SOURCE: Eisenstein, Zillah. Review of Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, by Catharine A. MacKinnon. American Political Science Review 84, no. 2 (June 1990): 635-37.

In the following review, Eisenstein argues that the essays in Toward a Feminist Theory of the State are “theoretically significant and important contributions” to feminist theory but notes flaws in MacKinnon's “homogeneous” view of male power.

MacKinnon's book [Toward a Feminist Theory of the State] grapples with the meaning of politics and how we think about what constitutes the political in terms of sexuality itself. The first section of the book, “Feminism and Marxism,” presents published materials from the mid-1970s, which she says may seem “groping and comparatively primitive” (p. x). Anyone who has not already read these articles (which are slightly revised) will find them theoretically significant and important contributions. For those familiar with the debates between Marxism and feminism this will be...