Beyond “Separate Spheres”: Feminism and the Cultural Studies/Political Economy Debate

When scholars debate the theoretical, methodological, and political differences between cultural studies and political economy through allusions to feminist sites of conflict such as “separate spheres” and “the unhappy marriage,” this is also indicative of the scholarly population inhabiting each approach, with the greater number of Western feminists pursuing cultural studies and neglecting political economy. In recognizing the feminist influence in the development of cultural studies, it is also important to acknowledge that this implicates feminism in an approach that often overcompensates for traditional Marxism's determinism and neglect of cultural experience by ignoring the structural constraints imposed by political and economic realities. This article traces the developments between feminism and Marxism and cultural studies and political economy, suggesting that the answer to the problem of separate spheres is not to populate one sphere at the expense of the other. Rather, what is needed is a feminist political economy that reconciles the insights of “the politics of representing the Other” with a much-needed material dimension that only a political economy approach can provide.