Gender Consciousness and Politics

Gender Consciousness and Politics is a comprehensive study of American women's political behaviour and attitudes. Using political philosophy, political psychology, history, feminist theory and the anglo-american literary tradition, the author sets the context for an understanding of women's politicization as the result of gender consciousness - the recognition that one's status, roles and attitudes are significantly shaped by the fact of one's sex and the way one's culture regards gender. Broader than a single feminist ideology, gender consciousness includes not only feminist attitudes, but the attitudes and behaviour of some traditional women as well. The central argument of Gender Consciousness and Politics is that gender conscious women identify with other women, judge political actions on the basis of their consequences for women, and articulate their own policy positions in large part as a manifestation of what they believe to be women's points of view.