Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book begins by critically assessing existing feminist conceptions of power and examines three different conceptions of power that have been influential in feminist theory: power as resource, power as domination, and power as empowerment. It argues that a better feminist conception would construe power as a relation rather than as a possession, but it would also avoid the tendency to mistake one aspect of power for the whole of it. The book considers Judith Butler's feminist appropriation of Foucault's analysis of power as it is developed in her theory of the performativity of gender. It also argues that the differences between Arendt and Foucault/Butler are not as stark as they might seem at first. The book concludes by bringing together the elements of a feminist conception of power that emerge from the author's readings of Foucault, Butler, and Arendt.