Reviewed by Amy Mullin.

Each of the three anthologies contains some wonderful feminist philosophical writing. They all combine attention to both theory and its practical applications, and all make efforts to include writings which make the reader aware of both the diversity of feminist philosophical positions, and the diversity of women.

Feminist Frameworks, which is now in its third edition, is the most comprehensive of the three. It is the only one which contains the perspective of global feminism. Most importantly, the essays in this section do more than chronicle the exploitation of women outside of the United States and Europe. They also discuss feminist activity and feminist solutions around the world. This anthology is also the best of the three at including theoretical and activist perspectives on the intersection of race, gender, class and sexuality. Both of the other anthologies include more limited selections of such perspectives, and both concentrate chiefly on black women’s lives and voices. Feminist Frameworks does the most to include the voices and perspectives of women of a variety of races and ethnicities. Moreover, the voices of women of color are heard throughout the anthology-they are by no means limited to the sections on global and multicultural feminism.

Feminist Frameworks is divided into four parts. The book begins with a general introduction. The four parts: Containing Problems; Why Theory?; Theories of Women’s Subordination; and Practice: Contemporary Issues Through the Lenses, are each preceded by an introduction and followed by helpful suggested readings. The topics in Part One range from hate violence against women to the politics of housework. Both male and female feminists are heard from, and there is some attention to the way men both benefit from and are damaged by sexism. I found this approach more helpful than one which tends to ignore or silence the voices of male feminists. Some readers may be disappointed, however, here and throughout the volume, by the relatively minimal attention to feminist philosophies of religion and feminist spirituality.

The essays in Part Two ask questions about who does theory, who gets to count as knowers, and the relations between theory and activism. Their inclusion is in large part due to critiques of feminist theory, both for its supposed disconnection from feminist practice, and for its sometimes very real presumption to speak for all women, when in fact the diversity of women’s lives is ignored. Part Three presents theories of women’s subordination including classical Marxist and socialist perspectives (usefully distinguished from one another), radical and liberal feminism, multicultural feminism and global feminism. The editors also include a section on biological determinism and its feminist critique. While the anthology as a result includes sexist perspectives, many teachers using the book in a classroom setting may find it useful to acknowledge and critique biological determinism, since it unfortunately remains influential. Perhaps sur-prisingly, there is no real attention in this part of the book to psychoanalytic feminism. Psychoanalytic feminist perspec-tives on women’s subordination, including an abridged version of an essay by Nancy Chodorow, are present to some extent in Part Four.

Part Four is divided into three sections itself: Staying Alive, Family, and Sexuality. These essays focus on the feminization and racialization of poverty, homophobia, motherhood, the redefinition of family, pornography, compulsory heterosexuality, and sexual morality. A variety of theoretical perspectives are represented, drawn from but often combining those from Part Three.

The essays throughout the book were chiefly written, as is the case for all three volumes, in the 1980s. However, essays from the nineteenth century, mid twentieth century, 60s, 70s, and 90s are included and give the reader a sense of the history of feminist thought. As one might expect with such a comprehensive volume, some of the essays are quite short and many are abridged. This can be both a strength and a weakness of the book when it comes to evaluating it as a text for a women’s studies or feminist philosophy class. It is perhaps slightly more suited to the former. Alternatively, instructors of feminist philosophy classes might choose to supplement the volume with a few lengthier essays, which give the authors the opportunity to develop their arguments more fully. I would also welcome inclusion within Feminist Frameworks of more attention to ableism and ageism both within the feminist movement and within the larger society. Essays by Ynestra King, Susan Wendell, Baba Cooper, and Barbara Macdonald, for instance, would enrich the volume.

Feminism and Philosophy is quite a different sort of anthology from Feminist Frameworks. Most strikingly, the essays are far fewer and much lengthier. There are no essays which are chiefly descriptive or sociological. Each is presented in its entirety. The arguments are quite complex. They often assume or would benefit from the reader’s prior acquaintance with traditional, nonfeminist philosophers, and many have fifty or more footnotes. Psychoanalytic perspectives are much more predominant here than they were in Feminist Frameworks.

The book is divided into nine parts. Each part opens with an introduction, and includes three essays and a list of suggested readings. The nine parts are: Liberal Feminist Perspectives, Marxist Feminist Perspectives, Radical Feminist Perspectives, Psychoanalytic Feminist Perspectives, Socialist Feminist Perspectives, Anarcha Feminist and Ecological Feminist Perspectives, Phenomenological Feminist Perspectives, Postmodern Feminist Perspectives, and Perspectives on the Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender.

