Feminism's Empire

Carolyn J. Eichner

Published by Cornell University Press 2022

Feminism's Empire

Carolyn J. Eichner

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501763823

Overview
Contents

About this book

Feminism's Empire investigates the complex relationships between imperialisms and feminisms in the late nineteenth century and demonstrates the challenge of conceptualizing "pro-imperialist" and "anti-imperialist" as binary positions. By intellectually and spatially tracing the era's first French feminists' engagement with empire, Carolyn J. Eichner explores how feminists opposed—yet employed—approaches to empire in writing, speaking, and publishing. In differing ways, they ultimately tied forms of imperialism to gender liberation.

Among the era's first anti-imperialists, French feminists were enmeshed in the hierarchies and epistemologies of empire. They likened their gender-based marginalization to imperialist oppressions. Imperialism and colonialism's gendered and sexualized racial hierarchies established categories of inclusion and exclusion that rested in both universalism and ideas of "nature" that presented colonized people with theoretical, yet impossible, paths to integration. Feminists faced similar barriers to full incorporation due to the gendered contradictions inherent in universalism. The system presumed citizenship to be male and thus positioned women as outsiders. Feminism's Empire connects this critical struggle to hierarchical power shifts in racial and national status that created uneasy linkages between French feminists and imperial authorities.

Author / Editor information

Carolyn J. Eichner teaches History and Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She is the author of Surmounting the Barricades and The Paris Commune. Follow her on X @EichnerCarolyn.

Reviews

Jacqueline Couti:

Feminism's Empire effectively highlights the complexity of the question of feminism(s) among French activists and the varied ways these individuals combat gender binaries and inequity in the nineteenth century.... I consider Feminism's Empire to be an excellent exploration of the intricacy of both Frenchness and whiteness (as a system of domination and a societal construct) in French contexts.

Constance Bantman:

The book is in dialogue with present decolonial concerns. Intersectionality is at the very heart of it, and Eichner deserves praise for her unpicking of the intricate and often jarring interplays of gender, class, race, and religion.... Feminism's Empire is an eloquent statement of the importance of centering women's thinking and experiences as an integral part of Third Republic political and intellectual life.

Jennifer Anne Boittin, Pennsylvania State University, author of Colonial Metropolis:

An astute, original, and well-written book that draws on an evocative array of sources, both compelling and disturbing, to provide a nuanced reading of imperial feminism.

Margaret Cook Andersen, University of Tennessee, author of Regeneration through Empire :

Feminism's Empire expands concepts of imperialism beyond France's colonial holdings and brilliantly demonstrates how integral ideas of empire, race, and religion were in shaping articulations of French women's rights.

Carolyn Eichner's extensively researched and detailed Feminism's Empire contributes to making visible how French feminists approached France's domination of colonial others. Feminism's Empire a deeply researched and insightful study that pays careful attention to all the nuances, ambiguities, and occasional hypocrisies of feminist encounters with imperialism, and makes an original contribution to the study of global history as well as to the histories of feminism, imperialism, and gender.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Ideologies and Intimacies of Imperialism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	20
2. Sex, Love, and the Law: Transforming Frenchness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
3. La Citoyenne: Alternate Empires Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	82
4. Imprisoned, Colonized: Civilization and Translation in New Caledonia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
5. Universal Language, Universal Education, Universal Revolution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
6. Familiar Stranger: The Figure of “The Jew” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	178
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 318
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 16
- Images: 16
- Other: 16 b&w halftones
Keywords: feminists and french anti-imperialism; history of french feminism; french attitudes toward jews; feminism socialism and anarchism; imperialism and feminism in the late-nineteenth century

eBook

Published: June 15, 2022
ISBN: 9781501763823