Feminist Thinkers and the Demands of Femininity: The Lives and Work of Intellectual Women

by Lori Marso

Examining the lives and work of historical and contemporary feminist intellectuals, Feminist Thinkers and the Demands of Femininity explores the feminist struggle to "have it all." This fascinating interdisciplinary study focuses on how feminist thinkers throughout history have long striven to balance politics, intellectual work, and the material conditions of femininity. Taking a close look at this quest for an integrated life in the autobiographical...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415979277
• ISBN13: 9780415979276
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.2" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Bringing together the canons of feminism

In her new book Feminist Thinkers and the Demands of Femininity, Lori Marso engages a wide range of intellectual women in a tremendously interesting dialogue. While enriching Beauvoir's notion of the "eternal feminine" by elaborating a more complex concept she calls "the demands of femininity," Marso offers her readers a clearer understanding of the thoughts and lives of various feminist authors. This original concept allows her to bring to light the contradictions between various intellectual women's lives and work, which were imposed on them because of the gender roles they had to cope with. Marso's book succeeds in "rethinking the relationship between universal and particular, equality and difference," by analyzing the specificities and commonalities of both the personal lives and political philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir, Emma Goldman, Mary Wollstonecraft, Ida B. Wells, and Madame de Staël. Marso's book therefore provides a complex and rich interpretation of the intellectual contributions of many canonical feminist writers, exploring these in a way that rises above the traditionnal dichotomy between theory and practice, thought and biography. This indispensable analysis enables feminist thought to progress beyond the boundaries that apparently separate individual women while respecting their uniqueness.

An essential read!

In Feminist Thinkers and the Demands of Femininity Lori Marso addresses a crucially important, though often ignored, feminist question: how can/do feminist intellectuals balance the demands of femininity with their feminist theories? In answering this question Marso returns to the canonical feminist texts that are at times cast aside by contemporary feminists who claim to have progressed far beyond first wave feminism. Marso reads the feminist theories of our feminist mothers alongside their memoirs and personal letters in order to uncover what comes to be an inevitable tension between living as a feminist and living as a woman. In-so-doing, Marso opens a space for all conflicted feminists who are forced to negotiate their own femininity in light of their feminist theories. By addressing these often ignored issues, Marso allows feminists the room to live as feminist women, with all the contingent complexities that may follow. Concomitantly, Marso addresses another crucial question for contemporary feminism: with all of the insights of diversity behind us, can/should feminists still hold onto the category women? By examining a number of very differently situated women, and in-so-doing revealing a common ground of struggle - that of negotiating our femininity within parameters and confining structures not of our own making - Marso breaths new life into the debate over the category `women' and its usefulness for feminist politics. Brilliantly theorized and eloquently written. A refreshing read!

A contemporary examination of a historical dilemma

As a young feminist, I have often found myself struggling to find the balance between the theory that I know to be visionary and needed, and the pressures and subconscious wants I have developed as a societal member. This book is not only reassuring in showing me that some of the most influential "mothers" of feminism also fought with this hypocrisy in their life, but that it made them more human and more relatable in view of their theoretical visions. Marso helps fill this gap through an examination of 4 influential writers, their personal lives and their theoretical stances. I would recommend this book to anyone who finds themselves at odds with their feminist identity.

Fascinating! An absolutely essential read!!

This book is essential reading to all feminist women. Marso deals with one of the most important issues a woman can deal with in her personal life: how to balance the often incompatible situation of feminity with advocating as well as living a feminist life. Marso addresses this question by examining the lives of a wide variety of intellectual women in conjunction with their theories, thereby illuminating an overwhelmingly important, yet often overlooked area of inquiry. Consequently, this book fills a void in feminist literature. Utilizing a wide variety of women, spanning time and place, this book is incredibly well-reasearched and of dynamic interest to both the intellectual feminist as well as any woman eager to gain insight into these questions. This book is not only incredibly important, but one of the most enjoyable books I've ever had the pleasure of reading. I absolutley LOVE this book!

Beautifully researched, a terrific read

Wow -- I've been a fan of Lori Jo Marso's work for quite some time (and an devotée of Mme. de Staël's for even longer), so I was expecting this book to be interesting, but I was not prepared to be quite THIS fascinated. Not only is this book meticulously researched (and believe me, I have read widely enough about all of the authors Marso discusses here that I would have known very quickly if the research were not impeccable), but it is a wonderful read as well. Marso's premise -- that it makes more sense to view historically important intellectual women within the context of their actual lives, rather than pretending, as so many scholars do, that intellectuals somehow exist outside their bodies and social circles, or judging women who lived a couple of hundred years ago by the standards of today -- seems so sensible, yet it has been sadly missing from too many of the books on these women's writings. Mme. de Staël and Mary Wollstonecraft, in particular, the victims of so much prurient speculation in their own day, have too often either been dismissed as "loose women" (one long-ago bestselling biography of Mme. de Staël was even called "Mistress to an Age," a title that the author, alas, seemed to regard as literally true.) or pigeonholed as just novelists or just political thinkers. By presenting these women and their work in all of their glorious, real-life complexity, Marso has made an important contribution to the literature. I had not realized how desperately my bookshelf needed this book, but it definitely did.