Women and the Ideology of Political Exclusion
Women and the Ideology of Political Exclusion explores the origin and evolution of the political ideology that has kept women away from centers of political power – from the birth of democracy in ancient Athens to the modern era. In this period of 2500 years, two parallel tracks advanced: while male authority tried to construct an ideology that justified women’s incompatibility with the political organization of the state, women attempted to resist their exclusion and thwart arguments about their inferiority.
Although the issue of women’s status has been studied in detail in specific eras, this interdisciplinary collection extends the boundaries of the discussion. Drawing on a wide range of literary and historical sources, including Herodotus’ Histories, Plato’s Laws, María de San José’s Oaxaca Manuscript, and the work of Émilie Du Châtelet, Mary Boykin Chesnut, and Virginia Woolf, the chapters here reveal the various manifestations of the female-inferiority construct. Such an extensive overview of this historical trajectory promotes a deeper understanding of its causes, permutations, and persistence.
Women may have made great gains toward political power, but they continue to encounter invisible barriers, raised by traditional stereotypes, that block their path to success. Women and the Ideology of Political Exclusion aims to make these barriers visible, raising awareness about the longevity and tenacity of arguments, the roots of which reach classical antiquity.
Tatiana Tsakiropoulou-Summers received her doctorate in Classics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is currently teaching at the University of Alabama, USA. Her research focuses on female archetypes in Greek and Roman epic poetry and on the impact of ancient thought on Western civilization, especially the status of women. She has published numerous articles and a collection of essays on women and the formation of ethnic identity in Greek culture. She is the director of the Athens Center for Classical and Byzantine Studies at the Athens Institute for Education and Research, Greece. Katerina Kitsi-Mitakou received her doctorate in English from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, where she is currently teaching. Her research focuses on realism, modernism, and the English novel, as well as on gender and body theory. She has co-edited several volumes of essays, including The Future of Flesh: A Cultural Survey of the Body (2009). She is also general editor of the European Journal of English Studies.