ABSTRACT
Probably more than in any other field of theory, feminists have forwarded their projects methodologically through collaboration and argument. Reading 3.1 by Heidi Hartmann is typical in this respect. She establishes a position by working off, with and against other positions within socialist feminism and Marxism. Similarly, the locating of texts by Kristeva (Reading 1.3), Schor (Reading 2.5), Millett (Reading 2.3), Mouffe (Reading 4.7), Irigaray (Reading 5.6), and Benhabib (Reading 5.3) in other Sections at least illustrates the necessity for feminists to intervene in areas such as structuralism and post-structuralism, psychoanalytic theory, Marxism and postmodernism. Nevertheless, the case for a separate section on feminism is, if anything, stronger than for any other body of texts, and may even be analogous to claims which can be made on behalf of Critical Theory vis-à-vis the more context-specific, historically located activity of Cultural Studies. Even in this century, there are plenty of examples of periods when women were highly visible in social and political life at local and even national level, but feminism was unable to achieve much explanatory purchase, unable to become Theory (see Tallack, 1987). Although this Section cannot survey the current state of feminism, the role of feminism as Theory is an underlying concern, as is the basis of feminism as position in its intersections with other theoretical positions represented in this Reader. In addition to the relations with Marxism examined by Hartmann, the preceding Sections confirm — if confirmation is needed — that feminism has been significantly involved in the arguments of post-structuralism and psychoanalytic theory. It is also apparent from the Readings that a feminism of difference -meaning both the exploration and celebration of varying degrees of separatism from the larger society, or from projects whose assumptions are implicitly defined by men, as well as the claims made by women of colour — has questioned the tenets and ways of thinking associated with earlier feminists — Betty Friedan, Kate Millett, Shulamith Firestone and, to a lesser extent, Simone de Beauvoir.
