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Spain's evolution from an authoritarian regime to a well established multi-governed democracy in a short period of time, has been accompanied by incredibly rapid social change and a varied (depending on the governmental period), but overall steady, consideration of gender equality as a political priority. This has also led to the rapid development and consolidation of women's and equality machineries–state feminism–and well-established policies devoted to promoting gender equality over the last three decades, both at national and regional governmental levels. This article aims to present a consolidated policy area which has enough elements to survive and to keep on developing, although in an increasingly fragmented manner, among regions, despite the ongoing economic crisis and the conservative political turn. Based on theories of state feminism and discursive politics, this article analyzes four important elements for understanding this claim and the evolution of national and regional Spanish gender policies and institutions during the last three decades: women's machinery, the relations between that machinery and women's and feminist movements, the policy discourses present in gender equality policies, and the policy instruments used by those machineries and policies.

Big Sister is an unsparing look at radical feminism and its effect on society's judicial system. In this provocative book, Neil Boyd argues that a small band of female extremists has been remarkably successful in reworking criminal and family law. Now that radical feminists have moved into positions of influence as lawyers, judges, politicians, and policy makers, their thinking can be seen in decisions across the legal landscape. He argues that there has been an erosion of the rules of sexual conduct and our notions of fairness and equality, and an undermining of a socially valuable feminism

The equality vs difference (ie, freedom vs protection) debate & future direction of feminism is discussed. Although arguments that women are different from men philosophically contradict arguments that women are equal to men, these two trends are not far apart on practical & even political levels. Many women move back & forth or adhere to both ideas simultaneously. Ultimately, however, a feminism based on equality provides the better opportunity for success, because it does not confine women to particular definitions of gender difference. Equality does not mean that women & men have to be the same, but it understands that they do share a common life. E. Blackwell

Although all theories that oppose the subordination of women can be called feminist, beyond this common denominator, feminisms vary in terms of what they see as the cause of women's subordination, alternatives to patriarchal society, and proposed strategies to achieve the desired change. This article offers a critical examination of theinteractionof feminist theories and the international human rights discourses as articulated at the UN forums and documents. It contends that although a range of feminisms that elucidate the diversity of women's experiences and complexities of oppression have been incorporated into some UN documents, the overall women's rights approach of the UN is still informed by the demands and expectations of liberal feminism. This is particularly evident in the aggregate indicators that are employed to assess the "empowerment of women." In addition to explaining why liberal feminism trumps other feminisms, the article addresses the problems with following policies that are informed by liberal feminism. Noting that the integrative approach of liberal feminism may establish gender equality without empowering the majority of women, it criticizes using aggregate indicators of empowerment for conflating sources of power with empowerment and making false assumptions.

Discusses the goals of feminist theory & the potential advantages of grounding such theory in poststructuralism. The aims of feminist theory are broadly defined as illumination of all forms of patriarchy, emphasis on plurality & diversity over unities & universals, deconstruction of male-centered power hierarchies, new ways of conceptualizing social reality, & the capacity for political change. It is argued that poststructuralism is best suited for these goals, & feminists have already appropriated a variety of poststructuralist terms, including language, discourse, difference, & deconstruction. Drawing on the example of a 1979 sexual discrimination suit against Sears by the Equal Opportunities Employment Commission, it is argued that the contemporary debate between the equality & difference camps of feminism is misleading & destructive. Contrary to popular belief, equality & difference are not mutually exclusive goals in the pursuit of women's rights. Poststructuralism offers the opportunity for fluid & context-specific conceptualizations of difference & equality that would allow feminists to pursue both goals simultaneously. T. Sevier

Have we entered a historical moment of 'post-feminism'? This volume presents a timely and convincing 'no'. These essays demonstrate that there is a new generation of French women who take up questions of equality and difference from a position distinct from either first or second wave feminism, a position that often attempts to move beyond the binary of equality and/or difference to a new form of the individual. - ;Have we entered a historical moment of 'post-feminism'? This volume presents a timely and convincing 'no'. These essays demonstrate that there is a new generation of French women wh

