Using a social-historical perspective, the author provides a synthesis of key feminist ideas that have been influential in the lives of women and their families. The author addresses a variety of feminist theories and strategies for knowledge production. These ideas are illustrated with examples from her own life course as a way to demonstrate the transformative value of feminist insights for family studies.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Agger, B. (1998). Critical social theories. Boulder, CO: Westview.
2.
Alexander, M. J. , & Mohanty, C. T. (1997). Introduction: Genealogies, legacies, movements. In M. J. Alexander & C. T. Mohanty (Eds.), Feminist genealogies, colonial legacies, democratic futures (pp. xiii-xlii). New York: Routledge.
3.
Allen, K. R. (2000). A conscious and inclusive family studies. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 4-17.
4.
Allen, K. R. , Blieszner, R., Roberto, K. A., Farnsworth, E. B., & Wilcox, K. L. (1999). Older adults and their children: Family patterns of structural diversity. Family Relations, 48, 151-157.
5.
Allen, K. R. , Floyd-Thomas, S. M., & Gillman, L. (In press). Teaching to transform: From volatility to solidarity in an interdisciplinary family studies classroom. Family Relations.
6.
Baber, K. M. , & Allen, K. R. (1992). Women and families: Feminist reconstructions. New York: Guilford.
7.
Baber, K. M. , & Murray, C. I. (2001). A postmodern feminist approach to teaching human sexuality. Family Relations, 50, 23-33.
8.
Bell, D. (1992). Faces at the bottom of the well: The permanence of racism. New York: Basic Books.
9.
Bronfenbrenner, U. , & Weiss, H. B. (1983). Beyond policies without people: An ecological perspective on child and family policy. In E. F. Zigler, S. L. Kagan, & E. Klugman (Eds.), Children, families and government: Perspectives on American social policy (pp. 393-414). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
10.
Brownmiller, S. (1999). In our time: Memoir of a revolution. New York: Delta.
11.
Chodron, P. (1997). When things fall apart: Heart advice for difficult times. Boston: Shambhala.
12.
Chow, E. N-L. (1998). Family, economy, and the state: A legacy of struggle for Chinese American women. In S. J. Ferguson (Ed.), Shifting the center: Understanding contemporary families (pp. 93-114). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
13.
Christensen, K. (1997). “With whom do you believe your lot is cast?” White feminists and racism. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 22, 617-648.
14.
Collins, P. H. (1990). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Winchester, MA: Unwin Hyman.
15.
Cook, J. A. , & Fonow, M. M. (1986). Knowledge and women's interests: Issues of epistemology and methodology in feminist sociological research. Sociological Inquiry, 56, 2-29.
16.
Coontz, S. (1992). The way we never were: American families and the nostalgia trap. New York: Basic Books.
17.
Davis, M. , & Kennedy, E. L. (1986). Oral history and the study of sexuality in the lesbian community: Buffalo, New York, 1940-1960. Feminist Studies, 12, 7-26.
18.
D'Emilio, J. , & Freedman, E. B. (1997). Intimate matters: A history of sexuality in America (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
19.
Dill, B. T. (1988). Our mothers' grief: Racial ethnic women and the maintenance of families. Journal of Family History, 13, 415-431.
20.
Ebert, T. L. (1996). Ludic feminism and after: Postmodernism, desire, and labor in late capitalism. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
21.
Elam, D. , & Wiegman, R. (Eds.). (1995). Feminism beside itself. New York: Routledge.
22.
Ellsworth, E. (1997). Double binds of whiteness. In M. Fine, L. Weis, L. C. Powell, & L. M. Wong (Eds.), Off white: Readings on race, power, and society (pp. 259-269). New York: Routledge.
23.
Faderman, L. (1981). Surpassing the love of men: Romantic friendship and love between women from the Renaissance to the present. New York: William Morrow.
24.
Faderman, L. (1991). Odd girls and twilight lovers: A history of lesbian life in twentiethcentury America. New York: Penguin.
25.
Fisher, B. , & Alberti, R. (2000). Rebuilding when your relationship ends (3rd ed.). Atascadero, CA: Impact.
26.
Fletcher, A. C. , & Russell, S. T. (2001). Incorporating issues of sexual orientation in the classroom: Challenges and solutions. Family Relations, 50, 34-40.
27.
Frankenberg, R. (1993). White women, race matters: The social construction of whiteness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
28.
Freire, P. (1997). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans., New rev. ed.). New York: Continuum. (Original work published 1970)
29.
Friedan, B. (1963). The feminine mystique. New York: Norton.
30.
Gagnier, R. (1990). Feminist postmodernism: The end of feminism or the end of theory? In D. L. Rhode (Ed.), Theoretical perspectives on sexual difference (pp. 21-30). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
31.
Gagnon, J. H. , & Parker, R. G. (1995). Conceiving sexuality. In R. G. Parker & J. H. Gagnon (Eds.), Conceiving sexuality: Approaches to sex research in a postmodern world (pp. 3-16). New York: Routledge.
32.
Goldberg, N. (1986). Writing down the bones: Freeing the writer within. Boston: Shambhala.
33.
Harding, S. (1987). Introduction: Is there a feminist method? In S. Harding (Ed.), Feminism and methodology (pp. 1-14). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
34.
Harding, S. (1998). Subjectivity, experience, and knowledge: An epistemology from/for rainbow coalition politics. In M. F. Rogers (Ed.), Contemporary feminist theory (pp. 97-108). New York: McGraw-Hill.
35.
