Reading, Feminist Theory, 39-40

Essentialism

Nature

“sisterhood”

Common women’s experience

Women’s way of moral reasoning (Gilligan)

Universal oppression (Rad feminism)

Political agenda
(NOW)

Sexually influenced psychological development (Freud)
 
 
 

Social Construction

Nurture

“one is not woman born” (de Beauvoir)

“ain’t I a woman?” (Truth)
 
 

how has your gender identity been constructed?

 
“the essential woman”

a classist, racist notion
 

bell hooks
“women do not need to eradicate difference, to feel solidarity”