Subordination

This presents a survey of some of the most important ideas that have been developed within feminism, drawing together strands of thought and debate that have often been kept separate. Burton discusses the origins of women's subordination, the public/private split, the nature and role of domestic labour, the impact of psychoanalysis on feminist theory and the relationship between the state and women's subordination. The major theoretical developments in Britain, the United States and Australia are reviewed in a comparative perspective, and the focus of attention is consistently on how, and how far, theorists in these countries have been able to point to ways of explaining the changing but enduring nature of sexual inequalities.