This thesis is a study of selected themes in feminist rethinkings of the political. It explores connections between specific interpretations of the meanings and boundaries of the political, the problems of exclusion and the imagination of non-exclusionary alternatives. It traces, and responds to, shifts in these interconnected concerns that have transpired over the last three decades as feminists in western liberal democracies have moved from a preoccupation with gendered oppression, to relations of identity and difference more broadly conceived. The contrasting perspectives of Moira Gatens and Anne Phillips on political exclusion and their preferred political futures are discussed. Gatens' preferred future is a 'polymorphous, polyvocal and polyvalent body politic' but the institutional forms of that polity and its relation to actually existing liberal democracy are uncertain. Phillips apparently has more modest aspirations; for increased political presence for the politically marginalised (especially women); and for a revitalisation of the deliberative component of democracy. Although Phillips appears to hold the trump card of immediate practical relevance, the thesis questions this assumption. It argues that feminist analysis can only benefit from increased conversation between such divergent feminist responses to the problem of political exclusion. But further, it concludes that the least 'practical' may sometimes be the most important components of feminist rethinkings of the political / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis is an investigation into lesbian, and its primary focus is an analysis of the discursive conditions of the ?sex wars?: a moment in feminist politics in which contestations over sexuality became the central focus of feminist debate. In particular, the question is asked how it was possible for lesbian sadomasochism to be problematized as an ?anti-feminist? sexual practice. Lesbian feminism was committed to a modernist logic which compelled the production of ?regimes of truth?, which promoted a certain construction of ?lesbian? as a privileged form of feminist while problematizing lesbian sadomasochism. This problematization is traced to Enlightenment and humanist logics and precepts operative within feminist, lesbian feminist and gay liberationist discourses. The tendency of modernist discourses to produce singular, exclusionary identity categories and a hierarchical ordering of subject positions is also found to be present within the discourse of contemporary ?queer? theory. It is the contention of this thesis that the work of lesbian writers like Judith Butler, Shane Phelan and Teresa de Lauretis disrupts the modernist logic of the ?one? operative in both lesbian feminism and ?queer? theory and points to the theoretical and political work that needs to be done. The most urgent task facing current lesbian, gay and ?queer? theorists is the elaboration of an ethico-politics of difference, one that is attentive to the mutually constitutive multiple differences within and between subjects. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study explores the hegemonic articulation of ‘feminist politics’ by the Swedish political party Feminist Initiative (Feministiskt initiativ) during 2014 national parliamentary election campaign. The analysis is carried out on two levels: the construction of the hegemonic project of feminist politics and the construction of an antagonist.      Deploying the discourse-theoretical approach by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe as well as the theories of radical democracy and intersectionality, it is shown how a new, broad collective feminist identity is produced by deconstructing womanhood as an identifiable and unproblematic category as well as expanding the signifying chain of feminism by including new social struggles into it. As a result, the feminist subject is conceptualized in radical-democratic terms as a citizen with equal rights, rather than an essentialized female subject. Two nodal points that fix the meaning of the hegemonic project of feminist politics are identified: one is human rights, which enables the expansion of the chain of equivalence, and the other is experience of oppression, which acknowledges differences existing within the movement and prevents it from muting marginalized voices. Discrimination, being the constitutive outside, both threatens and produces the subject: on the one hand, it violates human rights that underlie feminist politics; on the other hand, it produces the experience of oppression that gives a unique feminist perspective to each member of the collective identity. The hegemonic project thus emerges as dependent on the oppressive power of discrimination. The study suggests a critical discussion on how the constitutive outside – discrimination – empties the concept of feminism by a radical expansion of its meaning.    The research furthermore explores the construction of the antagonist of the hegemonic project. Utilizing analytical concepts from the writings of Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Žižek, it is demonstrated how social structures and norms acquire agency and become the significant Other for the feminist identity. The thesis is concluded by a critical discussion on the fundamental impossibility of identification based on opposing oneself to something that can only be expressed with a signifier that ultimately lacks any signified.

While the Second Vatican Council advocates an inclusive priesthood and unified People of God, exclusion of consecrated Roman Catholic women from ministerial priesthood, official church interpretations of the scriptures, and judgments concerning faith and morals continues. This thesis examines creative tactics of resistance among consecrated women on account of hierarchal and essentialist models found in church traditions, including Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), and contemporary American women associated with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. I analyze aspects of three prophetic critiques and hermeneutical tactics of each, appealing to the critical interpretive methodologies of Elizabeth Bucar and Grace Jantzen. The LCWR are “in good company,” contrary to the representations of male superiors in the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and episcopal hierarchy. The feminist resistance of these women recapitulates forms of what Bucar calls “creative conformity,” which the church has embraced for its forbearers.

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Dans Feminist Politics and Human Nature, publié en 1983, la philosophe américaine Alison Jaggar expose les idéologies des féminismes libéral, marxiste, radical, et socialiste, en fait l’épistémologie, et conclut que le féminisme socialiste est celui qui convient le mieux à la participation' de la femme au renouvellement social. Par ailleurs, les féministes de toutes les tendances proposent des transformations qui, pour la plupart, sont nettement révolutionnaires, d’où le titre de ce mémoire, «La révolution féministe», qui résume, dans les grandes lignes, les thèmes exploités par cette auteure.