Beyond the established categories: An alternative approach to feminist thought starting from debates about women and the rise of the market economy

Abstract

Feminist thought is often articulated as a series of categories such as liberal feminism, socialist feminism, Marxist feminism, psychoanalytic feminism, etc. These categories have aided the development of feminist thought, but their prevalence limits discussion to predictable parameters. Meanwhile, feminists often have notably divergent responses to the rise of the market economy. In particular, we differ about the liberating possibilities of participating in a capitalist market economy. Some feminists emphasise that the market economy provides an opportunity for women to free themselves from gender restrictions expressed in family and kinship traditions. But many other feminists are sceptical, from varying perspectives, that participation in the capitalist market results in freedom for women (or in other benefits to women, men or the world). This article draws on work by Linda Nicholson and Karl Polanyi to show that thinking through the historically changing relations between market, kinship, family and politics provides a different way of conceptualising feminist thought. Unlike the older alternative, this new approach has the advantage that it is grounded directly in thinking about women’s experiences around the world.