Harding, S. (2001). Comment on Walby's “Against epistemological chasms: The science question in feminism revisited”: Can democratic values and interests ever play a rationally justifiable role in the evaluation of scientific work?Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 26, 511-525.
36.
Hareven, T. K. (1991). The history of the family and the complexity of social change. American Historical Review, 96, 95-124.
37.
Hawkesworth, M. (1997). Confounding gender. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 22, 649-685.
38.
Hawkesworth, M. E. (1989). Knowers, knowing, known: Feminist theory and claims of truth. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 14, 533-557.
39.
Herrmann, A. C. , & Stewart, A. J. (Eds.). (1994). Theorizing feminism: Parallel trends in the humanities and social sciences. Boulder, CO: Westview.
40.
Jaggar, A. M. , & Rothenberg, P. S. (1984). Feminist frameworks: Alternative theoretical accounts of the relations between women and men (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
41.
Johnson, S. (1989). Wildfire: Igniting the she/volution. Albuquerque, NM: Wildfire.
42.
Kerber, L. K. , & DeHart-Mathews, J. (Eds.). (1987). Women's America: Refocusing the past (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
43.
Kingma, D. R. (2000). Coming apart: Why relationships end and how to live through the ending of yours. Berkeley, CA: Conari Press.
44.
Krieger, S. (1991). Social science and the self: Personal essays on an art form. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
45.
Krieger, S. (1996). The family silver: Essays on relationships among women. Berkeley: University of California Press.
46.
Lang, A. (Ed.). (1969). The blue fairy book. New York: Airmont.
47.
Lorde, A. (1984). Sister outsider: Essays and speeches. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press.
48.
Lugones, M. (1990). Playfulness, “world”-traveling, and loving perception. In G. Anzaldua (Ed.), Making face, making soul: Haciendo caras: Creative and critical perspectives by feminists of color (pp. 390-402). San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.
49.
Marks, S. R. (2000). Teasing out the lessons of the 1960s: Family diversity and family privilege. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 609-622.
50.
McIntosh, P. (1995). White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women's studies. In M. L. Andersen & P. H. Collins (Eds.), Race, class, and gender: An anthology (2nd ed., pp. 76-87). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
51.
Morgan, R. (Ed.). (1970). Sisterhood is powerful. New York: Random House.
52.
Morrison, T. (1992). Playing in the dark: Whiteness and the literary imagination. New York: Vintage.
53.
Murray, N. P. (1994). Living beyond your losses: The healing journey through grief. Ridgefield, CT: Morehouse.
54.
Nielsen, J. M. (1990). Introduction. In J. M. Nielsen (Ed.), Feminist research methods (pp. 1-37). Boulder, CO: Westview.
55.
Osmond, M. W. (1987). Radical-critical theories. In M. B. Sussman & S. K. Steinmetz (Eds.), Handbook of marriage and the family (pp. 103-124). New York: Plenum.
56.
Patterson, C. J. (1994). Children of the lesbian baby boom: Behavioral adjustment, self-concepts, and sex-role identity. In B. Greene & G. Herek (Eds.), Contemporary perspectives on lesbian and gay psychology: Theory, research and application (pp. 156-175). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
57.
Reagon, B. J. (1983). Coalition politics: Turning the century. In B. Smith (Ed.), Home girls: A Black feminist anthology (pp. 356-368). New York: Kitchen Table Press.
58.
Rich, A. (1980). Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 5, 631-660.
59.
Riger, S. (1998). Epistemological debates, feminist voices: Science, social values, and the study of women. In D. L. Anselmi & A. L. Law (Eds.), Questions of gender: Perspectives and paradoxes (pp. 61-75). New York: McGraw-Hill.
60.
Rosser, S. V. (1992). Are there feminist methodologies appropriate for the natural sciences and do they make a difference?Women's Studies International Forum, 15, 535-550.
61.
Ruddick, S. (1989). Maternal thinking: Toward a politics of peace. Boston: Beacon.
62.
Sawhney, S. (1995). Authenticity is such a drag! In D. Elam & R. Wiegman (Eds.), Feminism beside itself (pp. 197-215). New York: Routledge.
63.
Simon, R. I. (1992). Teaching against the grain: Texts for a pedagogy of possibility. New York: Bergin & Garvey.
64.
Smith-Rosenberg, C. (1975). The female world of love and ritual. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 1, 1-29.
65.
Spender, D. (Ed.). (1983). Feminist theories: Three centuries of key women thinkers. New York: Pantheon.
66.
Sprague, J. (2001). Comment on Walby's “Against epistemological chasms: The science question in feminism revisited”: Structured knowledge and strategic methodology. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 26, 527-536.
67.
Stacey, J. (2000). The handbook's tail: Toward revels or a requiem for family diversity. In D. H. Demo, K. R. Allen, & M. A. Fine (Eds.), Handbook of family diversity (pp. 424-439). New York: Oxford University Press.
68.
Thompson, L. (1995). Teaching about ethnic minority families using a pedagogy of care. Family Relations, 44, 129-135.
69.
Thompson, L. , & Walker, A. J. (1995). The place of feminism in family studies. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 847-865.
70.
Walby, S. (2001a). Against epistemological chasms: The science question in feminism revisited. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 26, 485-509.
71.
Walby, S. (2001b). Reply to Harding and Sprague. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 26, 537-540.
72.
Walker, A. J. (2000). Refracted knowledge: Viewing families through the prism of social science. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 595-608.
73.
White, S. (1991). Political theory and postmodernism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
74.
Wilber, K. (1998). The marriage of sense and soul: Integrating science and religion. New York: Broadway.