Fay Weldon, liberal feminism and the praxis of Praxis

Abstract

This article focuses on Fay Weldon’s novel, “Praxis”, as a means of exploring the concept of “liberal feminism”. “Praxis” charts the development of the eponymous main protagonist from a woman complicit in her own patriarchal oppression to a radical feminist activist and finally to the point where she comes to a liberal realisation of the nuances of individual women’s experiences and the complexity of emancipation. The novel may be regarded as a liberal feminist text in its emphasis on both gender equality and individual liberty, and in its insistence that society may be positively reformed within the paradigm of the liberal state and without resorting to radical extremism. Published in 1978, the novel anticipates the later shift in feminist thinking from an exclusive concern with women’s rights to a more inclusive liberal vision of human rights.