Örebro University social scientist Helen Lindberg has in her doctoral thesis highlighted what she regards as major weaknesses in a number of radical feminist social theories. The theories are, she says, seriously under-developed, and contain insoluble logical problems.

“Feminist social theories give us an ideologically coloured picture of society. We have a duty to follow a scientific ethos, otherwise no one benefits, not even women, and instead it sets back the struggle [for gender equality]. I write this dissertation in the hope that it may further the struggle for an equal society.”

It is radical feminism on which Lindberg focuses, and in particular she looks at four social theories: Anna Jónasdóttir‘s Theory of Love Power, Catharine MacKinnon‘s Radical Feminism, Luce Irigaray‘s Gynocentric Distinctivist Feminism, and Judith Butler‘s Queer Feminism.

Feminist social theories are of little or no use in social scientific research into gender relations, says Lindberg, as they are based on starkly ideological foundations, and lack internal coherence. They are also mutually contradictory, and as evidence Lindberg points to divisions within the Swedish political party Feministiskt Initiativ.

Feminist social theories, and other political ideologies such as Marxism and Liberalism, may, says Lindberg, be helpful in discussing problems that must be addressed, and here she reveals her own ideological agenda. The press release discussion of her thesis stresses the emergence of “post-feminism”, which is described in favourable terms as rejecting the fundamentals of feminist theory, and expanding the focus from the relation between women and men to include gender identities regardless of sex.