Rhetoric and reality in women’s studies

Abstract

Feminist activists frequently complain about the failure of most women today—even women of independence and accomplishment—to identify themselves as feminists. Advocates of women's studies usually explain away this uncomfortable fact by calling it “backlash” or blaming it on women's false consciousness or adherence to “privilege.” In this essay I offer an alternative explanation for women's public indifference or outright hostility to feminism, arguing that it is a result of the rhetoric and positions adopted by feminists themselves, especially those working in academic women's studies. I draw on recent books and articles reflecting on women's studies, feminist pedagogy, and feminism in general; publications of feminist organizations such as the NWSA and the AAUW; the Women's Studies E-Mail List (WMST-L); women's studies programs' own mission statements and course descriptions; and comments addressed to me personally by women's studies' supporters as well as critics. In drawing coclusions from my reading of these materials, I attempt to gauge the status of women's studies as an academic and/or a political endeavor around the year 2000.