ABSTRACT
Drawing primarily from the work of Eisenstein, Carole Pateman, MacKinnon, Carol Gilligan, Eva Kittay, Jaggar, Hirschmann, Frances Olsen and Lisa Schwartzman, this chapter identifi es fi ve major threads of feminist critique of liberalism in the English-language literature from the past three decades:4 (i) the sexual contract that accompanies the liberal social contract; (ii) the public-private separation; (iii) liberalism as a gendered tradition; (iv) liberalism’s neglect of structures of power; and (v) the ethic and practice of care debate.5 But as the section “With or without it” below points out, few of liberalism’s feminist critics repudiate it altogether. ey typically gesture towards a revised liberalism that would become more refl ective of women’s experiences and more responsive to their needs and interests.
