Androgyny
For radical-libertarian feminists, the ideal collapsing of traditional notions
of gender via the combination or integration of feminine and masculine attributes, particularly the
‘good’ ones; for radical-cultural feminists, a seeming preference for feminine characteristics and
a call for altogether reconceiving that which is masculine, and (for some) that which is feminine.
[compiled from: Tong, Rosemary (1998).  “Radical Feminism.”  Feminist Theory: A
Comprehensive Introduction. pp. 51-62.] 

“the ‘pluralist’ model of androgyny, according to which men and women have separate but
supposedly equal and complementary traits, and the ‘assimilation’ model of androgyny,
according to which both women and men must incorporate both masculine and feminine traits
into themselves in order to achieve full personhood.” [Tong, Rosemary (1998).  Feminist Theory:
A Comprehensive Introduction, p.57.]

“There is a paradox inherent in the ideal of androgyny, namely that, while it calls for the
elimination of the sexual stereotyping of human virtues, it is itself formulated in terms of the
discredited concepts of masculinity and femininity which it ultimately rejects.” [Mary Anne
Warren (1980) in Kramarae, Cheris & Treichler, Paula A., Amazons, Bluestockings, and Crones:
A Feminist Dictionary.]
 

Black Feminism
“We are actively committed to struggling against racial, sexual, heterosexual, and class oppression and see as our particular task the development of integrated analysis and practice based upon the fact that the major systems of oppression are interlocking.  The synthesis of these oppressions creates the conditions of our lives.  As Black women we see Black feminism as the logical political movement to combat the manifold and simultaneous oppressions that all women of color face.”  [The Combahee River Collective.  (1979).  “A Black Feminist Statement.”]

“We resist hegemonic dominance of feminist thought by insisting that it is a theory in the
making, that we must necessarily criticize, question, re-examine, and explore new possibilities. 
My persistent critique has been informed by my status as a member of an oppressed group,
experience of sexual exploitation and discrimination, and the sense that prevailing feminist
analysis has not been the force shaping my feminist consciousness.  This is true for many
women.”  [hooks, bell.  (1984).  Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, p.10.] 

“the context for the development of Black-defined sexual-political struggles, examining the
sexual tensions and conflict in the terms of Black culture and its shaping within and against the
White dominant culture.  It has to seek ways that Black women and men can politically negotiate
sexual-political tension and abuse in a way that reinforces their collaboration against racism and
the capitalist formulations that embody and sustain that racism.” [Joseph, Gloria I. & Lewis, Jill
(1981) in Kramarae, Cheris & Treichler, Paula A., Amazons, Bluestockings, and Crones: A
Feminist Dictionary.]

Body

Bisexuality
 

Capitalism is, was and always will be essentially and fundamentally a patriarchy.  Iris Young wrote:  "My thesis is  that marginalization of women and thereby our functioning as a secondary labor force is an essential and fundamental characteristic of capitalism."  (Tong, Rosemarie.  Feminist Thought:  A More Comprehensive Introduction, 1998, p. 122-123.)

Capitalism is a system that depends on the exploitation of underclass groups for its survival.  (hooks, bell.  Feminist Theory:  from margin to center, 1984, p. 101.)

Capitalism is an ideology that has for its dominant values, "individualism, competitiveness, domination and in our time, consumption of a particular kind."   (Hartman, Heidi,  "The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism." from The Second Wave edited by Linda Nicholson, 1997, p. 99.)

"The first mode of economy with the weapon of propaganda, a mode which tends to engulf the entire globe and stamp out all other economies, tolerating no rival at its side.  Yet at the same time it is also the first mode of economy which is unable to exist by itself, which needs other economic systems as a medium and a soil."  (Rosa Luxemburg 1963).
"An advanced stage of patriarchy." (Azizah Al-Hibri 1981).   (Both these quotes are from Chris Kramarae & Paula A. Treichler. Amazons, Bluestockings, and Crones, Pandora Press, 1992, p. 85.)

