THE POLITICS OF EMPOWERMENT

In this article I argue that many modern feminist theories about power suffer from problems of essentialism, ahistoricity and contradictions in implementation. While the feminist critique of androcentric models of power is insightful, feminist models of power have other difficulties. I call for a feminist approach to powre which does not argue that women necessarily use power better than or differently from men. I caution against basing women's claims to political power on such an approach, arguing for a feminist politics of power that is nonessentialist, structural and historical. © 1991 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.