Zillah R. Eisenstein

Fourteen provocative papers on the oppression of women in capitalist countries, along with three articles on the subordinate position of women in two communist countries, Cuba and China. These important, often path-breaking articles are arranged in five basic sections, the titles of which indicate the broad range of issues being considered: Introduction; motherhood, reproduction, and male supremacy; socialist feminist historical analysis; patriarchy in revolutionary society; socialist feminism in the United States. The underlying thrust of the book is toward integrating the central ideas of radical feminist thought with those pivotal for Marxist or socialist class analysis.

Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism

"Eisenstein argues clearly and forcefully for the importance of reinventing a comprehensive rights discourse through the recognition of individual specified needs."—Donna J. Haraway, University of California, Santa Cruz "Inspired by events in Eastern Europe and building on her earlier, pathbreaking critiques of patriarchy, neoconservatism, and neoliberalism, Eisenstein asks: how shall a white feminist living in the U.S. in the 1990s position herself in a world where so much has changed yet so much remains the same? Her answer, daring and persuasive, steers through the post-1989 debates in Eastern Europe over the meaning of democracy; the searing race-gender controversies of recent U.S. politics—the Gulf War, AIDS, abortion, affirmative action, the Hill-Thomas hearings; and finally to the conclusion that we must radically redefine, not reject, liberal concepts like "rights," "equality," and "privacy."—Rosalind P. Petchesky, Hunter College, author of Abortion and Woman's Choice

Reimaging Democracy

The Color of Gender

Manmade Breast Cancers

The Female Body and the Law provides an original and incisive reexamination of the dynamics of sexual equality. Eisenstein contends that sexual inequality is fostered both by the law and by the insistence that men and women are biologically different. Through a fascinating discussion of a series of issues including affirmative action, AIDS, Baby M, pornography, and abortion, Eisenstein shows how the law operates as a political language that establishes and curtails choices and actions. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1990.

The Female Body and the Law

Radicalizing the Next Revolution

Abolitionist Socialist Feminism

"This book is written for all people who wish to examine more deeply what the West really is, how it is seen by the rest of the world, and the hidden histories that make up human complexity and diversity below the waterline of conventional narratives."--Jacket.

Zillah R. Eisenstein

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