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Description of  Women and the Ideology of Political Exclusion: From Classical Antiquity to the Modern Era (Routledge Companions)

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 womens incompatibility with the political organization of the state, women attempted to resist their exclusion and thwart arguments about their inferiority. Although the issue of womens 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 , Platos , Mara de San Joss ,and the work of milie Du Chtelet, 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. Read more