructionism or multiculturalism, has increasingly suppressed materialist feminism's systematic perspective, replacing it with discourse analysis or cultural politics. Materialist Feminism: A Reader argues against the retreat to multiculturalism for keeping invisible the material links among the explosion of meaning-making practices in highly industrialized social sectors, the exploitation of women's labor, and the appropriation of women's bodies that continues to undergird the scramble for profits and state power in multinational capitalism.

Genres: Feminism, Politics, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Womens Studies

444 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 1997

Reviews

[sologdin · Rating 3 out of 5]

effective anthology of far left feminist texts, with a number of key monographs included.

[Dan Sharber · Rating 4 out of 5]

like any collection, the pieces are hit or miss. but if you want a decent intro into materialist or socialist feminism., this is a pretty good one.

[Carrie]

women's studies