Review of Fortunes of Feminism: From State-Managed Capitalism to Neoliberal Crisis by Nancy Fraser

Abstract

Fraser's political philosophy creates a “thick,” nuanced understanding of justice as embodying a range of normative principles meant to inform political, economic and cultural practices. She considers what constitutes just social relations and values, who ought to be involved in such discussions, and how to deliberate to achieve justice within a globalizing world. Here Fraser is particularly concerned with the ways that various feminist theories and movements, have helped—and sometimes hindered—efforts to think about and organize movements of justice by and for women. In short, Fortunes of Feminism represents an ambitious re-theorizing of political philosophy from the standpoint of feminist concerns and struggles over the last four decades, offering up a universal political philosophy of justice informed by and informing women's emancipation in the midst of a global crisis of world capitalism. The book is not without lacunae, however, and I conclude with two suggestions towards a more truly egalitarian—and ecological—feminist political philosophy, largely compatible with Fraser's own framework.

Keywords:

• feminism
• globalization justice
• Nancy Fraser
• political philosophy

Notes on Contributor

Elaine Coburn is a researcher at the CADIS-EHESS (Centre of Sociological Analysis and Intervention, School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) and Assistant Professor at the American University of Paris, in Paris, France. She was the editor of the interdisciplinary online journal Socialist Studies (www.socialiststudies.com) for five years, ending in August 2014.

Notes

¹ Incidentally, in the context of discussing the politics of recognition with respect to women subordinated on the grounds of religion, Fraser examines the French case of banning the Muslim foulard (169–70) in public schools. This account contains at least one factual error, notably the assertion that “no analogous proposition bars the wearing of Christian crosses in state schools” (170). In fact, any “ostentatious” religious symbol is banned in public schools, as in other publicly funded institutions including day-cares. But Fraser is nonetheless right to suggest that there is a specifically anti-Muslim bent to the conception and especially application of contemporary “secular” laws in France, whereas historically these were anti-clerical. Hence, the laws, at least in practice, culturally devalue Muslim women and in practice prevent their full participation, as Muslim women, in French social life.