UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM

Bookreview of Sylvia Walbys The Future of Feminism

Author: Iris Verhulsdonk (10179569) Professor: L.Duits Course: Introduction to Gender&Sexuality studies Wordcount: 851

Book Review of The Future of Feminism, by Sylvia Walby. Polity Press. July 2011. Feminism is a controversial word and much debate has been going on about the exact definition on what feminism is and what it should be. Contemporary thinkers have introduced terms like the postfeminist era and a lot of people nowadays seem to think that feminism is (in western society) not of much importance: feminism has been declared dead often enough. In the book The Future of Feminism sociologist Sylvia Walby makes a statement against this declarations: Feminism is not dead. This is not a postfeminist era. Feminism is still vibrant [](1), her almost two hundred pages containing book begins.

And indeed this book does get that message across. The main argument of the book is, in illustrating what feminism does and has been doing, giving proof for the fact het feminism is not dead nor has been changed into a postfeminist way of thinking. This is done by first addressing the claims that feminism is dead and examining why this is said. In the next chapter she addresses the contest feminism has faced (and still faces today). The part after this, starting from chapter three consists of an extensive notion of what feminism does: this includes feminism in economy, policy and- law making and other state facilities. Walby creates an impressive list of feminist activity. The last three chapters are addressing the actual future of feminism, with a great focus on intersectionality and the changing contexts feminism has been subject to the last few decades.

Walby does all this in an impressive, elaborate way. In addressing a big amount of feminist activity she gives empirical proof that, indeed, feminism is not dead. Because she offers examples outside of projects that call themselves feminist, she expands the range of what can be accounted for as feminist. Every project or movement that is addressing gender equality or is trying to make a situation better for women, is taken into account. In doing so, Walby avoids the problem of when a movement should be considered feminist or not. This decision shows that she acknowledges the problem of a negative connotation with regard to the word feminism. The book itself is not difficult to read, Walby writes in a clear tone which makes it accessible for people that are new in the academic field, or even for people who are not academically schooled.

However, the book has quite a few downsides. When trying to address every feminist institution, movement and policy, the book sometimes reads more as an encyclopedia than as

an monograph. Also, when trying to address such a broad range, it creates the promise of a book where everything is included. This is a promise that cannot be held, as every enumeration tends to be a canon. It is also with this downside that Walby does forget about a big part of contemporary feminism: the feminism that does not take place within policy making or is not included in any organization. The books has an excessive focus on the political spectrum of feminism and does not account for feminist activity such as individual writers, blogs or other feminist practices that are not focusing on political change. The practices that she does address sometimes seem hastily written and the theory mentioned tends towards name dropping. There is no insightful interaction with theorists such a Foucault or McRobbie: It is simply summing up things that have been said about a certain topic, without suggestions on how these theorists actually contribute to the issue. In trying (and failing) to provide an catch-all book on contemporary feminism and its future, Walby provides so much information that it leafs the reader gasping for air, or for more profundity concerning issues and movements.

The third downside to this book has to do with failing to address another major point in thinking about feminism: third wave feminism is mentioned once during the whole book and there are no references towards it however. Whether this is because Walby tried to avoid the debate on this third wave, or for other reasons, the fact is that in writing about a future of feminism, the possibility of a third wave cannot be ignored. This also results in forgetting about one great way that feminism has been intersecting: the way in which feminist politics interact with the gay rights movement and LHBTQ in general.

So, despite the fact that no book can provide a complete spectrum in under 200 pages, Walby has been too ambitious in trying. In a book called the future of feminism, more attention should be given to that future and one chapter, then, is not enough. Although Walby does provide an incredibly large spectrum of feminist activity, and makes it accessible for less skilled readers, she does forget about important development within feminist practices, and this lack cannot be overlooked. Perhaps with a smaller focus it would have been more attainable to create a detailed and sufficient perspective of the future of feminism. Reference Walby, S. (2011). The Future of Feminism (first edition). Cambridge: Polity Press