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Justice, Gender, and the Family, by Suspn Moller Okin; Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, by Catherine A. MacKinnon
- Abstract
For career military, civilian life can sometimes appear aimless and drab. For career feminists, life outside the academy can appear similarly bleak, offering little in the way of glamor, reputation, or moral satisfaction.
“Career feminism” is a relatively recent phenomenon. Women used to become feminists because they hoped that it would open doors to things they wanted to do—like becoming brain surgeons or lawyers or fire jumpers. They looked forward to participating fully in civilian life, and could not wait until the war was over so they could get down to serious business. But other feminists turned out to have a taste and a talent for the battle; they liked the camaraderie, the rhetoric, and the pleasure of championing a cause. When they took shelter in the universities, their transformation into career feminists was complete. The universities today are filled with such professional feminists, women whose research, writing, and scholarship revolve around the nuances of feminist theory. Until recently all they had lacked was a unifying goal, preferably one sufficiently remote as to engage them for a very long time.
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