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\title{I am Clare Chambers, philosopher working on contemporary political
philosophy and author of `Against Marriage: An Egalitarian Defence of
the Marriage-Free State'. AMA!}



\author[1]{ClareChambers }%
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  \date{April 23, 2026}


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\begin{abstract}
I will return at 12PM EDT to answer questions live. Please feel free to
leave questions ahead of time! I am Clare Chambers, University Senior
Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. I am a political
philosopher specialising in contemporary feminist and liberal theory.
I've been researching and teaching at Cambridge for twelve years. I was
educated in the analytical tradition of political theory at the
University of Oxford, where I did Politics, Philosophy, and Economics as
an undergraduate. After a year spent as a civil servant I studied for an
MSc in Political Theory at the London School of Economics. At the LSE I
continued working on analytical approaches to political theory in
contemporary liberalism, but I also engaged in a sustained way with
feminist thought, and with the work of Michel Foucault. It seemed
obvious that Foucault's analysis of power and social construction was of
profound relevance to liberal theory, but l had never read work that
engaged both traditions. Wanting to work on this combination for my
doctorate, I returned to Oxford to be supervised by Prof Lois McNay, who
specialises in feminist and post-structural theory, together with Prof
David Miller, who specialises in contemporary analytical thought. The
result was a thesis that later became my first book: Sex, Culture, and
Justice: The Limits of Choice (2008). Sex, Culture, and Justice argues
that the fact of social construction undermines the liberal focus on
choice. Liberals treat choice as what I call a ``normative
transformer'': something that changes a situation from unjust to just.
If someone is disadvantaged liberals are likely to criticise that
disadvantage as an unjust inequality, but will change that assessment if
the disadvantage results from the individual's choice. For example,
women may choose to take low-paid jobs, or to prioritise family over
career, or to follow religions that treat them unequally, or to engage
in practices associated with gender inequality. However, our choices are
affected by social construction. Our social context affects the options
that are available to us. It affects whether those options are generally
thought to appropriate for people like us. And it affects what we want
to do. I argue that, if our choices are socially constructed in these
ways, it doesn't make sense to use them as the measure for whether our
situation or our society is just. Instead we need to develop the
normative resources for critically analysing choice. Most feminists
understand this, and liberals should, too. Feminism is a movement that
seeks to empower women, which in part means giving women choice, but it
is also a movement that recognises the profound limitations on
individual choice, and the way that power, inequality, and social norms
shape our choices. My most recent book also combines feminist and
liberal analysis and tackles a specific question of state regulation.
Against Marriage: An Egalitarian Defence of the Marriage-Free State
argues that the state should not recognise marriage. Even if
state-recognised marriage is reformed to include same-sex marriage, as
has happened in many states recently, it still violates freedom and
equality. Traditionally, marriage entrenches sexism and heterosexism,
and this traditional symbolic meaning has not been destroyed. And all
state recognition of marriage treats married and unmarried people and
their children unequally, elevating one way of life or relationship form
above others. The fact that state recognition of marriage involves
endorsing a particular way of life also means that it undermines
liberty, especially as political liberals understand that idea. Instead
of recognising marriage, the state should regulate relationship
practices. Other areas that I work on include multiculturalism and
religion, political liberalism and the work of John Rawls, beauty and
cosmetic surgery, the concept of equality of opportunity, and varieties
of feminism including liberal feminism and radical feminism. I am about
to start a new project on the political philosophy of the unmodified
body. Thank you for joining me here! (My proof has been verified by the
moderators of /r/philosophy.) Some of My Work: ``Marriage as a Violation
of Equality'' - the first chapter of Against Marriage (OUP 2017). You
can purchase this book with a 30\% discount by going to the OUP site and
using promocode AAFLYG6 at checkout Podcast interview on ``The State and
Marriage'' ``The Marriage Free State'' - podcast recording and paper
draft ``Sex, Culture and Justice'' - interview at 3:AM Magazine
Multiculturalism Bites podcast interview on when intervention in
peoples' lives is justified Thank you very much everyone! I really
enjoyed your questions. I'm logging off now as the sun starts to set
here in the UK. If you'd like to read more about me and follow my work
you can find lots more on my website at www.clarechambers.com, which is
regularly updated. Goodbye!%
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