Students and managers behaving badly : an exploratory analysis of the vulnerability of feminist academics in anti-feminist, market-driven UK higher education
Autor/in:
Lee, Deborah
Quelle: Women's studies international forum, Vol. 28 (2005) No. 2-3, S. 195-208
Inhalt: "In this article, I draw upon a qualitative interview to offer an exploratory analysis of unacceptable male student conduct towards feminist academics. My informant encountered disrespect from anti-feminist male students, who subsequently maliciously accused her of disrespecting them. The men's complaint was accepted uncritically by the market-driven male Dean of Faculty in order to keep the customers happy. Given that anti-feminism makes feminist academics vulnerable to attack in market-driven UK higher education, I propose that feminists should start to campaign against unacceptable student conduct and subsequent victim-blaming by managers. One way in which we might start to do this is by deploying the interpretation 'contrapower sexual harassment' to conceptualise these experiences. Our campaign will not be universally welcomed in universities. Yet when have feminists been afraid of resistance?" (author's abstract)
CEWS Kategorie:Geschlechterverhältnis, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Sexuelle Belästigung und Gewalt
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Strengthening women's studies through applied activism : theoretical, classroom, regional, and cross-border strategies for participating in change
Autor/in:
Dickinson, Torry D.
Quelle: Women's studies international forum, Vol. 28 (2005) No. 2-3, S. 115-126
Inhalt: "Through activist scholarship Women's Studies has helped to support material and cultural change in the university and in social-change projects around the world. To strengthen Women's Studies social-change applications, this article stresses the importance of consciously integrating material and cultural knowledge and recognizing material feminism's historical, social relational, and local-to-global contributions. Applied activist knowledge in Women's Studies would be enhanced by more engagement in theoretical, classroom-based, and organizational work in regional and cross-border feminist social-change networks. Examples are drawn from the author's experiences teaching Women's Studies, her work in feminist theory construction in relation to historical analysis, and her activist research in U.S. urban areas, the U.S. Great Plains, and in regions of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. Emphases are placed on the grounding of gendered and intersecting hierarchies within our historical, global society; the connection of social-change frameworks to an exploration of democratically defined women's and community needs; and the preparation of applied activists for the work of developing new, redistributive models of inclusive regional and global development." (author's abstract)
Quelle: Women's studies international forum, Vol. 28 (2005) No. 2-3, S. 150-162
Inhalt: "This paper focuses on the experiences and perceptions of gender inequality by undergraduates at a British University with strong historical traditions. Contrary to a 'post-feminist' rhetoric stating that gender inequalities no longer exist in higher education in the UK, or at least not at an undergraduate level, results of a questionnaire and interviews show that gender inequality does still persist in this institutional setting. However, we also found reluctance among students, particularly female students, to recognise or articulate this as discrimination. Instead, there was a tendency to downplay or deny such inequalities, and resistance to such matters being raised. Drawing on existing literature in the field, we suggest this might be a 'coping mechanism', as well as indicative of the 'post-feminist' milieu. The paper then reflects on the implications of these findings, particularly for those seeking to address gender inequalities in such an institutional environment. Drawing on identity politics theory, as well as the authors' own activist experiences, we argue that while recognising women as a discriminated group may promote gender differentiation, this may still go some way towards practically combating 'androcentric norms' (Fraser, Nancy (1995). From redistribution to recognition? Dilemmas of justice in a 'post-socialist' age, New Left Review, 212, 68 93) and thus gender inequality in universities." (author's abstract)
"Don't be so feminist" : exploring student resistance to feminist approaches in a Canadian university
Autor/in:
Webber, Michelle
Quelle: Women's studies international forum, Vol. 28 (2005) No. 2-3, S. 181-194
Inhalt: "This paper explores student resistance to feminist course content in social science courses cross-listed with women's studies as an example of social reproduction at work. Drawing on both interviews and anonymous student course evaluations, student resistance to feminism is examined from the layered perspectives of faculty, teaching assistants and students in these courses. The author argues that a regime of rationality still operates in the academy and is made evident when feminist course content is met with continual dismissal or disavowal." (author's abstract)
CEWS Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Geschlechterverhältnis
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Still inside, still "out" : a decade of reflection on exposure, risk and survival
Autor/in:
Marchbank, Jen
Quelle: Women's studies international forum, Vol. 28 (2005) No. 2-3, S. 139-149
Inhalt: "This article addresses the experience of exposure and the steps taken to ameliorate the dangers, explored through my personal observations in relation to my experiences working within British higher education for the past two decades. In particular I examine the interrelationships between my matrix of identity, my experiences and the structure and practices of higher education. The elements of this matrix include my class status, my parenting status, my gender and my sexuality, in particular the latter two. I discuss personal and, therefore, individual, actions yet these have not been developed and taken in isolation. The aim is to show how collective challenges can reduce structural discrimination at an individual level and aid the diminution of such structural oppressions. The methodological approach is one of auto/ biography informed by some lessons of political science." (author's abstract)
Women in academies of sciences : from exclusion to exception
Autor/in:
Noordenbos, Greta
Quelle: Women's studies international forum, Vol. 25 (2002) Iss. 6, S. 127-137
Inhalt: "The development of women in academies of sciences can be historicized from exclusion
to exception. Most national academies elected their first female members in the 20th
century after the Second World War. Why were women elected so late? The most important
explanations for the long-lasting exclusion of women discussed in this article are
the professionalization and institutionalization of science, the restriction of members,
the exclusion of women from universities, the diminishing power of the aristocracy,
the increasing divergence between the public and the private sphere, male prejudice
against women, fear of losing status, and social closure of male networks. In order
to gather information about the first women elected as members, the number of female
members elected since then, and the actual percentage of female members, a questionnaire
was distributed to all European academies of sciences. Results from 47 academies and
431 female members are presented. Although there is a steady increase in the number
of female members since 1970, the proportion of women is still very low between 1%
and 15%. The article concludes with some suggestions for the improvement of the situation
of women in higher scientific positions." (author's abstract)|
Science, gender, and women's liberation : an argument against postmodernism
Autor/in:
Oakley, Ann
Quelle: Women's studies international forum, Vol. 21 (1998) No. 2, S. 133-146
Inhalt: "In much contemporary feminist discourse, the concepts of 'science' and 'gender' are
discredited as tools for analysing women's situation. Postmodernist debates criticise
the whole positivist enterprise that underlies 'the scientific method' and is reflected
in 'quantitative' and 'experimental' ways of knowing. Gender as a social construction
conceptually distinct from a 'biological' division into female and male has also been
called into question by postmodernist theories. This paper argues the desirability
of rehabilitating both the concepts of science and gender within a feminist discourse
committed to the practical liberation of women. Two current problems in women's health
care-cervical cancer screening and hormone replacement therapy-are examined as a case
study." (author's abstract)|