Fifty-One Key Feminist Thinkers

The feminist thinkers in this collection are the designated "fifty-one key feminist thinkers," historical and contemporary, and also the authors of the entries. Collected here are fifty-one key thinkers and fifty-one authors, recognizing that women are fifty-one percent of the population. There are actually one hundred and two thinkers collected in these pages, as each author is a feminist thinker, too: scholars, writers, poets, and activists, well-established and emerging, old and young and in-between. These feminists speak the languages of art, politics, literature, education, classics, gender studies, film, queer theory, global affairs, political theory, science fiction, African American studies, sociology, American studies, geography, history, philosophy, poetry, and psychoanalysis. Speaking in all these diverse tongues, conversations made possible by feminist thinking are introduced and engaged. Key figures include: Simone de Beauvoir Doris Lessing Toni Morrison Cindy Sherman Octavia Butler Marina Warner Elizabeth Cady Stanton Chantal Akerman Betty Friedan Audre Lorde Margaret Fuller Sappho Adrienne Rich Each entry is supported by a list of the thinker’s major works, along with further reading suggestions. An ideal resource for students and academics alike, this text will appeal to all those interested in the fields of gender studies, women’s studies and women’s history and politics. Lori J. Marso is Professor of Political Science and Former Director of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Union College in Schenectady, New York, USA. In Fifty-One Key Feminist Thinkers Lori Marso has brought together an excellent collection of accessible yet incisive, rich and original semi-biographical essays on key feminist thinkers, ranging from Sappho and Sojourner Truth to Nawal El Saadawi and Judith Butler. The volume is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in feminist thinking in all its variety and complexity. Moya Lloyd, Professor of Political Theory, Loughborough University, UK Showing readers that feminist theory remains one of the most exciting sites for engaging questions of both political thought and action, Fifty-One Key Feminist Thinkers creates a remarkable conversation between feminist theorists past and present. Considering questions of identity, freedom, power, justice, desire, autonomy, inclusion, difference, and what ‘counts’ as feminism, Fifty-One Key Feminist Thinkers offers readers a thought-provoking vision of the past and future