Capitalism:  The economic system in which the means of production are in private ownership.  Marx described the exploitative forms of capitalism in his theory of the capitalist mode of production.  Radical feminists, liberals and socialist feminists agree that there can be no understanding of the nature of contemporary capitalist society without placing the oppression of women at the centre of such an analysis.  Nor can any adequate feminist theory simply add women as a "missing ingredient" to an overall Marxist theory.  (Humm, Maggie.  The Dictionary of Feminist Theory, 1990,  p. 23.)

Capitalism:  An economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods and by prices, production and distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.  (The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 1997, p. 122.)

Capitalist Patriarchy
There is no such thing as "pure capitalism", nor does "pure patriarchy" exist, for they
must of necessity coexist.  What exists is partriarchal capitalism,....  The family wage
(that a man can earn enough to support an entire family) cemented the partnership
between patricarchy and capital.   (Hartman, Heidi,  "The Unhappy Marriage of
Marxism and Feminism", from The Second Wave edited by Linda Nicholson, 1997, p.
103-108.)

"Patriarchy (as male supremacy) provides the sexual hierarchical ordering of society
for political control and as a political system cannot be reduced to its economic
structure, while capitalism as an economic class system driven by the pursuit of profit
feeds off the patriarchal ordering.  Together they form the political economy of the
society, not merely one or another, but a particular blending of the two."   (Zillah
Eisenstein 1979)  (Chris Kramarae & Paula A. Treichler.  Amazons, Bluestockings, and
Crones, Pandora Press, 1992, p. 85.)

A historically specific form of patriarchy in which patriarchy operates through class
and productive relations.  The  subordination of women is shaped by specific modes of
production.  One instance of the collaboration between capitalism and patriarchy,
which has been a focus of discussion among feminist scholars, is the combination of
protective legislation and women's exclusion from male dominated trade unions. 
(Humm, Maggie.  The Dictionary of Feminist Theory, 1990, p. 24.)

Class
Class, according to Marx, is similarly situated people who share the same wants and needs; 
classes do not simply appear, they are slowly and often painstakingly formed.  Through a
long and complex process of struggling together about issues of local and later national
interest to them, they gradually become a unity, a true class.   (Tong, Rosemarie.  Feminist
Thought:  A More Comprehensive Introduction, 1998, p. 97-98.)

Class in Marxist theory, is both race- and sex-blind.  (Chris Kramarae & Paula A. Treichler. 
Amazons, Bluestockings, and Crones, Pandora Press, 1992, p. 96.)

Class "Is not defined by our relationship to the mode of production in the simple sense that
if we sell our labor power (for a day or a lifetime), or are part of the family of someone
(presumably male) who does, we are working-class.  Being working-class is a mode of life,
a way of living life based on, but not exclusively defined by, the simple fact that we must
sell our labor power to stay alive.  Class distinctions in capitalist society are part of a
totality, a mode of life structured as well by sexism and racism...."  (Chris Kramarae &
Paula A. Treichler.  Amazons, Bluestockings, and Crones, Pandora Press, 1992, p. 96.)

The structure of capitalism produces two opposing classes:  a ruling class whose members
own and control the means of production and a working class whose members, lacking
such ownership, sell their labor power to capital in order to survive.  (Abramovitz, Mimi. 
Regulating the Lives of Women, 1989, p. 19.)

Consciousness Raising
Alarcon’s description of this term is a process through whichwomen are led to look at the world in a different way in order to “appropriate their own reality” (p. 293).  According to the Encyclopedia of Feminism, “the ultimate goal of consciousness raising is highly political: to achieve fundamental changes in society, and not merely to help individuals to adjust”. It goes on to state that CR created the understanding that “the personal is political”, and “made possible a meaningful analysis of woman’s situation, based not on abstract ideas, but shared experiences” (p. 69).

