Level 58
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Political and Social Philosophy

Feminist Political Philosophy

The critique and reconstruction of core political concepts — rights, the public/private divide, and power — from feminist theoretical perspectives, from Wollstonecraft's Enlightenment rights-talk to contemporary transnational feminist thought.

60-Second Review

Express review

A condensed, point-by-point summary of the module, for reviewing right before a test or exam.

  1. Wollstonecraft and Early Liberal Feminism. Wollstonecraft argued education, not nature, explained women's supposed inferiority to men.
  2. Mill and Taylor on the Subjection of Women. Mill and Taylor likened married women's legal status to servitude and pushed for suffrage.
  3. Second-Wave Feminism: de Beauvoir and The Second Sex. De Beauvoir argued women are made, not born, transforming feminist theory worldwide.
  4. The Personal Is Political: Radical Feminist Critique. Hanisch's slogan made women's private struggles a matter of shared political structure.
  5. Liberal Feminism and Formal Equality Debates. NOW and the ERA fight tested formal legal equality against women's substantive disadvantage.
  6. Intersectional Feminism: Crenshaw and Combahee River Collective. Crenshaw's intersectionality named the compounded, erased experience of Black women plaintiffs.
  7. Feminist Critiques of the Public/Private Distinction. Pateman and Okin showed liberal theory quietly exempted family injustice from justice itself.
  8. Global and Transnational Feminist Political Thought. Mohanty, CEDAW, and global conferences reshaped feminism as a transnational political project.

This module continues after "Anarchism and Libertarian Political Thought" in the syllabus. If you haven't reviewed it yet, it may help set the context.

Key points

Visual module map

1Wollstonecraft and Early Liberal Feminism
2Second-Wave Feminism: de Beauvoir and The Second Sex
3Liberal Feminism and Formal Equality Debates
4Intersectional Feminism: Crenshaw and Combahee River Collective
5Global and Transnational Feminist Political Thought

Alternative visual view: a simplified sequence of some of the module's key points, in their order within the syllabus.

Your module mastery

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Approximate breakdown by skill
Understanding of historiographical debate0%

A rough estimate based on the key points reviewed, not an exact measurement of actual mastery.

Final test

You need to review all key points to unlock the final test.

Optional mini-games

Extra practice, with no penalty, to reinforce the module's content.

Review Flashcards

Review each key point with cards that flip to reveal the summary.

Memory

Match each concept with its definition in as few attempts as possible.

Time Attack

Answer true or false statements before time runs out.

Chronological Order

Put the module's key points back in their original order.

Further reading

Bibliography and cited sources used to create this module.

  • Wollstonecraft, M. (1792). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. London: J. Johnson.
  • Mill, J.S. (1869). The Subjection of Women. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer.
  • de Beauvoir, S. (1949/2009). The Second Sex (C. Borde & S. Malovany-Chevallier, Trans.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
  • Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), 139–167.
  • Pateman, C. (1988). The Sexual Contract. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
  • Mohanty, C.T. (1984). Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses. Boundary 2, 12/13, 333–358.