The state, gender, and sexual politics

Abstract

The classic feminist slogan "the personal is political" states a basic feature of feminist and gay politics, a link between personal experience and power relations. In many cases the power relations are immediately present in personal life, in matters conventionally thought "private": housework, homophobic jokes, office sexuality, child rearing. Yet there is also a highly "public" dimension of these politics. During the 1970s, Western feminisms made open and substantial demands on the state in every country where a significant mobilization of women occurred. So did gay liberation movements, where they developed. The list of reforms sought includes the decriminalization of abortion in France, a constitutional guarantee of equal rights for women in the USA, rape law reform in Australia, decriminalization of homosexuality in many countries; not to mention expanded state provision of child care, nonsexist education, protection against sexual violence, equal employment opportunity, and anti-discrimination measures. By the early 1980s a women's peace movement had added disarmament and feminist environmentalists had added environmental protection neither conventionally thought of as gender politics but both now argued in gender terms.'