The Second Wave A Reader in Feminist Theory

This volume collects many of the major essays of feminist theory of the past 40 years. The essays are those which have made key contributions to feminist theory during this period and which have generated extensive discussion. The Second Wave situates particular debates within their historical contexts and provides a sense of why certain questions emerged when they did.

The Second Wave collects many of the major essays of feminist theory of the past forty years, essays by the figures who have made key contributions to feminist theory during this period and have generated extensive discussion. Organized historically, these essays provide a sense of the major turning points in feminist theory. Contributors include: Norma Alarcon, Linda Alcoff, Michele Barrett, Elsa Barkley Brown, Judith Butler, Nancy Chodorow, Patricia Hill Collins, Simone de Beauvoir, Shulamith Firestone, Nancy Fraser, Carol Gilligan, Heidi Hartmann, Nancy C. M. Hartsock, Luce Irigaray, Catharine MacKinnon, Uma Narayan, Linda Nicholson, Ellen Rooney, Gayle Rubin, Gayatri Spivak, Wendy W. Williams and Monique Wittig.

Introduction; PART 1: EARLY STATEMENTS:
1. Simone de Beauvoir--"Introduction" to The Second Sex
2. Shulamith Firestone--The Dialectic of Sex
3. Gayle Rubin--The Traffic in Women: Notes on the "Political Economy" of Sex
4. The Combahee River Collective--A Black Feminist Statement
5. Wendy W. Williams--The Equality Crisis: Some Reflections on Culture, Courts, and Feminism
PART 2: WITH AND AGAINST MARX:
6. Heidi Hartman--The Unhappy Mariage of Marxism and Feminism: Towards a More Progressive Union
7. Michele Barrett--Capitalism and Women's Liberation
8. Linda Nicholson--Feminism and Marx: Integrating Kinship with the Economic
PART 3: GYNOCENTRISM: WOMEN'S OPPRESSION, WOMEN'S IDENTITY, AND WOMEN'S STANDPOINT:
9. Radicalesbians--The Woman Identified Woman
10. Catharine A. MacKinnon--Sexuality
11. Nancy Chodorow--The Psychodynamics of the Family
12. Carol Gilligan--Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle
13. Nancy C. M. Hartsock--The Feminist Standpoint:Developing the Ground for a Specifically Feminist Historical Materialism
14. Patricia Hill Collins--Defining Black Feminist Thought
PART 4: THEORIZING DIFFERENCE/DECONSTRUCTING IDENTITY:
15. Monique Wittig--One is Not Born a Woman;
16. Elsa Barkley Brown--"What has Happened Here?" The Politics of Difference in Women's History and Feminist Politics
17. Norma Alarcon--The Theoretical Subject(s) of This Bridge Called My Back and Anglo-American Feminism
18. Judith Butler--Imitation and Gender Insubordination
PART 5: THE QUESTION OF ESSENTIALISM:
19. Luce Irigaray--"This Sex Which is Not One"
20. Linda Alcoff-- Cultural Feminism versus Post-Structuralism: An Identity Crisis in Feminist Theory
21. Gayatri Spivak with Ellen Rooney--"In a Word, Interview"
22. Nancy Fraser-- Structuralism or Pragmatics? On Discourse Theory and Feminist Politics
23. Uma Narayan--Contesting Cultures: "Westernization," Respect for Cultures, and Third-World Feminists.

Linda Nicholson is Professor in the Department of Educational Administration and Policy Studies, and Women's Studies at the State University of New York, Albany. She is the author of Gender and History (1986), editor of Feminism/Postmodernism (Routledge, 1990) and the co- editor with Steven Seidman of Social Postmodernism. She is editor of Routledge's Thinking Gender series.