Cultural Feminism

Cyborg: 
According to Haraway, a “cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality, as well as a creature of fiction” (p. 149) 

“Cyborg feminists have to argue that ‘we’ do not want any more natural matrix of unity 
and that no construction is whole” (Haraway, p.157)
 

Erotic
"the erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling.  In order to perpetuate itself, every oppression must corrupt or distort those various courses of power within the culture of the oppressed that can provide energy for change.  For women, this has meant a suppression of the erotic as a considered source of power and information within our lives. (Audre Lorde. Sister/Outsider, 53)

Essentialism
“The view that men and women are fundamentally and perhaps irrevocably different either by nature or by nurture” [Tong, Rosemary (1998).  Feminist Theory: A Comprehensive Introduction, p.87.]

“Essentialist view would imply that female subjectivity stands outside of history or
social change (Ed. Buikema, Rosemarie and Smelik, Anneka, Women’s Studies and Culture).

Ethnicity

Existentialist Feminism
A reference to the work of Simone de Beauvoir and her book “The Second Sex”.  This analysis uses existential categories such as immanence-transcendence, subject-object, self-other to explain the oppression of women.  She maintains that women have become the “other” or object of men’s subjectivity.  Primarily due to one’s biology, women’s oppression consists of being denied transcendence and subjectivity. (Boles, Janet., Historical Dictionary of Feminism, Scarecrow Press, Md., 1996) 

Experience
 

“To accept, with all its implications, that feminism has not only existed in movements of and for
women, but has also been able to exist as an intellectual tendency without a movement, or as a
strand within very different movements, is to accept the existence of various forms of feminism.”
(Delmar, “What is Feminism”)

“Feminism is increasingly understood by feminists as a way of thinking created by, for, and on
behalf of women, as ‘gender-specific.’  Women are its subjects, its enunciators, the creators of its
theory, of its practice and of its language.” (Delmar, “What is Feminism”)

Feminist  "One who believes that women are discriminated against because they are women,
and the struggle for women’s equality is their central concern." (Delmar, “What is Feminism”)

“To deconstruct the subject ‘woman’, to question whether ‘woman’ is a coherent identity, is also
to imply the question of whether woman is a coherent political identity, and therefore whether
women can unite politically, culturally, and socially as ‘woman’ for other than very specific
reasons.  It raises questions about the feminist project at a very fundamental level. (Delmar, “What is Feminism”)

“Are all actions and campaigns prompted or led by women, feminist?  Can an action be feminist
even when those who perform it are not?” (Delmar, “What is Feminism”)

Feminist Theory 
"The guiding set of beliefs and principles that become the basis for action" 
(hooks, feminist theory: from margin to center, 30)

FEMINIST THEORY- An examination of women’s positions in society, based on the belief
that current positions are unequal and unjust, which also provides tactics and criteria for change.
“Feminist theory  - of all kinds - is to be based on, or anyway touch base with, the variety of real
life stories women provide about themselves.” (Lugones and Spelman, “Have We Got a Theory for You!”)

“...But if say, an empirical theory is purported to be about ‘women’ and in fact is only about
certain women, it is certainly false, probably ethnocentric, and of dubious usefulness except to
those whose position in the world it strengthens (and theories, as we know, don’t have to be true
in order to be used to strengthen people’s positions in the world).”  (Lugones and Spelman, “Have We Got a Theory for You!”)

“If we really want theory to make a difference in people’s lives, how ought we to present it? Do
we think people come to consciousness by reading? Only by reading? Again, whom does our
theory making serve?” (Lugones and Spelman, “Have We Got a Theory for You!”)

Heterosexuality

Homophobia

Homosexuality

Identity Politics
Ideology
 

Lesbian
A woman who loves other women, is sexually attracted to women and, for some,
politically attracted to women.

“Lesbianism: A Mere Sexual Preference or the Paradigm for Female-Controlled Female
Sexuality?” [Tong, Rosemary (1998).  Feminist Theory: A Comprehensive Introduction, p.69.]

“...the lesbian is in revolt.  In revolt because she defines herself in terms of women and rejects
the male definitions of how she should feel, act, look, and live.  To be a lesbian is to love oneself,
woman, in a culture that denigrates and despises women.  The lesbian rejects male
sexual/political domination...” [Bunch, Charlotte.  (1975).  “Lesbians in Revolt.”]

