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Triumphs, Controversies, and Change: Women’s Studies 1970s to the Twenty-First Century

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The Evolution of American Women’s Studies

Abstract

This chapter, which provides a historical and chronological overview of the evolution of women’s studies over the past 40 years, is meant to provide context for the reflections that follow. Divided by each of the decades, it is not meant to be an exhaustive history of women’s studies but rather a “snapshot” of how the field evolved as it interacted with issues in the women’s liberation movement, American politics, and social change, as well as in the academy itself.

Can we conceive of a future in which oppositional gender categories are not fundamental to one’s self-concept?

(Alcoff, 1988, 287)

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Alice E. Ginsberg

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© 2008 Alice E. Ginsberg

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Ginsberg, A.E. (2008). Triumphs, Controversies, and Change: Women’s Studies 1970s to the Twenty-First Century. In: Ginsberg, A.E. (eds) The Evolution of American Women’s Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230616677_2

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