On Power, Freedom, and Gender: A Fruitful Tension between Foucault and Feminism

In this article we highlight some aspects of Foucault—s work that are useful for analyzing the processes of subjective production and relations of power marked by gender, understood as dispositifs. Feminist theories and practices offer fundamental resources both for the development of the Foucauldian perspective itself, and for the analysis and transformation of power relations. In relation to the tension between power and freedom, we highlight the importance of two issues: first, the intermediate space between states of domination and power relations—a distinction established by Foucault—which makes possible a more precise consideration of the dispositif of gender as well as its transformation; second, the relation between practices of the self and power relations, which makes it possible to identify the conditions of possibility for the exercise of resistance and freedom. © 2009, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.