This entry provides an overview of all the entries in the feminist philosophy section of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy SEP. After a brief of the history of feminist philosophy and various issues regarding defining feminism, the entry discusses the three main sections on 1 approaches to feminist philosophy, 2 feminist interventions in philosophy, and 3 feminist philosophical topics.
Housewives seeking sex Stanford working in all the main Western traditions of contemporary philosophy are using their respective traditions to approach their work, including the traditions of analytic, Continental, and pragmatist philosophy, along with other various orientations and intersections. As they do so, they are also intervening in how longstanding basic philosophical problems are understood. As feminist philosophers carry out work in traditional philosophical fields, from ethics to epistemology, they have introduced new concepts and perspectives that have transformed philosophy itself.
They are also rendering philosophical ly un-problematized topics, such as the body, class and work, disability, the family, Housewives seeking sex Stanford, the self, sex work, human trafficking, and sexuality. And they are bringing a particularly feminist lens to issues of science, globalization, human rights, popular culture, and race and racism. As this entry describes, feminism is both an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and the end of sexism in all forms.
Motivated by the quest for social justice, feminist inquiry provides a wide range of perspectives on social, cultural, economic, and political phenomena. Yet despite many overall shared commitments, there are numerous differences among feminist philosophers regarding philosophical orientation whether, for example, Continental or analyticontological commitments such as the category of womanand what kind of political and moral remedies should be sought.
Contemporary feminist philosophical scholarship emerged in the s as more women began careers in higher education, including philosophy. As they did so, they also began taking up matters from their own experience for philosophical scrutiny. These scholars were influenced both by feminist movements in their midst as well as by their philosophical training, which was anything but feminist.
Additionally, feminist philosophical scholarship increasingly focused on the very same types of issues philosophers had been and were Housewives seeking sex Stanford with. Feminist philosophical scholarship begins with attention to women, to their roles and locations. What are women doing? How do their activities compare to those of men? Are the activities or exclusions of some groups of women different from those of other groups and why?
What do the various roles and locations of women allow or preclude? How have their roles been valued or devalued? To this we add attention to the experiences and concerns of women. How might attention to these transform our current methods or values?
And from here we move to the realm of the symbolic. How is the feminine instantiated and constructed within the texts of philosophy? What role does the feminine play in forming, either through its absence or its presence, the central concepts of philosophy? And so on. Feminist philosophers brought their philosophical tools to bear on these questions.
And since these feminist philosophers employed the philosophical tools they knew best and found most promising, feminist philosophy began to emerge from all the traditions of Western philosophy prevalent at the end of the twentieth century including analytic, Continental, and classical American philosophy.
It Housewives seeking sex Stanford come as no surprise then that the thematic focus of their work was often influenced by the topics and questions highlighted by these traditions.
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Hence, as a result, a given question can be taken up and addressed from an array of views, sometimes, as discussed below, with quite contradictory answers. Hence feminist philosophical scholarship is not homogeneous either in methods or in conclusions. Indeed, there has been ificant debate within feminist philosophical circles concerning the effectiveness of particular methods within philosophy for feminist goals. Some, for example, have found the methods of analytic philosophy to provide clarity of both form and argumentation not found in some schools of Continental philosophy, while others have argued that such alleged clarity comes at the expense of rhetorical styles and methodological approaches that provide insights into affective, psychic, or embodied components of human experience.
Other feminists find approaches Housewives seeking sex Stanford American pragmatism to provide the clarity of form and argumentation sometimes missing in Continental approaches and the connection to real world concerns sometimes missing in analytic approaches. Founded in as a venue for feminist philosophical scholarship, Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy has embraced a diversity of methodological approaches in feminist philosophy, publishing work from all three traditions.
Feminist scholarship in each of these traditions is also advanced and supported though scholarly exchange at various professional societies, including the Society for Women in Philosophy, founded in the United States in Additionally, the Society for Analytical Feminism, founded inpromotes the study of issues in feminism by methods broadly construed as analytic, to examine the use of analytic methods as applied to feminist issues, and to provide a means by which those interested in analytical feminist can meet and exchange ideas. The Society for the Study of Women Philosophers was established in to promote the study of Housewives seeking sex Stanford contributions of women to the history of philosophy.
Similar organizations and journals on many continents continue to advance scholarship in feminist philosophy. Many of the ways in which feminist philosophy is not monolithic will be discussed below. Nevertheless, it is worth noting here at the start that although feminist philosophers have intended that their work—unlike the traditional philosophy they criticize—be applicable to all women and reflect the diverse experiences of women, in practice it has not always been the case.
