Gênero & Direito. Studies and Research on Gender and Law

This article enquires into the conditions of possibility of women’s emancipation in the era of neoliberal globalization or, to borrow Nancy Fraser’s words, in a post-socialist and post-Westphalian context, where both social egalitarianism (justice as redistribution) and identity politics (justice as recognition) are in crisis. In order to do this, I will have to address, first, the “who” of emancipation, the political subject incarnating it. This is done from two different but interconnected perspectives: the existentialist one, usually associated with the particularistic or relativistic viewpoint of some strands of feminist thought, and Ernesto Laclau’s Hegelianism, which put to the forefront the Gramscian notion of hegemony and its emancipatory implications. Secondly, I will explore Fraser’s post-socialist and globalist perspective in search of new possibilities of expression for women’s political subjectivity.