Feminist Political and Legal Theories

Abstract This chapter presents an overview of feminist legal and political thought, aiming at discussing the different perspectives within feminist thought. In the first part, basic concepts in feminist thought such as gender, patriarchy, and feminism are explained, and a brief overview of the historical evolution of feminist movements is provided. The other two sections focus in greater detail on political and legal theories, respectively, including a critical analysis of the influence of patriarchy on mainstream legal and political discourses. The chapter will further provide a description of how classical concepts of political or legal tradition have been reconsidered from a feminist point of view, and a short presentation of the most important issues at stake in both these fields.