I

Identity is an important concept in feminist theory and in the social sciences more generally. Many debates within feminism have centred on the question of the essentialism of identity, and on the prospects of developing an identity politics that avoids the worst excesses of essentialism. Originally developed in the social sciences in the 1950s, theories of identity have tended to involve either psychological reductionism or sociological reductionism. In the first view, identity is conceived as a fixed and stable characteristic of the person. 'Identity politics' has become a lightning rod of political contestation even while its precise definition and practical implications are nowhere agreed upon. Most generally, the term simply means that identity is relevant to one's politics. Neither feminist theory nor feminist politics have uniformly supported identity politics. 'Ideology', in classical Marxism, is more sophisticated than in its now-popular connections with fanaticism, mystification and disregard for truth.