Examines women's status in
society; wants to improve condition
of women's lives
Challenges that men are "human" and women are "others" (androcentrism)
Gender as central aspect
of human existence
Gender = way society
organizes understanding of
sexual difference
Started as concern for absence, misrepresentation, and
trivialization of women in the higher education
curriculum; and exclusion of women in power power
positions for college faculty
esp. for women of color
60s/70s people demanded
knowledge be more inclusive
of women's issues
Asked to see more women in leadership positions
Not uncommon to have no
women authors for class
Literature full of men's ideas of
women as subordinate, etc.
2 strategies that resulted in
changes in production of
knowledge of higher education
Rebalanced the curriculum
Shifted focus from white men to
more accurate representations
"women in history", "women in art"
Transformation of
traditional knowledge
"Truth" and objective
"facts" recognizes more
than just 'white male' view
Women's studies as discipline began in second wave
Objective: improve women's status in society
and, therefore, the condition of women's lives
Two commitments of women's movement have
helped establish women's studies as a a discipline
To personal change
To societal transformation
Goals/objectives of
women's studies
Understand social construction
of gender and intersection of
gender with other systems of
inequality in women's lives
To learn about the status
of women in society and
ways to improve it
Experience how institutions
affect individual lives and to think
about privilege and discrimination
in our own lives
Feminism
2 core principles
Feminism concerns equality
and justice for all women
Seeks to eliminate systems
of inequality and injustice in all
aspects of women's lives
Feminism is inclusive and
affirming of women
Celebrates women's
achievements
Works to provide a
positive and affirming
stance toward women
Personal perspective, political
theory, social movement
Agency
Feminist issues in the US are not
necessarily issues other places
Myths
Goals have been met
"We're already liberated"
- postfeminism
Negative connotations of
'feminist' and 'women's movement'
Freedom of expression confused with freedom of equality
Women have freedom for fashion, hair, piercings,
tattoos, etc. so people believe that makes them equal