ABSTRACT
The relation between feminism and the critical theory of Jürgen Habermas is characterized by ambivalence, as the essays collected in this volume witness. On the one hand feminists are critical of Habermas’s peculiar blindness to gender issues, of his one-sided interpretation and assessment of the contemporary feminist movement, and of the ways in which his categorial framework is androcentric. On the other hand, even Habermas’s most determined feminist critics are unwilling to dispense with the key categories of his thought: they make use of the concepts of communicative action, public space, democratic legitimacy, dialogic ethics, discourse, and critical social theory.