Lesbian Continuum

Liberal Feminism
Female subordination is rooted in a set of customary and legal constraints blocking women’s entrance to and success in the so-called political world.  Because society has the false belief that women are by nature less intellectually and physically capable than men, it excludes women from the academy, the forum, and the marketplace.  As a result of this policy  of exclusion, the true potential of many women goes unfulfilled.  Liberal feminism seeks to reform the laws and customs that have included women and gain access for women on an equal basis with men.

Welfare or Egalitarian Liberals
The ideal state focuses on economic justice rather than on civil liberty.  Individuals enter the market with difference based on initial advantage, inherent talent, and sheer luck.  At times these differences are so great that some individuals cannot take their fair share of what the market has to offer unless some adjustments are made to offset their liabilities.  Because of this perceived state of affairs, welfare liberals call for government interventions in the economy.  (This view seems to be favored by contemporary liberal feminists)
 

Marxism
Marxism is a theory of the development of class society, of the accumulation process in
capitalist societies, of the reproduction of class dominance, and of the development of
contradictions and class struggle.   (Hartman, Heidi,  "The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism
and Feminism", from The Second Wave edited by Linda Nicholson, 1997, p. 99.)

The Marxist tendency to employ categories rooted in capitalist social relations and its
failure in comprehending gender are deeply related.  In so far as marxists interpret
"production" as necessarily distinct from "reproduction", then aspects of capitalist society
are falsely universalized and gender relations in both pre-capitalist and capitalist societies
are obscured.  (Nicholson, Linda,  "Feminism and Marx", from The Second Wave edited by
Linda Nicholson, 1997, p. 143.)

Political and economic theories of Karl Marx and others.  "Feminism stands in relation to
marxism as marxism does to classical political economy:  its final conclusion and ultimate
critique.  ...In a dual motion, feminism turns marxism inside out and on its head." 
(Catharine MacKinnon, 1982)  (Chris Kramarae & Paula A. Treichler.  Amazons,
Bluestockings, and Crones, Pandora Press, 1992, p. 256.)

The theory and practice of revolutionary class politics.  Marxism is a system of
philosophical, economic and social beliefs about human nature and society.  The main
elements of Marxism which guide feminism are dialectical materialism and the labour
theory.   (Humm, Maggie.  The Dictionary of Feminist Theory, 1990, p. 129.)

Marxist Feminism
The theory that focuses on women's economic well-being and independence as a primary
concern and on the intersection between women's experience as workers and their position
in the family.  Marxist feminists argue that capital is the primary oppressor of women as
workers.  They rarely discuss issues related to sex.  Because women in a capitalist system
do not have sufficient access to the workplace, in order to survive they must connect
themselves financially to men.  (Tong, Rosemarie.  Feminist Thought:  A More
Comprehensive Introduction, 1998, p. 114-117 .)

Related words:  comparable-worth:  a method of assigning "worth" points for the four
components found in most jobs:  1)  "knowledge and skills", or the total amount of
information or dexterity needed to perform the job; 2) "mental demands", or the extent to
which the job requires decision making; 3) "accountability", or the amount of supervision
the job entails; and 4) "working conditions", such as how physically safe the job is. 
Comparable worth will gradually result in the elimination of the sexual division of labor in
the workplace.  (Ibid. p. 112-13.)
wages-for-housework campaign

Masculinity

Materialist
Materialism:  1)  a theory that everything can be explained as being or coming from matter,
2)  a preoccupation with material rather than intellectual or spiritual things.  (The Merriam-
Webster Dictionary, 1997, p. 455.)

Materialism as a doctrine emphasizes the primacy of material reality; economically, it
emphasizes the motivating and controlling force of material production, goods, needs, and
profits.  (Chris Kramarae & Paula A. Treichler. Amazons, Bluestockings, and Crones,
Pandora Press, 1992, p. 261.)

Second wave feminism expanded Marxist concepts of materialism to include sexuality
together with other social divisions.  In The Dialectic of Sex (1970) Shulamith Firestone
substitutes sex for class in a dialectical analysis of biological materialism.  In the Marxist
theory of materialism, 'objectification' describes the way a person is part of a work process
and its products.  A feminist analysis has to deal with the way women as commodity
objects are sexually fetishised and how sexual objectification is the primary process of
women's subjection.  See MacKinnon (1982).  (Humm, Maggie.  The Dictionary of
Feminist Theory, 1990, p. 131.)