The editors write that they were unable to include more multicultural and global feminist philosophical writings because feminists have only recently begun to pay more attention to "race, class, sexual identity, age, religion, and physical and psychological conditions in their works" (xii). The greater success of Feminist Frameworks in this regard is an important strength of that volume, and the lesser success of Feminism and Philosophy is a real weakness. The strengths of Feminism and Philosophy are its inclusion of anarcha and ecological feminist perspectives, its clearly written and helpful introductions to each part of the book, and its presentation of lengthier and somewhat more philosophically complex and developed essays than Feminist Frameworks. Like Feminist Frameworks, however, there is little or no attention to either feminist spirituality, or ageism and ableism within feminism and the larger society.

Feminist Philosophies is the only one of the three volumes I have had the opportunity to use in a classroom setting. I used this as the chief text for a Feminist Philosophy course I taught several times at the University of Toronto. Both times I used the text I found it necessary to supplement it with additional feminist essays. Like Feminism and Philosophy, Feminist Philosophies does not include essays in global feminism. Unlike the previous two volumes, it does include essays which pay attention to ageism and ableism. It also includes an essay in the feminist philosophy of religion.

It pays slightly more attention to the intersection of race and gender than does Feminism and Philosophy, but it does not approach the level of Feminist Frameworks in this respect. With the exception of an essay co-written by Marķa Lugones and Elizabeth Spelman (also included in Feminism and Philosophy), which makes reference to Hispanic women, there is no attention to women of any race or ethnicity other than black.

In terms of philosophical difficulty and complexity, Feminist Philosophies is located somewhere between the two other volumes. Some of the essays it includes are long, some are short, others are abridged versions of longer essays. It also includes some sociological essays and opens with a feminist work of fiction by Lois Gould about gender socialization in childhood. Many students found this story, while perhaps overly simplistic in its endorsement of andro-gyny, a useful place to initiate discussion of mechanisms of gender socialization. There is one introduction at the begin-ning of the book and a list of suggested readings at the end. I found the approach taken by the other two volumes, in which there were introductions to each section of the book, and suggested readings were linked to specific topics, more helpful.

Feminist Philosophies is divided into two major parts: Being a Woman: Problems of Gender Inequality and Feminist Theories and Applications: Explaining the Present and Changing the Future. The former part focuses on socialization, sexuality, reproduction, self-images, work, the family, and the way women are misrepresented in religion, history and literature. The latter part is divided into sections on Liberal Feminism, Radical Feminism, Psychoanalytic Feminism, Marxist/Socialist Feminism, Postmodern Feminism, and Methodological Postscripts. The last section addresses issues about essentialism and solidarity in feminist thought and practice. Feminist Philosophies is not as careful as the other two anthologies to distinguish between Marxist and socialist feminisms. Like Feminist Frameworks, and unlike Feminism and Philosophy, it includes essays by male feminists.

All three volumes are decidedly slanted towards coverage of women and feminism within the United States. While Feminist Frameworks does include global feminist perspectives, all three anthologies focus on the history of feminism and feminist thought in the United States. Where sociological data or legal statutes are cited, they are usually based on studies of the United States or the laws of the United States. This is not always made clear. It is certainly a drawback in terms of their usefulness as texts to feminists teaching courses outside of the United States. Another drawback, from my perspective, is that none of the volumes includes works in feminist art theory, and analytic feminism is definitely under-represented if present at all.

• From the Editor
• About the Newsletter
• News from the Committee on the Status of Women
• From the New Chair
• Book Reviews
  • Recent Feminist Philosophy Textbooks, Reviewed by Amy Mullin
  • Free Spirits: Feminist Philosophers on Culture and Gender Basics: Feminist Perspectives on Women and Men, Reviewed by Jessica Prata Miller
  • The Second Wave: A Reader in Feminist Theory and Women, Knowledge and Reality: Explorations in Feminist Philosophy, Reviewed by Cynthia A. Stark
  • Ethics: A Feminist Reader and Living with Contradictions: Controversies in Feminist Social Ethics, Reviewed by Margaret A. McLaren
  • Hypatia's Daughters: Fifteen Hundred Years of Women Philosophers, Reviewed by Julie M. Zilberberg
• Notes on Contributors