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Part II, entitled “Feminist Epistemologies and Its Discontents,” presents 10 different theoretical frameworks that have diverse historical and political origin stories and investments. It opens with an examination of gender essentialism, one of the most persistent approaches to the analysis of gender and sexual differences (Chapter 2). Author Sheila Greene begins with a discussion of Graeco‐Roman arguments about essential differences between women and men that positions men as superior by nature to women. Women's reproductive capacity has often been the basis for her construction as closer to “nature,” while men's presume greater intellectual capacity positions them as creators of culture and academic advancement. Greene traces the continuity of this framing over time and how it continues to be “deeply embedded in Western scholarship.” For example, contemporary biologically determinist approaches center the significance of genes, hormones, and brain differences in contributing to essentialist gender differences. Feminists have challenged these reductive approaches and point out the interaction of biological and other social, cultural, and environmental factors in shaping human diversity (see, e.g. Davis 2015; Fausto‐Sterling 2000; Keller and Longino 1996; Udry 2001).

In Chapter 3, Elisabeth Armstrong examines the development and divergence between Marxist and Socialist Feminism. Marxist feminism was articulated in the late 1960s and early 1970s by feminists who adapted Karl Marx's analysis of capitalism to incorporate the significance of women's unpaid labor in the home for supporting the economic exploitation of workers. Socialist feminism quickly followed as feminists engaged with analysis of patriarchy as a separate system of exploitation.

Chapter 4 provides a fascinating discussion of the origins and debates in “Radical and Cultural Feminisms.” Lauren Rosewarne examines the activism of radical feminists and radical feminist theoretical analyses from the late 1960s. She notes that one major tenet of radical feminism is that “women are subordinated … [as] an oppressed class; a sex‐class … caused by patriarchy.” She explains that “radical feminism aimed to dismantle not only patriarchy but each of the social, cultural, political, and economic structures that benefited from – and supported – male authority.” As noted above, feminists informed by both radical analyses of patriarchy and Marxist critiques of capitalism were in the forefront of developing socialist feminism.

Rosewarne outlines key tenets and critiques of radical feminism, then moves to discuss the difference between radical and cultural feminism. She defines cultural feminism as:

a theory which describes that there are fundamental personality differences between men and women, and that women's differences are special … Underlying this cultural feminist theory was a matriarchal vision – the idea of a society of strong women guided by essential female concerns and values. These included, most importantly, pacifism, co‐operation, non‐violent settlement of differences, and a harmonious regulation of public life.

(Tandon 2008, p. 52)

While radical feminism orients toward separatism and the elimination of the sex‐class system, “cultural feminism was a countercultural movement aimed at reversing the cultural valuation of the male and the devaluation of the female” (Echols 1989, p. 6, quoted in Rosenwarne in this volume). Alice Echols argues that “radical feminists were typically social constructionists who wanted to render gender irrelevant, while cultural feminists were generally essentialists who sought to celebrate femaleness” (ibid).

In Chapter 5, Bronwyn Winter describes three different approaches to materialist feminism, which builds on Marxist feminism in different ways. They are each associated with different geographic constellations of academic knowledge: French materialist feminism, British materialist feminism, and US materialist feminism. As she explains, “Gender, and the relationship of male domination that underpins it, are historically constructed and grounded in social relations, and are thus not fixed, but open to interrogation and change.” They all center “the material (social, economic), structural and ideological rather than (only) discursive or cultural underpinnings of these social relations.”

In Chapter 6, Rose M. Brewer highlights the significant theoretical and activist insights of Black feminist and Womanist epistemologies. She notes that these interrelated formulations have a long history that, in the US context, dates back to at least the nineteenth century. Both approaches center Black women's experiences and social justice. Womanist thought foregrounds and features Black culture and spirituality. Black feminist thought marks the significance of the positionality of the social actor in reflecting on how the social and political world shapes individual and social experiences.

In Chapter 7, Patricia Hill Collins expands on the contributions of Black feminist thought and critical race theory in her discussion of intersectional theory which emphasizes the ways in which gender, class, and race intersect to shape different women's experiences and the social structures that them. Collins is one of the key theorists whose analysis of Black feminist thought (1990) was foundational for articulating intersectional theory and analysis. In Chapter 7, she presents the theoretical perceptions and social activism that informs intersectionality including a clear explication of legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw's founding formulation of the concept by offering “a shortcut that built on existing sensibilities in order to see interconnections” between gender and race. It also offers a framework for deepening analysis to incorporate sexuality, class, and other dimensions of difference and power inequality. Collins (2019) argues that given the importance of intersectional epistemology, it should become a central framing within contemporary “critical social theory that keeps critical analysis and social action in play” (p. 3).