Matriarchy
Methodlogy
Misogyny
Motherhood
Multiplicity

Networking
Informal social interactions involving individuals or groups in which feminists make attempts to advance the movement’s political agenda and to support women. (Boles, Historical Dictionary of Feminism, p.170) In A Feminist Dictionary, to network is to establish good connections with other women and provide each other with information, concrete help, and personal or professional support (Kramarae and Treichler, p. 299).  “...networking is both a feminist practice and a multinational corporate strategy-weaving is for oppositional cyborgs.” (Haraway, p.170)
 

Other
"Thus humanity is male and man defines woman not in herself but as relative to him; she is not regarded as an autonomous being. . . .[S]he is simply what man decrees; thus she is called "the sex," by which is meant that she appears essentially to the male as a sexual being.  For him she is sex--absolute sex, no less.  she is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her; she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential.  He is the subject, he is the Absolute--she is the Other."  (de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, xix)

We define patriarchy as a set of social relations which has a material base and in which 
there are hierarchical relations between men and solidarity among them which enable them 
in turn to dominate women.  The material base of patriarchy is men's control over women's 
labor power. (Hartman, Heidi,  "The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism", from 
The Second Wave edited by Linda Nicholson, 1997, p. 103.) 

Kate Millet's definition of patriarchy:  "our society...is a patriarchy.  The fact is evident at 
once if one recalls that the military, industry, technology, universities, science, political 
offices, finances---in short, every avenue of power within the society, including the 
coercive force of the police, is entirely in male hands."  (Hartman, Heidi,  "The Unhappy 
Marriage of Marxism and Feminism", from The Second Wave edited by Linda Nicholson, 
1997, p. 101.) 

“male control of the public and private worlds constitutes patriarchy...” [Tong, Rosemary.
(1998).  Feminist Theory: A Comprehensive Introduction, p.49.]

“Patriarchal ideology, according to [Kate] Millet, exaggerates biological difference between men
and women, making sure that men always have the dominant, or masculine, roles and women
always have the subordinate, or feminine ones.  This ideology is so powerful that men are usually
able to secure the apparent consent of the very women they oppress.  They do this through
institutions such as the academy, the church, and the family...” [Tong, Rosemary (1998). 
Feminist Theory: A Comprehensive Introduction, p.49.]

“Male supremacist ideology encourages women to believe we are valueless and obtain value only
by relating to or bonding with men” [hooks, bell.  (1984).  Feminist Theory: From Margin to
Center, p.43.]

“Though patriarchy is hierarchical and men of different classes, races, or ethnic groups have
different places in the patriarchy, they also are united in their shared relationship of dominance
over their women... Patriarchy is not simply hierarchical organization, but hierarchy in which
particular people fill particular places.” [Heidi Hartmann (1979) in Kramarae, Cheris &
Treichler, Paula A., Amazons, Bluestockings, and Crones: A Feminist Dictionary.]

Phallocentric
“Phallus centered” 
The term has gained currency among psychoanalytic thought.  Phallus isn’t considered to be the same as the penis, but is the symbol of difference between the sexes and signifier of the status which has been socially conferred upon biological maleness. 

Phallogocentric
“ Jacques Derrida suggests that the primacy of the word and phallocentrism are the same thing; language is the realm of the fathers and the phallus is the ‘privileged signifier’. (Encyclopedia of Feminism )

Politics

Postmodernism as Feminism:
a contemporary intellectual movement modified and adapted by feminist theory, which rejects traditional assumptions about truth and reality [and knowledge] and emphasizes instead the plurality, diversity, and multiplicity of women as distinct from men, who are thought to be unitary and rational.  The purpose of the movement is to unveil the layers of meaning society has attached to certain misogynist beliefs in an effort to reveal the inner core of meanings and make evident their inconsistencies (Historical Dictionary of Feminism, p. 236).

