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Anti-Essentialism in Practice: Carol Gilligan and Feminist Philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Cressida J. Heyes
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Abstract

Third wave anti-essentialist critique has too often been used to dismiss second wave feminist projects. I examine chims that Carol Gilligan's work is “essentialist,” and argue that her recent research requires this criticism be rethought. Anti-essentialist feminist method should consist in attention to the relations of power that construct accounts of gendered identity in the course of different forms of empirical enquiry, not in rejecting any general claim about women or girls.

Type
Third Revision
Information
Hypatia , Volume 12 , Issue 3: Special Issue: Third Wave Feminisms , Summer 1997 , pp. 142 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by Hypatia, Inc.

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