French feminism

Assessment | Biopsychology | Comparative | Cognitive | Developmental | Language | Individual differences | Personality | Philosophy | Social | Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology

Philosophy Index: Aesthetics · Epistemology · Ethics · Logic · Metaphysics · Consciousness · Philosophy of Language · Philosophy of Mind · Philosophy of Science · Social and Political philosophy · Philosophies · Philosophers · List of lists

---

Feminism Types Difference feminism Intersectional feminism Post-modern feminism Psychoanalytic feminism Radical feminism Womanism Issues Gender equality Gender mainstreaming Gender pay gap Gender studies Theory / film theory Women's health Women's rights Women's studies History Women's suffrage Locations French feminism

"French feminism" (which is a phrase mostly used in English-speaking countries) refers to the work of a group of feminists in France from the 1970s to the early 1990s.

French feminism, compared to Anglophone feminism, is distinguished by an approach which is at once more philosophical and more literary. Its texts are effusive, metaphorical, and conceptually rich, rather than pragmatic; they are not as concerned with pragmatism, immediate political doctrine, or a "materialism" which is not of the body.

Writers labeled as "French feminist"

• Chantal Chawaf
• Catherine Clément
• Hélène Cixous
• Luce Irigaray
• Julia Kristeva
• Monique Wittig

French Feminism Forerunners

• Simone de Beauvoir
• Marguerite Duras
• Colette
• George Sand

Themes

Common themes of this work include at least some degree of anti-essentialism, écriture féminine, and a critique of phallogocentrism informed by contemporary developments in Continental philosophy.

External links

• Dossier on feminism in Number 8 of the Left wing quarterly Socialisme International
• Chantal Chawaf official site