Post-Structuralist Feminism
Alcoff’s definition as “attack the category and concept of woman through
problematizing subjectivity”( Nicholson, 331) could further be defined as: “Post-structuralism
rejects the structuralists view that unchanging fundamental and universal structures lie at the
basis of the world phenomena, texts, social systems, etc.  In contrasts post structuralism focuses
more on problematising structures by studying their discursive construction, their function and
their power” (Ed. Buikema, Rosemarie and Smelik, Anneka, Women’s Studies and Culture).
 
 

Power

Practice

Psychoanalytic Feminism

“To be a radical feminist, one must agree ‘That women were, historically, the first oppressed
group; That women’s oppression is the most widespread, existing in virtually every society... and
cannot be removed by other social changes such as the abolition of class society...’ [Tong,
Rosemary. (1998).  Feminist Theory: A Comprehensive Introduction, p.46.]

“Sexist oppression is of primary importance not because it is the basis of all oppression, but
because it is the practice of domination most people experience, whether their role be that of
discriminator or discriminated against, exploiter or exploited.”  [hooks, bell. (1984).  Feminist
Theory: From Margin to Center, p.35.]

Radical Libertarian Feminsim
Orientation: general support for androgyny
as a means to women’s liberation; for artificial (ex-utero) reproduction and a complete
restructuring of family configuration; and for pornography. [compiled from: Tong, Rosemary.
(1998).  “Radical Feminism.”  Feminist Theory: A Comprehensive Introduction.] 
.
“According to [Ann] Ferguson, radical-libertarian...views on sexuality include the following:
‘Heterosexual as well as other sexual practices are characterized by repression.  The norms of
patriarchal bourgeois sexuality repress the sexual desires and pleasures of everyone by
stigmatizing sexual minorities, thereby keeping the majority ‘pure’ and under control.’”  [Tong,
Rosemary. (1998).  Feminist Theory: A Comprehensive Introduction, p.63.]

“Radical-libertarian feminists also stressed that individual men, as bad as they could be, were not
women’s primary oppressors.  On the contrary women’s main enemy was the patriarchal
system...”  [Tong, Rosemary. (1998).  Feminist Theory: A Comprehensive Introduction, p.70.]

Radical Cultural Feminism
Orientation: general skepticism in regard to androgyny, a call for its full reconsideration, and a show of favoritism for ‘feminine’ qualities, or rejection of androgyny; endorses natural (in-utero) reproduction, and supports the reconceptualization of motherhood and parenthood; and opposes pornography (“thanatica”), but comfortable with “erotica.”  [compiled from Tong, Rosemary. (1998). “Radical Feminism.” Feminist Theory: A Comprehensive Introduction.]

“according to radical-cultural feminists, the key to women’s liberation is to eliminate ‘all
patriarchal institutions (e.g., the pornography industry, family, prostitution, and compulsory
heterosexuality) and sexual practices (sadomasochism, cruising, and adult/child and butch/femme
relationships) in which sexual objectification occurs.’” [Tong, Rosemary. (1998).  Feminist
Theory: A Comprehensive Introduction, p.65.]

Rationalism
Relativism

“patriarchal society uses certain facts about male and female physiology (chromosomes, anatomy, hormones) as the basis for constructing a set of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ identities and behaviors that serve to empower men and disempower women... patriarchal society manages to convince itself that its cultural constructions are somehow ‘natural...’” [Tong, Rosemary.  (1998).  Feminist Theory: A Comprehensive Introduction, pp.48-49.]

Sexual Difference

Sexual Division of Labor
Iris Young suggests only a gendered category such as "division of labor" has the
conceptual power to transform Marxist feminist theory into a socialist feminist theory able
to discuss women's entire estate.  A division of labor analysis pays attention to the
individual people who do the producing in society, i.e., who gives the orders and who takes
them, who does the stimulating work and who does the drudge work, ... who gets paid more
and who gets paid less.  (Tong, Rosemarie. Feminist Thought:  A More Comprehensive
Introduction, 1998, p. 122 .)