One important limitation that feminist philosophers are trying to overcome is their insufficient attention to the many interacting ways that human beings are oppressed, for example, along lines of race, sexuality, ability, class, religion, and nationality. Feminist philosophy strives for inclusivity and pluralism, even if it falls short. So, for example, it makes sense to ask whether Plato was a feminist, given his view that some women should be trained to rule RepublicBook Veven though he was an exception in his historical context see, e.
Our goal here is not to survey the history of feminism—as a set of ideas or as a series of political movements—but rather to sketch some of the central uses of the term that are most relevant to those interested in contemporary feminist philosophy.
The references we provide below are only a small sample of the work available on the topics in question; more Housewives seeking sex Stanford bibliographies are available at the specific topical entries and also at the end of this entry.
In this second wave, feminists pushed beyond the early quest for political rights to fight for greater equality across the board, e. Third Wave feminists often critique Second Wave feminism for its lack of attention to the differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion see Section 2. One strategy for solving these problems would be to identify feminism in terms of a set of ideas or beliefs Housewives seeking sex Stanford than participation in any particular political movement. As we saw above, this also has the advantage of allowing us to locate isolated feminists whose work was not understood or appreciated during their time.
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But how should we go about identifying a core set of feminist beliefs? Some would suggest that we should focus on the political ideas that the term was apparently coined to capture, viz. But this too raises controversy, for it frames feminism within a broadly liberal approach to political and economic life. Although most feminists would probably agree that there is some sense of rights on which achieving equal rights for women is a necessary condition for feminism to succeed, most would also argue that this would not be sufficient.
Housewives seeking sex Stanford there any point, then, to asking what feminism is? Given the controversies over the term and the politics of circumscribing the boundaries of a social movement, it is sometimes tempting to think that the best we can do is to articulate a set of disjuncts that capture a range of feminist beliefs. However, at the same time it can be both intellectually and politically valuable to have a schematic framework that enables us to map at least some of our points of agreement and disagreement. In many of its forms, feminism seems to involve at least two groups of claims, one normative and the other descriptive.
The normative claims concern how women ought or ought not to be viewed and treated and draw on a background conception of justice or broad moral position; the descriptive claims Housewives seeking sex Stanford how women are, as a matter of fact, viewed and treated, alleging that they are not being treated in accordance with the standards of justice or morality invoked in the normative claims.
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Together the normative and descriptive claims provide reasons for working to change the way things are; hence, feminism is not just an intellectual but also a political movement. So, for example, a liberal approach of the kind already mentioned might define feminism rather simplistically here in terms of two claims:.
On thisthat women and men ought to have equal rights and respect is the normative claim; and that women are denied equal rights and respect functions here as the descriptive claim. However, our point here is simply that claims of this sort concern what is the case not what ought to be the case.
Moreover, as indicated by the ellipsis above, the descriptive component of a substantive feminist view will not be articulable in a single claim, but will involve an of the specific social mechanisms that deprive women of, e. Engels ; Okin Or is it her role in the labor market? Bergmann Brownmiller ; MacKinnon Firestone Disagreements within feminism can occur with respect to either the descriptive or normative claims, e.
Disagreements may also lie in the explanations of the injustice: two feminists may agree that women are unjustly being denied proper rights and respect and yet substantively differ in their s of how or why the injustice occurs and what is required to end it Jaggar Disagreements between feminists and non-feminists can occur with respect to both the normative and descriptive claims as well, e. Others disagree about the background moral or political views.
In an effort to suggest a schematic of feminism, Susan James characterizes feminism as follows:. Feminism is grounded on the belief that women are oppressed or disadvantaged by comparison with men, and that their oppression is in some way illegitimate or unjustified. Under the umbrella of this general characterization there are, however, many interpretations of women and their oppression, so that it is a mistake to think of feminism as a single philosophical doctrine, or as implying an agreed political program. James Of course this qualification might be and is used for various purposes, but one persistent usage seems to follow the qualification with some claim that is hard to distinguish from claims that feminists are wont to make.
So, e. Or one might be willing to acknowledge in a very general way that equality for women is a good thing, without being committed to interpreting particular everyday situations as unjust especially if is unclear how far these interpretations Housewives seeking sex Stanford have to Housewives seeking sex Stanford. Feminists, however, at least according to popular discourse, are ready to both adopt a broad of what justice for women would require and interpret everyday situations as unjust by the standards of that. Those who explicitly cancel their commitment to feminism may then be happy to endorse some part of the Housewives seeking sex Stanford but are unwilling to endorse what they find to be a problematic package.
As mentioned above, there is considerable debate within feminism concerning the normative question: what would count as full justice for women? What is the nature of the wrong that feminism seeks to address? For example, is the wrong that women have been deprived equal rights? Is it that women have been denied equal respect for their differences?
Is it all of the above and more?