Who made Adam Smith’s dinner? Feminist critiques of the lnternational Political Economy Feminist economic theorists throw the basis of traditional economic thinking, the idea of rational economic man, into doubt. Traditional economics is based upon two main patriarchal assumptions. It is based upon the way in which men in western societies, and in their institutions […]

In this paper, presented at the ‘One is not born a woman’ conference, celebrating 50th anniversary of Simone de Beauvoir’s Second Sex organised by Fruaenmediaturm at Cologne, 22-24 October, 1999, Sheila Jeffreys argues that a massive obstacle to women’s equality lies in the way in which sex under male supremacy is constructed out of the […]

In “Pornography and Grief” Andrea Dworkin writes very powerfully about the impact upon her of having to look at so much pornography in order to write about it. The horror of the pain, destruction, and just pure run of the mill hatred towards women inspired grief in her (Dworkin, Letters from a War Zone, 1988). […]

This article by Sheila Jeffreys, published in Feminism & Psychology vol. 10(4) 2000, analyses the developing industry of body modification, in which cutting, tattooing and piercing are carried out in studios for profit. It seeks to offer a feminist understanding of this industry which places it on a continuum of harmful cultural practices that include […]

There is a need for revolutionary feminism for two very important reasons – one is the liberal takeover of the women’s liberation movement, and the other is the grave lack of theory in the movement. Paper presented at the 1977 national Women’s Liberation Movement Conference in London by Sheila Jeffreys and re-printed in the Socialist […]

The practice of reproductive surrogacy is in the news in Australia because of the story of a Thai child, Gammy, a twin who was apparently abandoned by the buyers because he was sick. They took his healthy sister. This story should not be seen as just an individual bad news story. It has much to tell […]

“This article is a feminist response to the campaigning activism and queer and transgender theory which promotes the ‘degendering’ of public toilets. This campaign originates in the demands of men who transgender to access women’s toilets. Activists argue that sex segregation of toilets is the result of nineteenth century moralism and is a discriminatory practice. […]

Why International? Talk given at We Need to Talk, June 2018 “I am going to talk today about why it is important to think internationally when dealing with the threat posed by men’s crossdressing activism (commonly called the transgender rights movement) to women’s human rights. In the UK the feminist resistance has been growing exponentially […]

The Lesbian Revolution: lesbian feminism in the UK 1970-1990 Sheila Jeffreys FiLiA Salford, Greater Manchester October 2018   I am going to talk today about my new book The Lesbian Revolution: lesbian feminism in the UK 1970-1990. The book is a history of lesbian feminism, and I wrote it with two purposes. One was simply […]

This article is a feminist response to the campaigning activism and queer and transgender theory which promotes the ‘degendering’ of public toilets. This campaign originates in the demands of men who transgender to access women’s toilets. Activists argue that sex segregation of toilets is the result of nineteenth century moralism and is a discriminatory practice. […]