This brief episode is a link between two modules, the first and the second. It is, at the same time, a continuation of the episode on Feminism and, an introduction to the episodes of the second module. Although it is acknowledged that any classification is arbitrary, it also argues that classifications may offer advantages in grounding (the legitimacy of) any discipline, and, this was – and still is – important for women’s studies.

The classification of feminist theories presented here is the first one, conceptualized and developed by Alison Jaggar in the 1970s and 1980s. Although it has since been critically assessed, and expanded, its significance lies in that it produced the history of feminist theories and connected it to the theoretical standpoints and political options of her own time.

What follows is an unfolding of each of the theoretical standpoints of Alison Jaggar’s classification as well as its connection to the political options.

This episode was written and read by Daša Duhaček

References for further reading:

Alison Jaggar, Feminist Politics and Human Nature, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham, 1983.

Rosemarie Putnam Tong,  Feminist Thought Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1988.