Sex role divisions of labor:  the institutionalized sexism which assigns unpaid, devalued,
"dirty" work to women.  (hooks, bell.  Feminist Theory:  from margin to center, 1984, p.
67.)

Marxist feminists argue that the main division of labour is within the family.  Here women
(through domestic labour) reproduce not only the future generation of labour power but
also current members of the employed labour force.  This division within the family
parallels a sexual division of labour in employment where women habitually occupy the
'secondary' sector of the labour market.  (Humm, Maggie.  The Dictionary of Feminist
Theory, 1990, p. 204-205.)

Division of labor by sex is the socially accepted theory that accords lower status to
women's work.  The sexual division of labor is also the underpinning of sexual subcultures
in which men and women experience life differently; it is the material base of male power
which is exercised (in our society) not just in not doing housework and in securing superior
employment, but psychologically as well.  (Hartman, Heidi,  "The Unhappy Marriage of
Marxism and Feminism", from The Second Wave edited by Linda Nicholson, 1997, p. 102.)
The sexual division of labor in the labor market and elsewhere  should be understood as a
manifestation of patriarchy which serves to perpetuate it. (Ibid.  p.109.)

Sexual Politics
Sisterhood
“Bond[ing] with other women on the basis of shared strengths and resources.” [hooks, bell.  (1984).  Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, p.45.]

“Until white supremacy is understood and attacked by white women there can be no bonding
between them and multi-ethnic groups of women... Women of color must confront our
absorption of white supremacist beliefs, ‘internalized racism,’ which may lead us to feel self-
hate, to vent anger and rage at injustice at one another rather than at oppressive forces, to hurt
and abuse one another, or to lead one ethnic group to make no effort to communicate with
another” (p.55).  [hooks, bell.  (1984).  Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center.]

Social Construction

Socialist Feminism
Socialist feminism is the theory that explains the origins of women's oppression in the 
interaction of both capitalism and the patriarchy.  Socialist feminists claim that women's 
liberation depends on the overthrow of capitalism and the patriarchy (whereas marxist 
feminists only consider the overthrow of capitalism).  (Tong, Rosemarie.  Feminist
Thought:  A More Comprehensive Introduction, 1998, p. 119.)

One of the main theories of Western feminism, socialist feminism believes that women are
second-class citizens in patriarchal capitalism which depends for its survival on the
exploitation of working people, and on the special exploitation of women.  Socialist
feminism argues that we need to transform not only the ownership of the means of
production, but also social experience because the roots of women's oppression lie in the
total economic system of capitalism.  Unlike radical feminism, socialist feminists refuse to treat economic oppression as secondary; unlike Marxist feminists they refuse to treat sexist oppression as secondary. (Humm, Maggie.  The Dictionary of Feminist Theory, 1990, p. 212-213.)

Socialist feminism makes society's gender division co-equal with its class divisions and
central to its analysis of the political economy.  (Abramovitz, Mimi.  Regulating the Lives
of Women, 1989, p. 26.)

Standpoint

A feminist critique of traditional scholarship and its claim of neutrality. Suggests that since all research and knowledge is produced from a particular standpoint (or social location) and “dominant” (i.e., male) standpoints prevail, other perspectives remain hidden.  Also assumes that those who gain most from positions of power and privilege are least equipped to see this bias, while those most marginalized (e.g. women) see it most clearly. (Boles, Historical Dictionary of Feminism, p.272)

All women will not view their oppression in the same way nor do all women see reality the
same.  A woman's race, class, ethnicity, age, sexual preference, physical condition, or
psychological condition, for example, will affect what position she occupies on the
feminist-standpoint platform.  Women's standpoint is a kaleidoscope of truths, continually
shaping and reshaping each other, as more and different women begin to work and think
together.  (Tong, Rosemarie.  Feminist Thought:  A More Comprehensive Introduction,
1998, p. 128-129.

Standpoint epistemology
Theory about the nature and grounds of knowledge, especially with reference to its limits and validity, from the viewpoint of standpoint theory (in Alarcon’s text, she specifically refers to gender standpoint epistemology).

Subject/Subjectivity