Rethinking Obligation

Nancy J. Hirschmann is Professor and Graduate Chair of Political Science at The University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Gender, Class, and Freedom in Modern Political Theory and The Subject of Liberty: Toward a Feminist Theory of Freedom.

Rethinking Obligation is a highly intelligent and clearly written book, one that should be of great interest to all political theorists, as well as to all those concerned about the gendered nature of our political concepts.(American Political Science Review) Hirschmann argues that voluntarism in liberal political theory reflects a masculinist propensity to deny relations to others and to repress women. She draws on the resources of gender psychology, object relations theory, and feminist standpoint epistemology to develop this argument.(Philosophical Review)

• PrefaceIntroduction1. The Problem of Women in Political Obligation2. Contemporary Obligation Theory: Renewed or Recycled?3. The Argument from Psychology4. Implications for a Feminist Epistemology5. Feminist Epistemology and Political Obligation6. Feminist Obligation and Feminist Theory: A Method for Political TheoryAfterword: Democracy, Difference, and DeconstructionBibliographyIndex