Feminism : the evolution

Abstract

Previous issues of Skepsi have been dedicated to the proceedings of a recent conference; this time, the Editorial Board has, if you will, tossed a topic with no connection to a particular conference to the academic world at large and waited to see what the outcome would be. The theme it chose was ‘Feminisms: the Evolution’. What articles, we wondered, would result? Would anyone take the long view and compare the feminisms of today’s activists with their mothers’ or even their grandmothers’, thus highlighting the phases through which the movement has passed since its inception? Would someone address the way today’s feminists are challenging the tendency to see the movement as an homogenous ‘one size fits all’, not recognising that it is now more appropriate to talk of ‘feminisms’ than ‘feminism’, so infinitely varied has the movement become? Yet again, an article might explore the ways in which contemporary feminists are contributing to our understanding of women’s needs and goals: have these evolved since the movement’s early days or have they remained constant, while society’s perception of them has changed — tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis or plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose? [Excerpt from Foreword]