Élisabeth Badinter

In this provocative book, France's leading feminist theoriest claims that feminism may have come to a dead end. Yesterday's sterotypes imprisoned women but they also reassured and gave purpose. Today, Badinter, argues, their disintegration troubles more and more people.

France's leading feminist theoriest claims that feminism may have come to a dead end. Yesterday's sterotypes imprisoned women but they also reassured and gave purpose. Today, Badinter, argues, their disintegration troubles more and more people.

Drawing on biological examples, Badinter offers a highly suggestive account of the new man. Exploring the shifting inscriptions of male identity in the popular imagination, Badinter examines changing role models for masculine identity and suggests the need for new role models which may reduce the profound effects of homophobia and misogyny.

Today, to be pregnant seems not far from entering into a religious order. There is an expectation that mothers will fit the bill of breastfeeding, nappy-washing, home-cooking supermums. So are mums who rely on formula, childcare and disposable nappies lazy or liberated? The conflict between a woman's individual identity and her identity as a mother is not unique to our time. In the 18th century, French women overcame the problem by shipping their newborns off to wet nurses. But not so anymore. Modern mothers are bombarded by advice from ecologists, breastfeeding advocates, behavioural specialists, even politicians. The pressure to be a perfect mother is overwhelming, and it's scaring women away. And why wouldn't it when the expectation is that your child will become your god and you its humble servant? In The Conflict Elisabeth Badinter, France's foremost feminist thinker, questions why our ideas of motherhood have been skewed by unachievable expectations that compromise notions of self and womanhood. No matter which side of the debate you stand on, this bold and revelatory book is essential reading.

« Qu’est-ce qu’une femme ? » Cette question, énoncée par Simone de Beauvoir en 1949 dès l’ouverture du Deuxième sexe, se pose de façon aiguë près de soixante-quinze ans plus tard. Il s’agirait même d’un sujet particulièrement clivant. Dans l’actualité récente, la question s’est ainsi posée dans le milieu sportif comme dans un cadre militant, la polémique se cristallisant autour de la place faite (ou non) aux femmes transgenres parmi les sportives ou parmi les victimes de féminicides, interrogeant ainsi le processus de catégorisation homme/femme. Ce processus fonctionne-t-il de la même façon dans les différents domaines disciplinaires ? Qui le met en œuvre, comment et pourquoi ? Dans quels cadres, en convoquant quels critères, et à quelles fins ? Quelle est l’utilité de ce processus de catégorisation homme/femme ? Prenant à bras-le-corps ces questions, cet ouvrage propose un bilan des réponses contemporaines qui lui sont apportées selon les disciplines de recherche (médecine, histoire, philosophie, sociologie, droit, sciences de l’information et de la communication, socio-anthropologie, génétique, linguistique). C’est moins dans une perspective de déconstruction qu’il se situe, qu’à une croisée des chemins dont les implications scientifiques et politiques sont mesurées.