The integrative feminine principle in North American feminist radicalism: Value basis of a new feminism

Abstract

This paper traces the emergence of a significant tendency of feminist radicalism which bases its politics on an assertion of both women's equality and specificity, and challenges not only the dominant devaluation of women as less than human but also the definition of humanity itself as essentially male. This tendency affirms traditionally female concerns in a specifically feminist value framework which I have called the ‘integrative feminine principle.≐ The paper argues that the development of this alternative value framework marks the shift of feminism from a politics of pressure representing the interests of a specific group to a complete alternative politics with reference to the whole of society and with universal relevance for the shape and direction of progressive struggle in general in this period.