Neoliberalism and Revisiting Class Perspective in Feminist Politics

The shift from distributional issues to identity problems in politics and the dominance of hermeneutical and phenomenological models in social theory were the main tendencies of the recent history of feminism. This period also witnessed the successful institutionalisation of women’s movement at both domestic and international level, which has also partly evolved to the close relations, even collaborations, with the main global actors of neoliberalism. As Hester Eisentein argues, today what remains from the past 30 years of feminism is that the problem of ‘a dangerous liaison’ with capitalism. This recent past is now examined as a part of the need for the redefining of feminist standing under the conditions of global crisis of capitalism. Revisiting the class perspectives constitutes one of the crucial matters within the self-critical orientation of feminism to its own history. This study aims to discuss the meaning of class axis in the feminist politics by reviewing the last 30 years of women’s movement and to develop analysis framework for investigation of the recent past of feminism.