This is a profoundly thoughtful book that challenges accepted ways of approaching policy issues. It brings a refreshingly new perspective to some of the key areas that have exercised feminists for several decades' -"Jeanne Gregory, Middlesex University

"

This book offers a powerful new approach to policy studies. Drawing on recent perspectives from social constructionism, discourse analysis, the sociology of social problems and feminism, Carol Bacchi develops a step-by-step analytical tool for deconstructing policy problems.

Drawing on recent perspectives from social constructionism, discourse analysis, feminism and the sociology of social problems, this volume reviews a range of policy problems relating to women''s inequality.'

Presenting a comparative analysis of affirmative action in different countries, this study argues that proponents of affirmative action need to direct more attention to the political uses of categories than to theorizing the content of the category women.