Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political Thought

Description

Focusing on the Western philosophical tradition and the work of contemporary feminists, Jean Elshtain explores the general tendency to assert the primacy of the public world-the political sphere dominated by men-and to denigrate the private world-the familial sphere dominated by women. She offers her own positive reconstruction of the public and the private in a feminist theory that reaffirms the importance of the family and envisions an "ethical polity" Dedication Epigraph Contents Preface: On Thinking and Nastiness Acknowledgments Introduction. Public and Private Imperatives Part I: Public and Private Images in Western Political Thought 1 Politics Discovered and Celebrated: Plato and the Aristotelian Moment 2 The Christian Challenge, Politics’ Response: Early Christianity to Machiavelli 3 Politics Sanctified and Subdued: Patriarchalism and the Liberal Tradition 4 Politics and Social Transformation: Rousseau, Hegel, and Marx on the Public and the Private Part II: Contemporary Images of Public and Private: Toward a Critical Theory of Women and Politics 5 Feminism’s Search for Politics 6 Toward a Critical Theory of Women and Politics: Reconstructing the Public and Private Afterword Bibliography Index