Assister views the unhappy marriage of Marxism and structuralism from a feminist perspective, arguing that Althusser's reinterpretation of Marx was doomed to failure. She disputes the extent to which postructuralism can claim to have made any significant contribution to feminist thinking, looking in particular at the work of Luce Irigariay.

But she concludes with a provocative defence of certain themes and pre-occupations in structuralism and poststructuralism. She demonstrates that in at least one respect they have something of very real value to offer contemporary feminists seeking to repudiate the bourgeois humanism of 'radical feminism'.