Feminist Faculty: Striving to Be Heard

Abstract

This chapter explores the experiences of early career feminist women academics and how their feminist positionalities are constrained and liberated as scholars. Two years of interviews with 12 women feminist academics in a variety of disciplines and institution types in the United States provide the data for this study. Their narratives demonstrate that many feel exploited for their labor and self-censor in light of the intersections of their gendered, feminist, academic, and activist identities. They also consider much of their academic labor as activism and embraced opportunities to speak up and speak out. The argument put forth in this chapter is that academic culture has a powerful influence on how these women feminist academics participate in activism and this has implications for practice and for transforming the academy to become more equitable and socially just.