1st Edition
Crossing Boundaries Feminisms and the Critique of Knowledges
First published in 1988, Crossing Boundaries challenges existing disciplines and fields of study from a feminist perspective, contesting their presumptions, and questioning and crossing their boundaries.
The book provides a broad-ranging overview of the state of feminist interventions in the social and natural sciences and the humanities. It illustrates something of the diversity of approaches to theory and scholarship which is evident in the work of feminists. It analyses crucial problems in the way traditional knowledges are conceived, and poses exciting new alternatives.
Here is a lively display of the vigour of feminist investigations, from mathematics to literary criticism, from biology to socialism, from equal pay to polyandry. This book will introduce the reader to the work of feminist thinkers and will be a valuable text for students and teachers of sociology and women’s studies.
Preface Part 1. Women and the sciences Introduction Marie de Lepervanche 1. Feminism and science E.A. Grosz and Marie de Lepervanche 2. Mathematics: a barrier for women? Mary Barnes 3. Biology, the popular weapon: sex differences in cognitive function Lesly Rogers Part 2: Women and the humanities Introduction E.A. Grosz 4. Towards a feminist philosophy of the body Moira Gatens 5. Polyandry, ‘pollution’, ‘prostitution’. The problems of eurocentrism and androcentrism in Polynesian studies Caroline Ralston 6. Feminist readings: the case of Christina Stead Susan Sheridan 7. The in(ter)vention of feminist knowledges E.A. Grosz Part 3: Women in Australia Introduction Marie de Lepervanche 8. The feminisation of poverty Bettina Cass 9. Equal pay, a family wage, or both? Ann Curthoys Part 4: Feminisms, feminist and forgotten women Introduction Barbara Caine 10. Pre–World War I socialist feminism in Germany: homo economicus Carole E. Adams 11. Rose Scott’s vision: feminism and masculinity, 1880–1925 Judith Allen 12. Millicent Garrett Fawcett: a Victorian liberal feminist? Barbara Caine 13. Aileen Palmer’s second coming of age Judith Keene
Biography
Barbara Caine is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Syndey. She was the first Director of the Women’s Studies Centre. Her main areas of interest are in the history of autobiography and biography and in the history of feminism.
E.A. Grosz is an Australian philosopher, feminist theorist, and professor working in the U.S. She is Jean Fox O'Barr Women's Studies Distinguished Professor Emerita at Duke University, USA.
Marie de Lepervanche is an Anthropologist. She taught at the University of Sydney, Australia.
