Offers a radical feminist perspective on the "political conditions of sexual love." Recognizing that "sexual life always exists in definite socioeconomic contexts," this book develops a theory that elucidates the question: Why does men's social and political power persist even in Western societies where women have socioeconomic equality?

Foreword - Kathleen B. Jones Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: Patriarchy as a Problem in Political Theory 2. Sex/Gender, Power, and Politics: Patriarchy in the Formally Equal Society Feminist Questions * Socialist Feminist Theory * The Sexual Struggle Today 3. Common Oppression and Specific Experiences: Abstraction and Concretization in Feminist Theory Basic Theory * Partial Theories and Middle-Range Models * Sex, Class, and Race * Specifying "The Common" 4. Patriarchy, Marxism, and the Dual Systems Theory The Dual Systems Theory * Marxist Method and Feminist Questions * Hartmann's Concept of Patriarchy * Conclusion 5. Beyond "Oppression": The Exploitation of Women "Exploitation": Used and Dismissed in Feminist Theory * "Exploitation" and the Norm of Reciprocity * Older Usage of the Term * The Marxian Concept * Farr Tormey's Conceptual Analysis * Using the Marxist Method to Serve Feminist Theory * Sexual "Exploitation Proper": A Preliminary Typology 6. Her for Him--Him for the State: The Significance of Sex and Marriage in Hobbes's and Locke's Political Theories Thomas Hobbes * John Locke 7. The Concept of Interest, Women's Interests, and the Limitations of Interest Theory Women's Studies and Views on Interests * Points of Conflict * History of the Concept of "Interest" * The Present Is Also History * Another Theory of Interest 8. Does Sex Matter to Democracy? Women's Citizenship as Constrained by Individuality * The Relevance of "Difference" and "Individuality" * Sexual Equality and Women-Worthy Society 9. Taking Sex Seriously The Impasse of Socialist Feminist Theory: A Radical Critique * Critical Theses * Toward a Reoriented Feminist Materialist Analysis * Constructive Theses * If Sex Were Taken Seriously * Toward a "Womanish"-Feminist Continuum Notes References Index