Legitimation,Consent, and Antifeminism

Antifeminists have developed a legitimation theory that justifies, informs, and enhances their politics. Whereas early American conservatives opposed consent theory because it justified political equality, contemporary antifeminists have adopted and adapted consent theory to articulate and promote different rights and responsibilities for women and men. This article traces the history of consent theory in sexual politics. It suggests that the social contract philosophers and the Founding Fathers systematically excluded women from consent. Early American feminists adopted consent theory to legitimate political equality between the sexes only to discover that political equality stopped far short of gender equality. The innovation of the antifeminists today lies in their use of consent theory to justify the political inclusion of women in politics in order to legitimate their subordination in the social realm.     

A Feminist Response to Rothman's 'The Interweaving of Community Intervention Approaches'

This paper critiques Jack Rothman's ''The Interweaving of Community Intervention Approaches'' (this volume) from a feminist perspective. A feminist version of his intervention typology, using a wide range of exemplars, is constructed. It suggests the scope of feminism not recognized in his account. Discussion centers on the construction of this feminist typology, which illuminates problems inherent in a categorical approach to community practice, such as Rothman's. It is argued that much would be gained by recognizing the dimensions of ideology, longitudinal development, and commitment within community intervention and incorporating social movement literature into practice analyses.     

Mastering ‘Lady Credit’

This article politicizes current understandings of financial crises. It is argued that financial discourse, and specifically the discourse that locates financial crises in the realm of madness and delusion, is founded upon a distinctively masculine conception of agency. This argument is made by looking at early eighteenth-century debates concerning the emergence of credit and paper money. The article examines Daniel Defoe's satirical personification, Lady Credit. Lady Credit embodies all the irrational, inconstant and effeminate aspects that had to be purged from financial discourse before it was able to gain respectability as a rational, disinterested and scientific sphere of action. Lady Credit is not unlike ancient goddess, Fortuna, who ruled capriciously over the affairs of men. The financial discourse under examination implies that it is in times of crisis that financial man loses self-control and is prevented from seeing economic reality by the delusions that Lady Credit generates in him. Through the virile mastering of Lady Credit, it is implied, the smooth and neutral workings of the financial sphere are guaranteed. The article contends that this inherently gendered manner of understanding financial crises informs debates on financial crisis today, as can be exemplified by the public discussion on the recent crisis in Asia.     

Analyzing Politics and Change in Women's Organizations

Research on women's political action too often passes over women's organizations that do not officially adopt a feminist ideology and do not explicitly set out to change gender power relations. Based on implicit notions that such women's organizations are nonpolitical (or less interesting), the research often supports a false dichotomy between feminist and nonfeminist organizations rather than illuminates women's common political ground. This study addresses women's collective action, politics and change by focusing on the case of Nicaraguan Mothers of Heroes and Martyrs - women who lost a son or daughter in the revolution or Contra War. Although some members in Matagalpa critiqued male domination, the organization itself did not set out to challenge the gendered division of labor; indeed, their collective demands relied upon and in many ways reinforced traditional gender identities. I argue that such movements are important to feminist political analysis. As I demonstrate in this article, an organization's lack of an official feminist ideology does not mean that individual members do not express interests, identities and ideals that challenge the gendered status quo. Such research, however, requires a nuanced approach, recognizing women as both accommodating and resisting gendered social structures. Thus, this study challenges the dominant feminist-feminine dichotomy by demonstrating that women's collective action is not only per se political (and politically important) but may also challenge as well as reinforce gendered power structures.     

Gendering (Trans)National Advocacy

Whether lauded or deplored, transnational organizing among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) generally, and women's NGOs specifically, is recognized as an active player in debates about international economic policy. In this article, I turn attention toward one consequence of women's transnational NGO organizing that has been under-analyzed: the impact that transnational activism has on domestic political organizations and opportunities. The recent increase in activism on gender and policies of free trade in the USA is the product of women's transnational political organizingover the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In the case of NAFTA, theoretical insights about the ways that gendered categories undergird the economy were made visible by and through the transnational advocacy in which feminists engaged.And, this article indicates, these transnational advocacy efforts have helped to shift the domestic political terrain of women's organizing in the United States. I argue that as women's rights advocates in the United States were confronted with the realization that the nexus between gender and trade policy was important to many women's rights and feminist activists around the world, they began to question why the gendered implication of trade policy did not hold a comparable place in the US feminist arena. Thus, changes in the domestic political landscape of non-governmentalactivismmay be one of the longest lasting (and most overlooked) consequences of transnational political engagement.     

The case for critical social gerontology in social work education and older women1

This article argues the case for the application of critical social gerontological theory and research to social work education and older women, both as a way of heightening student social workers' awareness and understanding of the complex and diverse experiences of older women who make use of personal social services AND to develop anti‐ageist and anti‐sexist practice. In presenting this ‘case for social gerontology’, the paper will draw on findings from the author's recent research with older widows.     

戴锦华的文艺批评思想述略

戴锦华的研究领域涉及电影、女性主义文学批评与文化研究。她以电影语言、西方文化理论和文化史思想史视野,开创了一条不同于传统电影史研究的“电影文化史”研究范式。在女性主义文学批评领域,她以中国文化传统和现当代历史情境为参照,勾勒出女性书写由“地心”到“地表”的浮现之旅以及现代女性话语的形塑过程。戴锦华提出“文化的位置”这一命题,不仅是寻求在新自由主义崛起的时代对于建构潜能的一次尝试,也是对英国文化研究关于文化与政治经济关系的一次回溯与反思。     

Gender as contradiction: From dichotomies to diversity in natural resource extraction

Given the varied nature of resource dependent communities, the gendered experiences of women and men may vary in unexpected and contradictory ways. Building on a review and critique of existing theoretical approaches and studies of US and Canadian extractive resource communities in both the feminist and rural social science literature, we provide an analytical approach to engage with gender in the context of these dramatic changes. Our framework, which integrates key insights from recent feminist theorizing, summarizes emergent constructions of masculinity and femininity in a given context by emphasizing the possible contradictions along three broad lines: material, material-discursive, and discursive.     

灵魂在场的言说——《大浴女》与铁凝的女性意识及“人性观”

《大浴女》是铁凝笔下一部女性意识浓厚的文本,小说多视点地描述了几位极具代表性的女性成长历程,展示了她们从“牺牲的奴隶”到“觉醒抗争”的女人的生命史,进而在男女两性关系的现实演绎中表达了作者向往“两性和谐”的新的女性观与人性观,从而使小说成为铁凝表现其独特的女性意识的一种言说。     

女性主义立场论的马克思主义审视

从马克思主义的观点出发审视女性主义立场论的论证方式和内容,女性主义立场论认为妇女与男性分工不同,实践决定意识,因而必定产生女性主义的立场和女性主义的视角;这一视角运用到考古学、林业管理、用人制度、科学标准的制定,具有独特的分析效果。但是女性主义立场论对马克思主义的继承具有不完全性的观点。