ABSTRACT
A new feminist theory of consumption could engage with important efforts on behalf of women now underway around the world. The emergence and analysis of new data documenting the conditions of women across nations, cultures, and forms of government has shown that women are subordinated in every nation and that the pattern of constraint is uncannily consistent. This chapter talks about feminist vision of consumption that prevailed prior to the 1970s and situated the feminist consumer research of the 1990s against the backdrop of the movement. It discusses the world gender data and its implications and examines the articles that introduced feminist theory to consumer research for strands that could be pulled into current use. One of the main ways that women are held hostage in less developed societies is through the inability to control the number and timing of births.
