Anatomy of difference: Toward a classification of feminist theory

If we re-examine the disparate views and goals of feminist theorists, both historically and in the present, we find that they can be divided according to the position they have taken on the question of the importance or unimportance of sex/gender difference. The minimizers opt for structures which unite the female with human enterprises from which she has too often been excluded, and the maximizers articulate patterns expressive of the unique perspective of the female. Both positions encompass many different theorist and groups. Each can best be understood by envisioning a continuum which moves from the most conservative view, a rationale for the status quo, (‘human rights’ or ‘separate spheres’) to the most radical, a total transformation of society (abolition of exclusive female reproductive capacities or total separation of the sexes). These two spectra are mediated by several views which partake of both attitudes: Gerda Lerner's concept of woman as majority, Julia Kristeva's vision of difference in unity, Black and Third World feminism's linking of socialist revolution and the positive values of women of color. Perhaps a more suggestive image than linear continua is the spiral of the DNA molecule. Its two interwined strands are linked together but always moving and changing as the historical arguments are re-used in contemporary situations; characteristics are linked, traded, and transformed in the process.