Femininity and Domination - Studies in the Phenomenology of Oppression

This work draws on the experiences of daily life to analyze the guises in which intimations of inferiority are conveyed to women in society. The author argues that women are recruited to an idealized, yet finally disempowering, femininity in a patriarchal society.This volume draws on the experience of daily life to examine the many disguises in which intimation of inferiority are delivered to women. Bartky shows how women are recruited to an idealised yet finally disempowering femininity. Three main themes emerge in the essays: the ways in which a systematically depreciated female identity is produced and reproduced: the war between the emancipated and unemancipated aspects of the female self: and the transforming character of consciousness-raising', which allows women to gain insight into the oppressive character of patriarchal culture and begin inventing new paradigms of self and society.