About the Book:Questions about the relevance and value of various liberal concepts are at the heart of important debates among feminist philosophers and social theorists. Although many feminists invoke concepts such as rights, equality, autonomy, and freedom in arguments for liberation, some attempt to avoid them, noting that they can also reinforce and perpetuate oppressive social structures. In Challenging Liberalism Schwartzman explores the reasons why concepts such as rights and equality can sometimes reinforce oppression. She argues that certain forms of abstraction and individualism are central to liberal methodology and that these give rise to a number of problems. Drawing on the work of feminist moral, political, and legal theorists, she constructs an approach that employs these concepts, while viewing them from within a critique of social relations of power.Table of Contents: ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction Part I A Feminist Critique of Liberalism1.Individualism, Oppression, and Liberal Rights Theory2.Abstract Ideals and Social Inequality: Dworkins Equality of Resources3.Rawlsian Abstraction and the Social Position of WomenPart II Abstraction, Ideals, and Feminist Methodologies4.Idealization, Abstraction, and the Use of Ideals in Feminist Critique5.Feminism as an Alternative MethodologyPart IIIFeminist Postmodernism: An Alternative to Liberalism?6.Politicized Identity, Womens Experience, and the Law7.Speech, Authority, and Social ContextConclusion: Toward a Feminist Approach to Political TheorizingNotesBibliographyIndex