Nicholson Explores the Theoretical Works of FeminismBy Sullin Jose
The history of feminism has been organized by a first and second wave. The Women�s Rights Movement that began in the early �60s is known as the first wave. The second wave, or Women�s Liberation Movement that directly followed, and is still unfolding today, has produced some of the more theoretical works and critical thinking on gender issues.
Linda Nicholson
In The Second Wave: A Reader in Feminist Theory (Routledge), Linda Nicholson has comprised a collection of essays by various authors that chronicle the development and progression of feminist theory throughout history. "The theories that came about during the second wave, which I grew up with, brought about a change in the way of thinking about gender issues. I wanted to compile a collection of classic works to show how the movement has advanced," said Nicholson.
The book is organized historically, and includes essays that mark specific turning points in feminist theory debates. The first set of essays focuses on women�s oppression, its presence across large stretches of history, and its fundamentality as a principle of social organization. Marxist theory is central to the discussion in the essays that immediately follow, as it has worked to explain previous societies, and allowed for historical change and diversity among these.
In her own essay, titled, "Feminism and Marx: Integrating Kinship with the Economic," Nicholson discusses the distinction in Marxist theory between material production and reproduction, and how the failure to recognize domestic aspects of production has excluded certain aspects that affect women�s lives from social theory.
According to Nicholson, "A limited view of work and what has traditionally been known as "women�s work" has excluded the topic of gender from social theories in the past. It is up to feminists to address the pertinent issues of gender and sexuality that political theory usually does not deal with."
The anthology also includes essays that address differences within feminist theory as they have evolved over time.
Nicholson teaches upper and graduate level courses in women�s studies and in the Department of Educational Administration & Policy. A collection of her own previously published essays, The Play Of Reason: From The Modern To The Post Modern (Cornell University Press), will be available in the fall.
Anthropology Faculty Books Published
Three Anthropology faculty recently published significant books on Native North American peoples: James Collins: Understanding Tolowa Histories: Western Hegemonies and Native American Responses, 1997. Routledge Press; Robert Jarvenpa: Northern Passage: Ethnography and Apprenticeship Among the Subarctic Dene, 1998, Waveland Press, Inc.; and William Fenton: Great Law and the Longhouse: A Political History of the Iroquois Confederacy, 1998, University of Oklahoma Press.