ABSTRACT
Kristeva’s interest in sexual difference sets her apart from an earlier generation of feminists where “difference” was something to be overcome, not championed. These were the trailblazers of the Enlightenment, the suffragists of the nineteenth century, and the advocates for equal rights and freedom of the twentieth century. They fought for a gamut of rights, from the right to vote to the right to control one’s own body – which translates into reproductive freedom. For the most part, this early feminism sought to show that women deserved all the same rights and privileges that men had been accorded. To support this claim they emphasized women’s similarity to men and minimized the differences.
