The Gender of Power [Paperback]

The Gender of Power presents a critique of feminist theories of power as simply top-down models of the oppression of women. The authors argue that this notion presents women as passive victims and ignores the diversity and complexity of women's experiences. The ideas on power of Bourdieu, Giddens, Lukes and Foucault are also evaluated in terms of their usefulness in explaining relations between men and women, which can often be covert, consensual and intimate.Drawing on feminist theories of women's oppression and on social theories of power, this book offers original analyses of the relationship between gender and power.

The Gender of Power presents a critique of feminist theories of power as simply top-down models of the oppression of women. The authors argue that this notion presents women as passive victims and ignores the diversity and complexity of women's experiences. The ideas on power of Bourdieu, Giddens, Lukes and Foucault are also evaluated in terms of their usefulness in explaining relations between men and women, which can often be covert, consensual and intimate.`What is the usefulness of general sociological theories of power, to social scientists conducting a feminist analysis of social structures and processes? That is the question nine women set out to answer in their various chapters. They do a good job, and I will be adopting this book... This well-edited book addresses the problem of gender in theories of power directly, incisively, and succinctly. It is joyfully free of jargon and prolixity, as it is of dogma and flag-waving. Its language and ideas should be accessible and interesting to most social scientists or women's studies students'