ABSTRACT
Liberal, radical (libertarian and cultural), Marxist/socialist, and women-of-color feminists here and abroad have offered explanations for women's oppression rooted in society's political and economic structures and/or sexual and reproductive relationships, roles, and practices. Relying on Freudian constructs such as the pre-Oedipal and Oedipal stages and/or on Lacanian constructs, such as the Symbolic order, psychoanalytic feminists claim that gender identity, hence gender inequity, is rooted in a series of infantile and early childhood experiences. Although Sigmund Freud was not a feminist, many psychoanalytic feminists have found in his writings clues about how to better understand the causes and consequences of women's oppression. Although usually considered a socialist feminist, Juliet Mitchell can, at least in her later years, also be viewed as a psychoanalytic feminist. Like Irigaray, psychoanalytic feminist Julia Kristeva relied on Lacan's work. Some critics of psychoanalytic feminism view it as the product of mostly white French intellectuals.
