Experience, Identities and Alliances: Jewish Feminism and Feminist Psychology

Abstract

This article develops a theoretical perspective on identities as relational and produced through histories of oppression and resistance. The arguments are applied to their expression in issues for feminists teaching psychology and feminists organizing around psychology. As an illustration of key questions around the construction of counter-histories and self-representations, I focus on the changing forms and expressions of Jewish feminism in Britain. The analysis of Jewish identifications draws on recent calls to interrogate the notion of whiteness, and fracture the hegemony of racialization by attending to `different degrees of othering'. This is developed in relation to the possibilities of, and obstacles to, alliances between Jewish and black feminists. In order to document a counter-history, I present an analysis of the presences and absences of Jewish feminist representations, particularly in relation to factors contributing to the non-publication of a British Jewish Feminist Anthology. The article finishes with a reminder of the wider political arenas in which discussions of identity, agency and collective action become increasingly urgent.