Papers by Hester Eisenstein
The Future Of Difference (The Douglass Series On Women's Lives & The Meaning Of Gender)
Rutgers University Press, 1985
Women\u27s Studies at Barnard College: Alive and Well and Living in New York
It may seem somewhat confusing to be reading an article in 1978 on the new Women\u27s Studies Pro... more It may seem somewhat confusing to be reading an article in 1978 on the new Women\u27s Studies Program at Barnard College. After all, people say, haven\u27t you had women\u27s studies there for years? The answer is, well, yes and no. Of course there have been women\u27s studies courses at Barnard for many years. Annette Baxter\u27s History of American Women was one of the earliest courses in the country, first taught in the fall of 1966. Similarly, Catharine R. Stimpson introduced a course on Images of Women in Literature in the spring of 1971. The Barnard Women\u27s Center was begun in 1971, and the annual The Scholar and the Feminist conference that it sponsors was first held in 1974. But it was only in May 1977 that the Barnard College faculty voted to establish a major in women\u27s studies, for students who wish to explore tbe basic questions raised by the new scholarship on women. Some of the issues touched upon in this field are: sex roles, sex differences, and the concepts of...
The Socialist Feminist Project: A Contemporary Reader in Theory and Politics
Science & Society, 2006
... Among these are Deniz Kandiyotti's article defining the patriarchal bargain struck by ... more ... Among these are Deniz Kandiyotti's article defining the patriarchal bargain struck by women, introducing the idea that in contemporary feudal or tribal societies, as in some parts of the Middle East and Africa, women accommodate themselves in differing ways to patriarchal ...
Comments on Victor Wallis's “Capitalism Unhinged”
Socialism and Democracy, 2017
Victor Wallis’s powerful piece on “Capitalism Unhinged” provoked many reactions in those of us wh... more Victor Wallis’s powerful piece on “Capitalism Unhinged” provoked many reactions in those of us who read it. He has kindly invited me to write some brief comments, along with other members of the Socialism and Democracy editorial board. What follows is a series of thoughts provoked by Victor’s analysis. Specifically, I am trying to address the issue of how it is possible, in the light of such a fragmented political landscape, to envision a powerful social movement that could lead us out of the Trumpian darkness. The obstacles to such a development are enormous. First is the extreme atomization and isolation of the US populace. One of the main achievements of ruling capitalist elites, especially in the US, has been the creation of a culture of extreme individualism. From hairstyles to clothing to politics, there are enormous rewards for competing as an individual and very few for creating communities of solidarity. The powerful trade union movement of the 1930s to the 1950s, with its model of collective, militant action, was weakened by the post-World War II purge of Communist leadership and eventually reduced to a shadow of its former self. Witness the recent resounding defeat of the United Auto Workers in its drive to organize the Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi. Unfortunately, the success of mainstream feminism in the US and elsewhere has contributed to this phenomenon. The collective impulse of the late 1960s and 1970s, in which “women’s liberation” meant a unified struggle for the rights of women, has been effectively replaced by a new form of individualism. Success in the corporate boardroom,
Rethinking Patriarchy in Relation to Social Reproduction
RETHINKING PATRIARCHY IN RELATION TO SOCIAL REPRODUCTION In this paper I want to look at the rece... more RETHINKING PATRIARCHY IN RELATION TO SOCIAL REPRODUCTION In this paper I want to look at the recent history of the concept of patriarchy in relation to the new literature on social reproduction. The word patriarchy was central to the theorizing of second wave feminism in the 1970s, and indeed was part of the debate over whether the oppression of women was primarily due to patriarchy or to capitalism. In recent years Marxist feminists have turned their attention to the issue of social reproduction, and the ways in which the role of women in childbearing, childrearing, and the social institutions such as education and healthcare are essential to the reproduction of the contemporary form of capitalism. Silvia Federici has suggested that in the recent history of the west there have been at least three forms or phases of patriarchy: male control over women’s work in the cottage industry that preceded factories; the rise of the factory system and the introduction of the family wage; and t...
Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, 1989
The theme of women and power is one that has been a constant element in American feminist theory ... more The theme of women and power is one that has been a constant element in American feminist theory since the resurgence of the women's movement in the 1960's. In this paper I hope to contribute to this ongoing discussion, using as my primary source material my own experience in Australia from 1980 to 1988, in the world of what the Australians term the "femocrats." 1 I see this paper as part of a larger enterprise, being carried out internationally, to assess the impact of a wide variety of feminist interventions.2 Since the 1960's, feminists have been part of a number of activities seeking to realize feminist goals, using whatever structures and resources they could find at hand. The methodology I employ is a form of participant-observation, writing contemporary history from within, in a mode given the stamp of approval by radical historians some years back, but which I carry out with some trepidation nonetheless. The method of using one's own experience to b...
