Ezra's Bookshelf

Feminism Without Illusions

by Elizabeth Fox-Genovese · 372 pages · ~7 hrs

Gender & FeminismPhilosophy

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Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, a historian who moved from Marxist feminism to social conservatism over her career, argues that American feminism has been hobbled by its uncritical embrace of individualism. Writing in 1991, she challenges the notion that women's liberation means extending to women the rights and freedoms previously reserved for men, arguing that this approach ignores how individualist ideology has served male interests and damaged communal bonds. Fox-Genovese contends that feminism needs to reckon more seriously with the value of family, community, and care work rather than simply demanding that women be freed from these responsibilities. She criticizes both conservative defenses of traditional gender roles and feminist celebrations of individual autonomy, seeking a position that takes seriously women's actual experiences and values. The book examines how elite professional women's concerns have dominated feminist discourse while working-class and minority women's priorities have been marginalized. Fox-Genovese's argument that feminism should attend more to responsibilities and community resonates with communitarian critiques of liberalism while maintaining feminist commitments to challenging male domination. Readers may find her subsequent political trajectory troubling, but this book engages seriously with tensions within feminist thought that remain unresolved.

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