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Grant Bowman, Cynthia --- "Socialist feminist legal theory: a plea" [2019] ELECD 103; in West, Robin; Bowman, G. Cynthia (eds), "Research Handbook on Feminist Jurisprudence" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 91

Book Title: Research Handbook on Feminist Jurisprudence

Editor(s): West, Robin; Bowman, G. Cynthia

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781786439680

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: Socialist feminist legal theory: a plea

Author(s): Grant Bowman, Cynthia

Number of pages: 21

Abstract/Description:

This chapter argues that a significant strand of feminist theory – socialist feminism – has largely been ignored by feminist jurisprudence in the US and explores the potential of recapturing its insights. It first describes the most important theoretical contributions by feminist socialist authors in the 1970s and 1980s: the theory of capitalist patriarchy, dual systems theory, an analysis of the role of housework, a class analysis of women’s status, a race and identity politics approach, perspective theory, alienation theory and an analysis of the international division of labor by sex. The chapter then explores how each of these arguments could supplement our current feminist legal analysis as well as clarify our understanding of modern legal feminism’s profound limitations. It argues that attentiveness to feminist socialism can help twenty-first-century feminist legal theorists and activists design legal projects and reforms on which to focus in order to make progress toward genuine equality.