Chapter 8 explores the significance of the contributions to feminist epistemologies of “Queer, Trans and Transfeminist Theories.” Author Ute Bettray discusses the diverse origins and key premises of these interrelated approaches that theorize the fluidity of gender and sexuality, and challenge the binary and heteronormative approaches of other feminist frameworks. She concludes by discussing the ways in which transfeminism decouples feminine gender and female sex. She also emphasizes the significance of notions of queer space and time and deconstructive modes of queering “as a critical mode of the deconstruction of patriarchal, heteronormative, neoliberal late capitalism.” Bettray also examines transing as a process that “reveal[s] the socially constructed nature of categories and histories that can be reconceptualized in radically different ways.”

The final three chapters in Part II attend to the important insights drawn from the positionality of postcolonial, comparative, and transnational feminists. In Chapter 9, Umme Al‐wazedi explains that postcolonial feminism developed in reaction to the lack of attention to the dynamics of colonialism and empire in shaping postcolonial gender relations and global dimensions of inequalities, including “the hegemonic power established by indigenous men after the Empire.” Al‐wazedi argues that postcolonial feminism attends to the significance of caste, religion, and other dimensions of social, political, and cultural differences that shape the lives of non‐Western women.

In Chapter 10, Anne Sisson Runyan and coauthors compare approaches to feminism across different regions, which arose along with the expansion of regional governance and international non‐governmental organizations. Sisson et al. identify the resistance of activists and analyses of local conflicts, migrations, and economic shifts, as well as the diverse challenges and common themes in feminisms that are evident across regions. The authors highlight the importance of neoliberalism and the influence and resistance to Western feminism in shaping local feminisms that contribute to the “complex terrain of feminisms beyond binaries and borders.”

In the final chapter in this part (Chapter 11), Gul Aldikacti Marshall defines transnational feminism “as a theory developed against white Western feminism's notion of global sisterhood, which assumes a common patriarchal oppression faced by all women.” Transnational feminism is a powerful framework that attends to both local expressions of feminism and resistance, as discussed in the previous chapter, and incorporates understandings developed in postcolonial feminist theory. It includes critique of neoliberal globalization, colonialism and imperialism as well as Western‐centric expressions of feminism. Marshall notes that transnational feminism allows for the possibility of “dialog and coalition building,” and solidarity among women in their contextual particularities that are based on the intersection of social locations, such as gender, race, ethnicity, class, and nationality.

In Part III, we focus on the diversity of methodologies developed by feminist scholars in response to the limits of approaches that rely on traditional positivist or androcentric scientific methods (see Chapter 12 by Cynthia Deitch). Despite these critiques, feminist empiricist scholars continue to draw on positivist methods in the fields of demography, geography, economics and sociology to document the ways in which gender and other systems of difference and inequality are expressed in aggregate data. In Chapter 13, Gina Marie Longo details the premises and research strategies adopted by feminist empiricists who apply positivist approaches but also acknowledge the role of values in scientific research practices in order to minimize their negative effects. However, she also notes that feminist empiricism has been criticized for “lacking a radical approach to deconstructing the power hierarchies and systems of oppressions that exist within and are upheld by science.” Longo then presents two different feminist modes of knowledge generation: standpoint epistemology and postmodern feminism. Feminist standpoint analysis begins in the lived experience of socially located actors. They are especially attentive to the perspectives of marginalized knowers who experientially understand the “relations of power” (Chapter 13) or “relations of ruling” (Smith 1989) that contour social life. In contrast, feminist empiricists focus on the diverse interests and values that are constructed as rational products of deliberative discourse, rather than an expression or reflection of lived experiences.

In addition to debates about what counts as knowledge and how to conduct research, contemporary interdisciplinary scholars (Chapter 14) discuss the significance of the lack of women and women‐identified people working as scientists in academia and other research positions. They also consider more recent critical approaches which incorporate methodological strategies informed by postcolonial, critical race disability, and queer theories. Drawing on two contemporary case studies, Samantha M. Archer and A.E. Kohler demonstrate the power of feminist science studies to challenge some of the taken‐for‐granted findings of archeological and genetic research on gender to address “controversial bioethical dilemmas regarding intellectual disability and clinical practice.” In Chapter 15, Valeria Esquivel discusses how feminist economists contest “the gender‐blindness of economic thinking and have developed new analytical frameworks and methodologies to examine gender relations in economic institutions and economic functioning.”

In their overview of feminist approaches to ethnography in anthropology, Dána‐Ain Davis and Christa Craven (Chapter 16) emphasize the diversity of feminist ethnographic innovations. Despite these differences, Davis and Craven find that there are overlapping “commitment[s] to paying attention to marginality and power differentials, attending to a feminist intellectual history, seeking justice, and producing scholarship in various creative forms that can contribute to movement building and/or be in the service of the people, communities, organizations, and issues we study.”

