This book was the core textbook for the feminism module (if any longtime readers remember?) that I took in my final year of undergraduate study, written by Jennifer Saul, a prominent philosopher in feminism and language use and the lecturer for that module.* It's been almost two years since I completed that module but there were five chapters of this book that I'd never read - so up the currently-halfway-through-pile it went (easy extra blog post; also an extremely interesting jam-packed book, worth sharing).
In it, Saul walks us through nine of the biggest topical areas of debate in contemporary feminism, in explorations that are primarily philosophical but draw on political analysis, sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics, and many case studies from real women. These nine chapters are:
* A module which, may I now say, was one of the more interesting in my whole degree and certainly the one that challenged me to question and revise my own views the most. I went into that module not really knowing what I thought about feminism, having grown up in (admittedly relatively egalitarian-value-minded circles but still) a patriarchal culture as a male, it was simply not something I was prompted to think about at all - but thanks to the political consciousness of several female friends, I started to see the systems of oppression for what they were, and wanted to learn more. By the end of the summer the year I'd taken this module, I'd consumed an enormous breadth and depth of feminist political, social and philosophical thought, having seen how the patriarchy manifests in often-insidiously-subtle and often-hideously-unsubtle forms of day-to-day sexist oppression to this day in society. Having grappled with how it intersected with my Christian faith (much mainstream writings by/for Christians on any topic involving gender has a lot of explaining itself to do), I feel I eventually reached a fairly (intellectually) satisfying conclusion, spelled out here. Of course, this would be pointless without coinciding with expressing actual solidarity, and trying as best I can to limit uses of my male privilege to those times that it can be used to get another male who doesn't realise his own privilege to sit down or shut up. If you're a man reading this and you're feeling vaguely angry, case in point - you got learning to do.
In it, Saul walks us through nine of the biggest topical areas of debate in contemporary feminism, in explorations that are primarily philosophical but draw on political analysis, sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics, and many case studies from real women. These nine chapters are:
- The politics of work and family
- Sexual harassment
- Pornography
- Abortion
- Feminine appearance
- Feminism and language change
- Women's 'different voice'
- Feminism, science and bias
- Feminism and multiculturalism
Remember, this is a textbook - so Saul isn't ploughing through all these topics blasting her own arguments. Each chapter is an accessible and balanced overview of key issues, questions, and thinkers within the debates; she lays out opposing sides, weighs them up, presented in both as much empirical and intellectual context as possible. It is often heavy but it is far from preachy, and would serve anyone new to feminist thought extremely well as an introductory volume.
* A module which, may I now say, was one of the more interesting in my whole degree and certainly the one that challenged me to question and revise my own views the most. I went into that module not really knowing what I thought about feminism, having grown up in (admittedly relatively egalitarian-value-minded circles but still) a patriarchal culture as a male, it was simply not something I was prompted to think about at all - but thanks to the political consciousness of several female friends, I started to see the systems of oppression for what they were, and wanted to learn more. By the end of the summer the year I'd taken this module, I'd consumed an enormous breadth and depth of feminist political, social and philosophical thought, having seen how the patriarchy manifests in often-insidiously-subtle and often-hideously-unsubtle forms of day-to-day sexist oppression to this day in society. Having grappled with how it intersected with my Christian faith (much mainstream writings by/for Christians on any topic involving gender has a lot of explaining itself to do), I feel I eventually reached a fairly (intellectually) satisfying conclusion, spelled out here. Of course, this would be pointless without coinciding with expressing actual solidarity, and trying as best I can to limit uses of my male privilege to those times that it can be used to get another male who doesn't realise his own privilege to sit down or shut up. If you're a man reading this and you're feeling vaguely angry, case in point - you got learning to do.
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