[2] Most strains of difference feminism did not argue that there was a biological, inherent, ahistorical, or otherwise "essential" link between womanhood and traditionally feminine values, habits of mind (often called "ways of knowing"[3]), or personality traits.
[4] These feminists simply sought to recognize that, in the present, women and men are significantly different and to explore the devalued "feminine" characteristics.
[11] Difference feminism drew on earlier nineteenth-century strains of thought, for example the work of German writer Elise Oelsner, which held that not only should women be allowed into formerly male-only spheres and institutions (e.g. public life, science) but that those institutions should also be expected to change in a way that recognizes the value of traditionally devalued feminine ethics, like care.
[3] In the 1990s, feminists addressed the binary logic of "difference" versus "equality" and moved on from it, notably with postmodern and/or deconstructionist approaches that either dismantled or did not depend on that dichotomy.
[18][19] Their psychoanalytic approach to sexual difference perceived the search for equality as a phallocentric erasure of the specificities of the female body.