In “For and About Women: The Theory and Practice of Women’s Studies in the United States,” Marilyn Boxer outlines the history, political issues and structures of women’s studies disciplines and programs in United States universities. My initial reaction from reading this piece is that I’m struck by the history of the women’s studies department. Even though I am involved in women’s studies at the university I’m attending, and therefore have taken many classes and had an extensive exposure to the department, I was still unaware of the history behind it, and the implications around it’s structure. Even though I was unaware of the history of the women’s studies inception, this piece did not necessarily invoke the same kind of emotional reaction that I’ve gotten from many of the other articles that have been read this semester. Even so, Boxer’s piece was still interesting and informative about feminism in the academy.
First, Boxer outlines some historical aspects of women’s studies. In 1970, San Diego State introduced the first fully established women’s studies program in the nation. Not so different from the feminist movement as a whole, the goal of women’s studies was to be apart of the revolution; changing how we study women will change how women can live. Boxer also states that the onset of the women’s studies movement was a “centerless, leaderless movement” (p. 667). As we’ve discussed in class, in relation to an essay written by Jo Freeman, a formally structureless movement will still have an informal structure. In the case of academia, structurelessness could serve to benefit the already privileged. Adrienne Rich says the fear is that women’s studies in male-dominated spaces would “nourish a false sense of power” for the women in those spaces (p. 670). Later in the piece, Boxer states that to tackle this fear, women’s studies “must not separate theory from practice” (p. 676). I think the fear that women in male-dominated spaces having a “false sense of power,” by believing they are making change in the system even though they are not, is an interesting and important topic to address. For class I hope we can discuss how feminist activism works in academic institutions, and if it’s true that women’s spaces in them gain a sense of a power that they don’t really have.