Issues in feminism : an introduction to women's studies [5 ed.] 0767416447

Citation preview

Fifth Edition

--

-

--

---- - ~

Issues in Feminism An Introduction to Women's Sti,dies

Sheila Ruth

Issues in Feminism An Introduction to Women's Studies Fifth Edition

Sheila Ruth Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville

Mayfield Publishing Company Mountain View, California London • Toronto

To Michaet Amity, and Ktndra

Copyright O 2001, 1998, 1995, 1990 by Mayfield Publishing Company Copyright Q 1980 by Houghton Mifflin Company, Issues in Feminism: A First Course in Wome,1's Studies

All righ ts reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher. library of Congress Cat.tloging-in-Publication Data

Issues in feminism : an introduction to women's studies/ Sheila Ruth-5th ed. p. cm. lncludes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7674-1644-7 1. Feminism-United States. 2. Women's studies-United States. Sheila. HQ1426.1853 2000 305.42'0973-dc21

I. Ruth,

00-033243 ClP

Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Mayfield Publishing Company 1280 Villa Street Mountain View, California 94041 Sponsoring editor, Serina Beauparlant; production editor, Deneen M. Sedlack; manuscript editor, Barbara McGowran; design manager, Susan Breitbard; cover designer, Laurie Anderson; art editor, Robin Mouat; illustrator, Emma Ghiselli; manufacuring manager, Randy Hurst. The text was set in 9 / 11 Palatino by Thompson Type and printed on acid-free 45# Highland Plus by Malloy Lithographing, lnc. " Definition of a Womanist," from In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose, copyright @ 1983 by Alic1! Walker, reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace & Company.

Contents ~

Preface CHAPTER

v111

ONE

Women's Studies, Feminism, and the Women's Movement 1 BETTE-JANE RAPHAEL: The Myth of the Male Orgasm

33

PATRICIA HILL COLLINS: Womanism and Black Feminism

35

JEEYEUN LEE: Beyond Bean Counting 42 FLORENCE HOWE: "Promises to Keep": Trends in Women's Studies Worldwide 46 MARCIA ANN GILLESPIE: Get Out of the Kitchen 57

PART I THE GENDER SYSTEM: Conceptual and Theoretical Issues 59 CHAPTER TWO

Patriarchy, Sexism, and Masculinity MICHAEL KIMME L: What Are Little Boys Made Of?

61

75

BRIAN EASLEA: Patriarchy, Scientists, and Nuclear Warriors

79

KARLA MANTILLA: Child Violence: It's a Male Thing

92 ALLAN G. JOHNSON: The Gender Knot: What Drives Patriarchy? 94 GARY LEMONS: A New Response to "Angry Black (Anti)Feminists": Reclaiming Feminist Forefathers, Becoming Womanist Sons 107 R. W. CONNELL: Masculinities and Globalization 117 iii

-

iv

Contents

CHAPTER THREE

The Portrayal of Women in Patriarchy: Ideals, Stereotypes, and Roles 124 RITA FREEDMAN: Myth America Grows Up

138

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Whether Woman Should Have Been Made in the First Production of Things 148

MARY DALY: The Church and the Second Sex SIGMUND FREUD: Femininity

150

156

ANONYMOUS: Twenty-Seven Reasons Why a Beer Is Better Than a Woman!

169

CHAPTER FOUR

Feminist Resistance to Sexist Ideology 170 THEODORA WELLS: Woman-Which Includes Man, of Course 186 AUDRE LORDE: The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action 188 BARBARA SMITH: Myths to Divert Black Women from Freedom 191 MAHNAZ AFKHAMI: Empathy Among Women on a Global Scale 200 ANDREA DWORKIN: Antifeminism 205

CHAPTER FIVE

Patriarchy and Women's Subordination: Explanations from Feminist Theory, Science, and Myth 209 Genesis 219 SUSAN BROWNMILLER Rape

221

ALLAN G. JOHNSON: The Mystery of How We Got Here

223

PAULA GUNN ALLEN: The "Patriarchalization" of Native American

Tribes-When Women Throw Down Bundles: Strong Women Make Strong Nations 228 GERDA LERNER: A Working Hypothesis 237

Contents

PART II THE GENDER SYSTEM: Its Effects on Our Private Lives and Public Institutions 24 7 CHAPTER SIX

The Effects of Sex.ism on Women's Private Lives MAVIS HARA: Carnival Queen 281 ABRA FORTUNE CHERNIK: The Body Politic 289 GLORIA E. ANZALDUA: The Strength of My Rebellion JULIA PENELOPE: The Lesbian Perspective 299

294

SHAMITA DAS DASGUPTA AND SAYANTANI DASGUPTA: Bringing Up

Baby: Raising a "Third World" Daughter in the "First World" 308 MARCIA L. MCNAIR: The Black Matriarchy: It Takes a Lioness to Raise Young Lions 318 PHYLLIS CHESLER: Letters to a Young Feminist on Sex and Reproductive Freedom 320 MERLE HOFFMAN: Twenty-Seven Years, But Who's Counting: Thoughts on Yet Another Roe v. Wade 325 SUSAN GRIFFIN: Rape: The Power of Consciousness 329 UNKNOWN: "The Rape" of Mr. Smith 340 BELL HOOKS: Witnessing the Death of Love: She Hears Him Tell the Woman That He Will Kill Her . . . 341

