Fortunes of Feminism: From Women's Liberation to Identity Politics to Anti-Capitalism

Nancy Fraser’s powerful new book documents the “movements of feminism” and the shifts in the feminist imaginary since the 1970s.

Fraser follows the history of feminism from the ferment of the New Left, during which “Second Wave” feminism emerged as a struggle for women’s liberation alongside other social movements, to its emersion in identity politics following the decline of its initial utopian energies. Alongside this detailed history, Fraser recognizes the need for a reinvigorated feminist radicalism to respond to the crisis in neoliberalism. She argues for a feminism that could join other egalitarian movements in struggles aimed at subjecting capitalism to democratic control, while retrieving the core utopian insights of feminism’s earlier phases.

Charts the history of women's liberation and calls for a revitalized feminism.

Nancy Fraser’s powerful new book documents the “movements of feminism” and the shifts in the feminist imaginary since the 1970s.

Fraser follows the history of feminism from the ferment of the New Left, during which “Second Wave” feminism emerged as a struggle for women’s liberation alongside other social movements, to its emersion in identity politics following the decline of its initial utopian energies. Alongside this detailed history, Fraser recognizes the need for a reinvigorated feminist radicalism to respond to the crisis in neoliberalism. She argues for a feminism that could join other egalitarian movements in struggles aimed at subjecting capitalism to democratic control, while retrieving the core utopian insights of feminism’s earlier phases.

Nancy Fraser is Loeb Professor of Philosophy and Politics at the New School for Social Research and holder of a Chaire Blaise Pascal at the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales in Paris. Her books include Redistribution or Recognition: A Political-Philosophical Exchange (with Axel Honneth), Justice Interruptus: Critical Reflections on the "Postsocialist" Condition, and Unruly Practices: Power, Discourse and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory.