"To be a philosopher and to be a feminist are one and the same thing. A feminist is a woman who does not allow anyone to think in her place."-from Hipparchia's Choice

A work of rare insight and irreverence, Hipparchia's Choice boldly recasts the history of philosophy from the pre-Socratics to the post-Derrideans as one of masculine texts and male problems. The position of women, therefore, is less the result of a hypothetical "femininity" and more the fault of exclusion by men. Nevertheless, women have been and continue to be drawn to "the exercise of thought." So how does a...

Michele Le Doeuff is a leading French philosopher and an important feminist thinker. This text provides a comprehensive account of her views. Le Doeuff's target is the continuing tendency to think that men are more rational, more analytic than women, a tendency that persists in spite of our thinking we know better. She argues that the conceptual links between masculinity and rationality are deeply rooted in the public imagination and institutions of learning, and continue to have devastating effects on what women are able to achieve. To shed light on the depth and persistence of the problem,...

Michele Le Doeuff is a leading French philosopher and an important feminist thinker. This text provides a comprehensive account of her views. Le Doeuff's target is the continuing tendency to think that men are more rational, more analytic than women, a tendency that persists in spite of our thinking we know better. She argues that the conceptual links between masculinity and rationality are deeply rooted in the public imagination and institutions of learning, and continue to have devastating effects on what women are able to achieve. To shed light on the depth and persistence of the problem,...