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Effects of Sexism on Public Institutions 344 HILARY SALK, WENDY SANFORD, NORMA SWENSON, AND JUDITH DICKSON LUCE: The Politics of Women and Medical Care 355 RUTH SIDEL: The Assault on the Female-Headed Family 374 ELYCE J. ROTELLA: Women and the American Economy 383 NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN: Affirmative Action: Building a National Community That Works 398

249

v

vi

Contents

ANITA F. HILL: Sexual Harassment: The Nature of the Beast 405 SUSAN GLUCK MEZEY: Law and Equality: The Continuing Struggle for Women's Rights 408 RIANE EISLER AND ALLIE C. HIXSON: The Equal Rights Amendment: What Is It, Why Do We Need It, and Why Don' t We Have It Yet? 424 MARTA BENAVIDES: Women and Environmental Activism 428 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: The Global Women's Human Rights Movement 439

CHAPTER

EIGHT

How Sexist Ideology Affects Our Understanding of the Worldand How Feminists Respond 445 CATHARINE A. MACKINNON: Consciousness Raising 459 DALE SPENDER: Disappearing Tricks 467 EMILY MARTIN: The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles 473 BELL HOOKS: Teaching Resistance: The Racial Politics of Mass Media 483 SHEILA RUTH: Women's Spirit and Men's Religion 488 OLNIA CASTELLANO: Canto, Locura y Poesia 497

PART III WOMEN ON THE MOVE 503 CHAPTER

NINE

Our Feminist Foremothers: Events and Arguments 505 NATIONAL COMMISSION ON THE OBSERVANCE OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S YEAR: Rediscovering American Women- A Chronology Highlighting Women's History in the United States . . . 516 Update: The Process Continues 528

Contents

MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ABIGAIL AND JOHN ADAMS: The Adams Letters

534

539 SENECA FALLS CONVENTION OF 1848: Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions 541 SOJOURNER TRUTH: Ain't I a Woman? 544 ELIZABETH CADY STANTON: Speech Before the Legislature, 1860 546 SUSAN 8. ANTHONY: Constitutional Argument 552 MARGARET SANGER: Woman and the New Race 557 SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR: Woman as "Other" 562 BETTY FRIEDAN: The Problem That Has No Name 570 NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN: NOW Bill of Rights 575 KATE MILLETT: Theory of Sexual Politics 577 THE BEIJING DECLARATION

584

Bibliography and Further Readings 590 Index 613

vii

Preface ~

W

hen I was preparing the first edition of Issues in Feminism early in the 1970s, I wrote:

I too have changed; I am now past 60, an uolder generation" second-wave feminist, considered by some to be a "mother" of women's studies. Over the years, my colleagues and students have deepened my understanding of the complexity of navigating the range of issues embedded in women's expe.rience, and this, of course, has altered for the bettet the terms of my analyses. What has not changed is my passionate belief in women's movement(s) and feminist analysis, in the need for feminist activism and radical social change, in the positive possibilities of the future. I am still rooted, by choice, in the spirit of (dare I still use the phrase?) women's liberation. It is still my conviction that women's studies must be firmly grounded in the women's movement. Feminist analysis that is not anchored in women's concrete experiences may serve academia, but it will not serve women or the world. An unregenerate feminist, I have not at all altered my original conviction that there is something radically wrong with the direction civilization has taken; that it is grounded in the condition of women around the world and intimately related to the definition of masculinity that has become prevalent; that urgent effort is needed, in Sojourner Truth's words, to tum the world right side up again; and that feminism- its insights together with its action, has the tools to do it. I still believe that women, as women, share a commonality of problems-in varying degrees and expressions, to be sure, but we share them nonetheless, and we must solve them together. Different though we may be, all women are burdened by violence, subordination, misogyny, discrimination, and so on, as our daughters will be, as the planet will be, if we do not act together. For many reasons, women, as women, are in a unique position to see into the heart of what has gone wrong and to change it. We have moved in that direction, but the

Women's studies was born out of the women's movement, which was born out of the concrete e~riences, realities, and possibilities of women's lives. No matter how much a part of the traditional, "respectable" university the research, faculty, or students of women's studies become, we never lose sight of our beginnings or continuing rootedness in women's liberation, because it is the rootedness in its issues that gives impetus and meaning to our work. Those of us engaged in what is cu"ently called women's studies (research and learning in afeminist context) have come along different routes, yet almost without exception each of us is here because at some time in our personal history we have specifically ~ c e d events or ideas that have propelled us into a reappraisal of our lives as women. Generally it was the power of those e ~ e s and the shock of the appraisal that created in us the desire and the commitment to know more about women, womanhood, and the consequences ofgender definition. In the years since this book's beginnings, although many things have changed, others have not. Women's studies has changed: it has grown and developed and influenced the intellectual and academic landscape to a degree we could barely have imagined in the early 1970s. Society too has changed. In th.e Western world, the women's movement has profoundly altered the lives of women and men, mostly for the better, but not sufficiently. Elsewhere, in different ways and to various degrees, not only feminism is vital and growing, but women's studies as well.