Ariella Rotramel examines “Feminist Historiography” in Chapter 17. Rotramel explains that this methodological approach can best be understood as a form of feminist praxis, namely, one that is shaped by the dialectical relationship between theory and practice. For example, knowledge generated by social activism is then used to inform the development or reformulation of social theory, which, in turn, informs future activist strategies and engagement. Feminist historians who adopt this approach have been at the forefront of revealing the relations of power embedded in the archives that are used to generate knowledge about the past. Rotramel also notes that feminist historians have expanded their approach by drawing on literary studies and digital humanities to alter how scholars approach analysis of historical texts.

Feminist scholars debate both the subjects for analysis and the methods utilized within the social sciences, the arts, and the humanities. Culture and media are topics that are approached in a variety of ways in different disciplines. In Chapter 18, the final chapter in Part III, Diane Grossman explains how feminist scholars effectively shifted cultural analysis to center gender and alter how scholars approach cultural texts and study cultural artifacts in the area of popular culture. Grossman demonstrates how disciplinary as well as epistemological framing influence research questions as well as methodological approaches.

The last part of the volume is constructed around the theme of “Feminist Praxis.” Many of the authors in this volume writing about both feminist epistemologies and methodologies acknowledge how activism and the goals of social justice have contributed to the innovations and reformulations of feminist approaches since the 1970s. This last part focuses on topics that explicitly engage with social change and social justice. In this regard, it is fitting to start with the chapter on “Feminist Pedagogies,” as it is a form of feminist praxis designed to train students in critical reading, writing, and community‐building skills to enhance their ability to contribute to social change efforts in their everyday lives. While those who teach courses in Feminist Studies may or may not view their teaching through the lens of feminist pedagogy, many do see their role in the classroom as an extension of their commitment to educating for social justice. In Chapter 19, “Feminist Pedagogy,” Danielle M. Currier reviews the history of this form of feminist praxis and focuses on the importance of intersectionality, reflexivity, experiential learning, and critical skill building.

In Chapter 20, Manisha Desai and Koyel Khan examine feminist praxis in the context of globalization. In particular, they interrogate decolonial postcolonial feminism as it developed through a recognition of the ways in which colonialism, modernity, and capitalism contoured constructions of gender. It “is informed by social imaginaries of gender justice beyond the modern” liberal or socialist framing. Desai and Khan conclude that “decolonial feminist praxis in a globalizing world needs to rethink women's empowerment and gender justice beyond the modernist emancipatory logic and locate it within anti‐racist, anti‐capitalist, and anti‐settler colonial struggles that seek alternative relations among humans, with other species, and with nature.”

In Chapter 21, Gill Wright Miller focuses on “somatic praxis” and argues for the importance of “the material body” for feminist praxis. Experiences of “menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, menopause … lay the groundwork for a body‐centered approach to corporeality.” Miller provides a methodological framework for assessing pedagogies of the body. Miller explains that in order to integrate feminism and somatic praxis requires asking “ourselves questions about our own preferences and expectations, to notice and take responsibility for the delivery of our expression, and to aim to shape multidimensionally with the other participants.”

Meredeth Turshen and Marci Berger explore the praxis of “Feminist Health Movements” in Chapter 22. They start with defining key terms in understanding feminist social activism and political claims, and how feminists challenge practices of forced sterilization and eugenics. Both authors illustrate the contemporary challenges posed by different aspects of “hashtag activism.” For example, #BringBackOurGirls was developed to publicize the kidnapping of schoolgirls from the Nigerian Chibok Government Secondary School by Boko Haram terrorists and #SayHerName draws attention to the experiences of Black women who were targets of police violence.

In Chapter 23 on “Feminist Praxis and Gender Violence,” Margaret Campe and Claire Renzetti provide an overview of different theories that explain interpersonal and structural violence, including liberal and radical feminisms. They also discuss the significance of intersectional analysis for revealing the complex inequalities and differential risk faced by different women. They close with an analysis of feminist political economic explanations that explicate the mutually reinforcing dynamics of interpersonal and structural dimensions of gender‐based violence.

In Chapter 24, Astrid Ulloa discusses the history and contributions of feminists to the interdisciplinary field of Political Ecology. She describes different strands, one originating within an Anglo‐Saxon context and the other in Latin America. While there are common themes across these two approaches, they each have different histories, socio‐political contexts and physical environments. Ulloa describes “the diverse contributions from feminisms, gender studies and gender and development discussions, and the approaches of ecofeminism.” She then focuses specifically on Latin American Feminist Political Ecology to emphasize the significance of “diverse feminisms, feminist spatialities, feminist movements, and indigenous women's movements.” She draws on her own experience and scholarship and concludes by considering contemporary debates and trends in the field.

In Chapter 25, the final chapter, Molli Spalter considers the importance of sustainability and solidarity in “Feminism and Social Justice Movements.” She opens with an overview of the history of feminist movements and surveys the key trends in the scholarship on feminist social movements, including an understanding of intersectional identities and the importance of global perspectives. Spalter notes the growing influence of feminist praxis in social justice movements, broadly defined, and illustrates with a discussion of Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development and Black Lives Matter.