Feminism, Capitalism, and the Cunning of History. An Introduction

This essay is the introduction to the forthcoming book under the direction of Nancy Fraser, entitled Le féminisme en mouvements : De l’insurrection des années 60 au néolibéralisme, to be published in French in October 2012 by La Découverte (Paris).

An introduction to my forthcoming book, this essay takes a broad, sweeping look at second-wave feminism, situating the movement’s unfolding in relation to three moments in the history of capitalism. In the first moment, feminism posed a radical challenge to the pervasive androcentrism of “state-organized capitalism”. In the second, the movement unwittingly supplied a key ingredient of what Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello call the “new spirit” of neoliberal capitalism. In the third (present) moment, of capitalist crisis, feminists have the chance to reactivate the movement’s emancipatory promise.