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200Autonomy, gender, politicsOxford University Press. 2003.Women have historically been prevented from living autonomously by systematic injustice, subordination, and oppression. The lingering effects of these practices have prompted many feminists to view autonomy with suspicion. Here, Marilyn Friedman defends the ideal of feminist autonomy. In her eyes, behavior is autonomous if it accords with the wants, cares, values, or commitments that the actor has reaffirmed and is able to sustain in the face of opposition. By her account, autonomy is socially g…Read more
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44Does Sommers like women?: More on liberalism, gender hierarchy, and Scarlett O'HaraJournal of Social Philosophy 21 (2-3): 75-90. 1990.
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104Women’s Autonomy and Feminist AspirationsJournal of Philosophical Research 21 331-340. 1996.Autonomy has risen in esteem, then fallen, only to rise again in recent theorizing about women in society and culture. In this paper, I further bolster the renewed feminist interest in autonomy. I characterize feminist social aspirations in terms of three very abstract goals and then argue that women’s individual autonomy promotes at least two of them in crucial ways. Women’s autonomy will improve the quality of the close personal relationships that pervade women’s traditional moral concems (the…Read more
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50Nancy J. Hirschmann on the Social Construction of Women's FreedomHypatia 21 (4): 182-191. 2006.Nancy J. Hirschmann presents a feminist, social constructionist account of women's freedom. Friedman's discussion of Hirschmanns account deals with some conceptual problems facing a thoroughgoing social constructionism; three ways to modify social constructionism to avoid those problems; and an assessment of Hirschmann's version of social constructionism in light of the previous discussion.
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