Beyond Accommodation: Ethical Feminism, Deconstruction, and the Law

A vision of what feminist theory can give contemporary women. Drucilla Cornell challenges existentialist and naturalist accounts of feminine sexuality, arguing that any attempt to affirm women’s value and difference by either emphasising her maternal role or repudiating the feminine only entraps women, once again, in a container that curtails feminine sexual difference, legitimates the masculine fantasy of women, and reinstates, rather than dismantles, the gender hierarchy. In response to these movements, the book strives to broaden the scope of feminist theory by articulating a platform, under the concept of relative universalism, which proposes the idea that women are not a unified and homogeneous group although they are positioned as women in patriarchy. Cornell’s theory allows for differences in women’s situations without giving up on the idea that women are fighting a common phenomenon called patriarchy. This new edition includes a new introduction by the author, which situates the book within current feminist debates.