ABSTRACT
The feminist tradition emerged largely out of a widespread concern with the invisibility and exploitation of women over the past several centuries. Women's invisibility has been a concern mainly in the public sphere-that is, in the workplace, in government, and the media where they have been denied access to a majority of positions. The exploitation of women has been a concern in both public and private realms. In the workplace, women have systematically occupied underpaid positions without much career mobility. At home, their work in caring for the family has been institutionalized as a form of unpaid wage labor, and their contributions as wives, mothers, and homemakers have gone largely unrecognized. In addition, women's bodies have been the subject of incessant exploitation-in prostitution, pornography, and segments of the entertainment industry.