Since at least 2014, a feminist campaign is challenging gender inequality in Irish universities. Seven legal complaints initiated by female lecturers against the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI Galway) successfully placed the issue in the spotlight and culminated in the transformation of the national higher education policy. This article considers the news value mobilized in reporting the campaign. The aim is to investigate how the stories were picked and framed by newspapers, asking how feminisms are portraited and potentially co-opted by mainstream media. Data was gathered by searching the name of the litigants in digital archives from the two largest national daily newspapers (the Irish Independent and The Irish Times), as well as a local weekly publication (the Connacht Tribune). A sample of 111 texts is analysed based on Gislaine Silva's news value typology. The results indicate the news value with greater incidence were conflict, collectivity and celebrity, revealing media events as crucial to disrupt the exclusion or dismissal of feminisms from journalistic discourse. The empirical research offers a fertile terrain to reflect on media depictions of contemporary feminisms as well as the politics of memory related to the suffragette movement. ; Desde por lo menos 2014, una campaña feminista está desafiando la desigualdad de género en las universidades irlandesas. Siete demandas judiciales empezadas por profesoras contra la National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI Galway) incluyeron, con éxito, el tema en la agenda pública y culminaron en la transformación de las políticas nacionales para la enseñanza superior. Este artículo considera los valores notícia movilizados para relatar la campaña. El objetivo es investigar como las historias fueron seleccionadas y enmarcadas por la media hegemónica. Las noticias fueron recolectadas con palabras clave que eran los nombres de las litigantes en los archivos digitales de los dos más grandes diarios irlandeses (Irish Independent e Irish Times), también de un semanario local (Connacht Tribune). La muestra de 111 publicaciones se analizó con base en la tipología de valores noticia desarrollada por Gislaine Silva. Los resultados indican que los valores noticia con más incidencia fueron conflicto, colectividad y celebridad, desvelando que la realización de eventos mediáticos es crucial para romper la exclusión o condena de la agenda feminista en los discursos periodísticos. La pesquisa empírica ofrece un terreno fértil para reflexionar sobre la representación mediática de los feminismos contemporáneos, además de pensar la política de la memoria relativa al movimiento sufragista.

This article focuses on the role of Dr B. R. Ambedkar in the empowerment of women through mobilization of the womenfolk against the subjugation meted out to them by the caste and gender hierarchy in order to maintain the existing caste structures. Ambedkar realized the need for women to become the torchbearers of the new reformed society which is both casteless and classless in nature. He therefore advocated a companionate relationship between men and women as opposed to the master–slave relationship that Manu propagated in Manusmriti. In order to achieve such a feat, the need of the hour was to free women from the bounds imposed upon them by the existing Brahmanical social order which treated them as subservient to men and wholly dependent on their male counterparts. Manu's idea of a woman was of a subhuman being in need of stringent control by her male relations. This article seeks to answer the question—why it was imperative to control women thus? Women, owing to their reproductive potential, have the ability to dismantle the caste purity by reproducing outside of their castes. Hence, their ideological suppression becomes essential to the enterprise of maintaining caste purity. For this purpose, several ritualistic tools had to be put in place to extinguish the threat of women's sexuality.

In December 1989, the ruling communist party of East Germany,the Socialist Unity Party (SED), was reconstituted when it adopted thename Socialist Unity Party-Party of Democratic Socialism (SED-PDS),which was simplified on 4 February 1990 to the Party of DemocraticSocialism.1 The brand of Marxism-Leninism that had prevailed in theGerman Democratic Republic (GDR) appeared to be irredeemablydiscredited, and the new leadership of this successor party wasobliged to create an alternative vision of socialism and to redefinetheir political goals. The PDS program of 1990,2 with its clear adoptionof a feminist agenda, constituted a breach with the party's politicalpast. Whereas the Marxist-Leninist theory underpinning SEDpolicy had been based on the principle that inequality is economicallydetermined, the new PDS program acknowledged patriarchyas a separate issue.

Feminism challenges both the theory and practice of politics, opening up new ways of thinking about political change. In this latest volume in the Oxford Readings in Feminism series, Anne Phillips brings together twenty outstanding articles dealing with various aspects of feminism and politics, covering political studies, political theory, interests and representation, identities and coalitions, equality and anti-discrimination, and citizenship. This collection will be essential reading for any feminist who has doubted the important of political studies, and any student of politics who has dou