The Philosophy and Politics of Liberal Feminism

Can liberalism underpin a feminism worthy of the name? The prevailing answer seems to be no. Yet feminist critics of liberalism still do not engage fully with liberalism's most promising feminist articulations. This article considers arguments from prominent feminist thinkers who persist in their conviction that liberalism is inadequate for feminism. I argue that liberalism is feminist in its vision of social justice and—more significantly—in its commitments to democratic legitimacy. By wrongly maligning liberal arguments as hopeless, liberalism's feminist critics forfeit a powerful tool for pursuing feminist justice, and they forfeit a necessary tool for promoting justice on terms of civic respect for—and democratic community with—those who do not yet endorse feminism's vision of social justice.