Feminism has a long and complex tradition. These four volumes aim to provide a guide for specialist and non-specialist readers to the many debates and discussions to which feminists have contributed in the past 200 years. The works collected here demonstrate the range of feminist engagement and suggest the part that feminists have played in the development of post-Enlightenment thought. They are arranged chronologically in order to give readers a sense of the history of feminism and the ways in which feminism has changed and developed in particular historical contexts. At the same time, readers will also be able to assess the extent to which those aspects of the relationship of women to the social world have remained unchanged. The material is drawn from diverse academic disciplines: feminism has refused compartmentalization within any one social context and this collection attests to its universal relevance. Themes covered in Volume 1 include feminism and the Enlightenment and women and the emergence of modern Europe.
Volume 2 looks at feminism and modernity, and the feminist interventions in the culture of modernity, while Volume 3 studies feminist responses to industrial society and the feminist challenges to the gendered construction of the social world. The final volume covers feminism and the politics of difference - feminist arguments for diversity. An introduction places the pieces selected in the appropriate intellectual and historical context, and an index makes this both a resource and searchable tool.