For many years, feminists throughout the world looked to the United States for the most advanced theory and practice. Today, however, US feminism finds itself at an impasse, stymied by the hostile, post 9/11 political climate. Unsure how to pursue gender justice under current conditions, Americans are now returning the favour, by looking to feminists elsewhere for inspiration and guidance. Today, accordingly, the cutting edge of gender struggle has shifted away from the United States, to trans-national spaces, such as ‘Europe’, where the room for manoeuvre is greater. The consequence is a major shift in the geography of feminist energies.

What lies behind this geographical shift? And what are its political implications for the future of the feminist project? In what follows, I will propose an account of the historical trajectory of the second-wave feminism aimed at illuminating these matters. My strategy will be to relate geographical shifts in feminist energies to shifts of two other kinds. On the one hand, I will identify some major transformations in the way feminists have imagined gender justice since the 1970s. On the other hand, I will situate changes in the feminist imaginary in the context of broader shifts in the political Zeitgeist and in post-war capitalism. The result will be a historically elaborated Zeitdiagnose through which we can assess the political prospects of feminist struggles for the coming period.