Querying Intersectionality
Science & Society, 2018
New Formations, 2017
In this essay I reflect on a sample of a relatively new literature that has emerged in recent yea... more In this essay I reflect on a sample of a relatively new literature that has emerged in recent years on the growth of 'womenomics' and what Adrienne Roberts has called 'transnational business feminism'. Are these developments a triumph for the influence of feminist activists around the globe? Or do we see them as yet another classic attempt by the agents of capitalist globalisation to contain the energies of women and turn them to the advantage of the bottom line? I look at some examples of TBF on the part of Goldman Sachs, Unilever, Levi-Strauss, and the Nike Foundation; at the debate among feminist scholars over whether neoliberal feminism is 'really' feminism; at the rise of the concept of 'empowerment;' and finally, at some elements that TBF leaves out of the picture, including the neoliberal assault on social reproduction; the extreme exploitation of women workers, from Walmart to Export Processing Zones; the retreat from class analysis under neoliberalism; and the continuing effects of 'structural adjustment' on countries in the North like Greece subject to the ravages of the international financial order. I conclude with a call to the international male left to be as welcoming and as creative toward the ideas and the activism of the international women's movement as their corporate adversaries.
Feminism Seduced
Feminism Seduced, 2015
Feminist judo: throwing with the weight of the state
Australian Left Review, 1986
To Dance with the Devil
The Women's Review of Books, 1997
Поиск в библиотеке, Расширенный поиск. ...
The Future of Difference
SubStance, 1982
Essays discuss mother-daughter relationships, feminism in France, gender and language, the experi... more Essays discuss mother-daughter relationships, feminism in France, gender and language, the experiences of Black women, androgyny, lesbianism, and women in politics.
Socialism and Democracy, 2009
The election of Barack Obama in November 2008 gave rise to passionate celebrations, at least in s... more The election of Barack Obama in November 2008 gave rise to passionate celebrations, at least in some parts of the country. Here is one account (by the President of Barnard College): Outside the gates of Barnard, a huge crowd had . . . formed. People were screaming and crying, hugging strangers, and dancing along the pavement. Without a leader, without a destination or plan, an impromptu parade started marching -running, skipping, cartwheeling -south of 116th Street. Police officers entered the crowd and gave high fives to all who passed; night cleaning crews at Tom's Restaurant literally put down their brooms and started to dance along. When security crews hastily closed off patches of the street, taxi drivers got out of their cars and gleefully joined right in. I've never seen anything like it in my life. (Spar 2009: 2) While the president of an elite women's college welcomes the election of Obama, a feminist Chavista from Venezuela paints a more sobering picture. For journalist and activist Vanessa Davies, We must understand Obama as a necessity of the US establishment. Obama was the necessary figurehead for the moment in which the US was living, in order to calm the waters and change without really changing. He is a figure who can generate the illusion of change, but without producing that change. 1
Socialism and Democracy, 2002
In trying to make sense of events that are unfolding at a rapid pace-from the World Trade Center ... more In trying to make sense of events that are unfolding at a rapid pace-from the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks on September 11 to the anthrax scare to the United States' military operations in Afghanistan-we need a framework of analysis. I take it as given that the framework being offered to us by the corporate media and by our leadership in Washington and New York, namely, that we are fighting a patriotic war against an evil enemy, is both misleading and dangerous. What intellectual tools can we use to develop an alternative point of view on these events? I want to suggest one way of looking at things, using the work being done on "globalization." Globalization as a media term took off in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union, when pundits and journalists declared victory for the United States and for our "way of life," that is, corporate capitalism and democratic institutions. But in economic terms, it also refers to the expansion of investment and manufacturing opportunities for "multinational" corporations to countries and regions where, prior to 1989, they were blocked by the presence of so-called command economies. Globalization means, then, the extension of the capitalist way of life to all corners of the globe.
The Australian Femocrat Experiment: A Feminist Case for Bureaucracy''in M
Science & Society, 2005
Science & Society, 2001
Of all the ªnewº social movements of the 1960s, the revived women's movement was arguably among t... more Of all the ªnewº social movements of the 1960s, the revived women's movement was arguably among the most influential and enduring. Yet in some historical accounts of that period this movement is given less than its due. To remedy this imbalance, Rachel Blau DuPlessis and Ann Snitow, feminist academics at Temple University and the New School University, set out to collect the articles in this engaging and readable book.* As they write, ªwhen the histories of the sixties began to appear with the women's movement relegated to the footnotes and the margins, we realized how urgently we wanted to read women's own accounts of their diverse historical participation and agencyº (3).
Encountering Simone de Beauvoir
Women & Politics, 1991
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Papers by Hester Eisenstein