Feminist Theory and Practice? Conceptualizing Emancipatory (but non-Universalist) Tools for Change

• In Event: 512 - Section on Sex and Gender Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 14. Considerations in Research and Practice

Abstract

Since various feminist theorists conceive of social change differently—both the means to reach that goal and what the end in and of itself encompasses—it is important to recognize what these different ideas of social change mean and imply for the study and practice of theory. Next, I move toward discussing politics of domestic work in three varying contexts—1) its perpetual nature, its global nature, and its situated nature. Finally, I think about questions of the gender, media and visibility, and then move toward future thoughts on what to do with these new insights, and what [else] is to be done. My paper argues that theorizing about “next steps” for the study of gender necessitates a consideration of both 1) feminist theory [and its collective set of claims and understandings of the world] and 2) social justice [which moves past second wave, radical feminist rights claims and yet acknowledges historical and contemporary racialized, classed, and nation-based hierarchies]. Therefore, the politics of domestic work functions as a unique empirical example of a social issue at the core of feminist theory and the study of gender because of the way that women and men have positioned themselves or been positioned differently within society, necessitating a need to interrogate the politics of paid reproductive labor, employment practices surrounding carework, and the institutionalization of such practices.

Author

• Katherine Maich, University of California-Berkeley