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Rethinking Feminist Identification: The Case for De Facto Feminism. By Patricia S. Misciagno. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997. 160p. $49.95.
Patricia Misciagno responds to the well-known paradox that large numbers of American women who support "the goals of feminism" and have played a key role in many successes of the women's movement "do not identify with the term feminist" (p. x). Compounding the separation of these de facto feminists from the feminist vanguard is the fact that scholars, too, generally leave them out of the feminist category. According to Misciagno, the gap between de facto and declared feminists is exacerbated by a tendency-observable in historical debates over women's roles and rights, as well as in scholarly discussions-to define feminist identity according to ideology. Ideological classifications such as "liberal feminism, radical feminism, socialist feminism, and, most recently, cultural, maternal, and some postmodern feminism" (p. xvii) are useful, Misciagno says but nevertheless exclude or alienate many women whose activities are, in a practical sense, feminist. Disturbed by the lost potential for a unified women's movement, Misciagno appeals for an approach to feminist identity that is broad enough to transcend ideological divisions. She recommends a nonideological definition of feminist identity that focuses on praxis. This would benefit the women's movement, she claims, by bringing together the organized leadership of the movement and the unorganized, skeptical participants. It would also give scholars "a much larger population" (p. xviii) for studying advances and setbacks in the struggle for women's equality and lead to a more optimistic picture of feminist chances for success.
Misciagno's argument for de facto feminism is insightful. It is not as persuasive as it might be, however, because it hinges on assumptions about the relationship between ideology and praxis that she does not fully examine. Below I explain the gist of Misciagno's argument and suggest how its premises might be clarified.
Misciagno first reviews the ideological controversies over women's roles that have been at the core of political battles since the nineteenth century. She then lays out the potential of praxis for overcoming this historical divisiveness. Leaving narrow political debates behind, Misciagno recasts the women's movement "as a larger social movement" (p. 4). She focuses on the way women's "everyday life unfolds" within the "political, economic, and sociological...