Abstract
In 2005, in her book entitled Beyond identity politics – feminism, power and politics, Moya Lloyd writes: “feminism is an identity politics” so far as “it articulates the demands of a particular constituency (women), united and galvanized on the basis of shared characteristics and experience” . To understand and analyze or criticize this assertion and to comprehend the link between feminism and identity politics, it is necessary to understand what feminism and identity politics are. Feminism is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as “the belief that women should have the same economic, social, and political rights as men” . Besides, identity politics is defined by Joan Mandle as an “action to advance the interests of members of a group supposed to be oppressed by virtue of a shared and marginalized identity (such as race or gender)” . This essay aims at understanding the link between the two notions. It deals with feminism and identity politics in the United States and in France. Even if identity politics is a concept much more relevant in the Anglo-Saxon world than in France, as attested by the fact that there is no real equivalent of the notion in French, we will try to make a comparison between the two countries.
