ABSTRACT
Although women have been active philosophers for many centuries,1 the development of a specifically feminist viewpoint in the context of philosophy has gained credence only comparatively recently; partly as a result of more widespread debates about sexual politics in recent years, and partly as a result of social changes in the status of women. While recognizing that feminism did not spring fully formed and fully armed from the last twenty years like Athena from the brow of Zeus,2 for reasons of brevity I will discuss in this chapter only a few of the better-known contemporary contributors to feminist philosophy, and focus particularly on those feminists whose work overlaps with or draws upon continental philosophy.
