In her new book, French sociologist Nathalie Heinich affirms that women have for over thirty years been availing themselves of role models who embody financial and sexual independence without fear of social reprisal. Yet despite such advances, she reminds us, traditional views of women are still very much with us. Out of this paradox arises the inevitable difficulty of fully assuming a long-fought-for and much-desired emancipation for women. Added to these ambivalences are more overtly political contradictions in the manner in which feminism is now defined. Today, feminism is a large umbrella under which many disparate beliefs and ideologies stand: one can be a feminist whether one is for or against electoral parity, the systematic feminization of professional titles or the legalization of prostitution and pornography.
Throughout these thoughtfully annotated essays, the author affirms that it is possible to confront this complex reality with something other than the oversimplifications of political correctness so prevalent today. To locate and identify these contradictions rather than deny them, understand them rather than stigmatize them, and finally to construct more clear-headed and coherent positions; this is the objective of this fresh sociological re-assessment of the state of feminism today. Divided into three sections, Before Emancipation, Towards Emancipation and The Feminist Divide, these reflections point toward a progressive new current in French feminism.