This chapter explores how feminism can guide our thinking about women and how we view and respond to their health care needs. It also examines how knowledge of feminist theories can be useful in understanding the economic, political, and social situations that contribute to poor health outcomes. Feminist thought has emerged from a variety of philosophical traditions, including liberal Marxist, psychoanalytic, socialist, existentialist, postmodern, and postcolonial philosophies. Postmodernism is expressed in feminist theory as a series of theoretical perspectives that view language as constructing our understanding and uses of gender. Queer theory provides an opportunity for understanding gender, offering a lens through which lesbian, gay, and transgendered people understand and interpret their lives within a hetero-normativity. Nurse researchers and practitioners currently use feminist theory primarily as a framework for conceptualizing issues or as a form of feminist critique of research and practice.