Recovering women in history from feminist deconstructionism

Abstract

Recent feminist deconstructionist ideas, which argue that invocations of the category women lead to an impasse in feminist politics, are discussed through a detailed look at contributions to this debate. These ideas contain much insightful thinking which needs to be taken on board in feminist academic work across all disciplines. They also contain assumptions and silences that need to be challenged. One is the failure to see heterosexuality as a metanarrative binding the category women to the category men. Another is the tacit denial of aged, black, lesbian, disabled, and working-class women's struggles to name themselves such. Also women, not just feminists, theorise their own lives and experiences in actually complex deconstructionist terms which recognise multiple fractures within the category women. This is argued in relation to the theory and practice concerning such fractures contained in Hannah Cullwick's diaries, written between 1854 and 1873 and edited by the present author.