viii

Preface

women's movement has not come nearly close enough to accomplishing sufficiently deep changes in our world. This requires that we continue to gain ever deeper understanding, and that is a primary goal of women's studies. Developments in methodology and analysis have brought us sharp tools, new issues, and increasing sophistication. Theorizing grows ever more complex, schools of thought ever more numerous. Few would not delight in our growth; however, we must take care lest our sophistication degenerate into the vacuity we deplore in other fields. Women's studies must not be allowed to devolve into just another academic board game-full of cryptic lore and rules but having little to do with life. That would destroy its appeal as well as its primary reason for being.

Tl,e education promoted /Jy women's studies engages its public because it promises to enhance-or ratlier, to restore- the role of the ,miversity in girr ing meaning to people's lives and moral direction to society. The arguments for se.>. equity are etlrical as well as legal and economic .... Women's studies gives new meaning to the lives of its students, faculty, and community associates, and it brings to higlier education new possibilities for q11estions, answers, and interpretations of personal and social relationships. -MARILYN JACOBY BoxER'

Tire grass roots/comm11nity wome,1's movement has given women's studies its life. How do we relate to it? How do we bring 011r gifts and our ed11cational privilege back to it? Do we realize also how very mucf, there is to leam in doing tlris essential work? Ask yo11rself what the women's movement is working on in yo11r town or city. Are yo11 a part of it ? Ask yo11rself wlrich women are living in the worst conditions in yo11r town and how yo11r work positively affects and directly to11ches their lives. If it doesn't, why not? -

BARBARA SMITH'

Women within and outside the academy find ourselves in an environment that is in many ways improved but in others is far more hostile. There has been marked economic improvement for certain groups of women; yet, contrary to the images portrayed in the media, women's overall progress has

ix

been slow and inadequate, and for some there has been desperate deterioration of means. 1n other countries around the world, women find themselves in like circumstances: improvement for some women in some places, deterioration for others. American women have inched forward, but our gains haven' t accomplished anything close to what is needed. There are more women in government and the professions, but they still represent a very small percentage of the whole. Racism has recei,·ed permission from various quarters to become more overt, as has homophobia, and poor women have been demon.ized and placed at risk in terms of health, freedom, and economic opportunity. Socially, antifemin.ist, antiwoman forces on the right have whittled away at our demands for human parity, for reproducti ve autonomy, and for racial justice, and they promise continued assault. Violence of all kinds against women, including homophobic and other hate crimes, is increasing, and yet a corporately controlled network of media regales us ceaselessly with statistics touting that "crime is d own." Women are ever more targeted for media and industry assaults on our appearance and well-being; eating disorders are nearly epideIDJc among girls. Viagra is everywhere; RU-486 is . .. where? The infamous backlash of the last two decades has been very effective. It is against th.is backdrop that we must consider the fact that the majority of young people, including university students, continue to be for the most part apolitical, and that many young women accept the proposition, ad vanced by the media and forces on the right, that feminism has become either irrelevant, all important battles having been settled, or that it is contrary to the best interests of women and the country. lndeed, it has become wtfash.ionable for women to use the/ word at all, even among young, progressive women who clearly are fem.inist in orientation-the 'Tm not a fem.in.ist, but ..." phenomenon. Women's studies is faced with a vast responsibility: to counter the misinformation and to restore in our students the awareness, the commitment, and the ability to participate in the struggle for social justice. It is a tall order, but it is what women's studies was designed to d o. As you will see, these beliefs underlie this edition of Issues i11 Feminism as they have every previous edition.

x

Preface

The focus of this text, both i:n the introductory essays and in the readings, is on issues, exactly as its title states: Issues in Feminism is an introduction to some of the most important themes of th.e feminist movement. Newspaper articles, scholarly papers, manifestos, political papers, personal narratives, and all the rest are here to serve the purpose of unfolding the important questions and engaging their critiques. To simply know the facts of women's various lives is an important beginning, but it is not sufficient. For students to grow in seU-awareness and social responsibility, they must understand those facts; th.e y must have a context and create an analysis. The underlying themes of the book, both in the text and in the readings, are twofold. First, to make sense of the consequences of gender in our lives and in our world, we mus t know our history. We must have access to aU the influential beliefs and ideas, past and present, regarding women, both negative and positive, from the academic to the popular, from the sci.entific to the pseudoscientific, from the complex to the simplistic, and from the thoughtful to the downright silly. Second, to counter the misogyny that is em.b edded in many of those ideas, we must comprehend their impact on our lives in a profound and personal way, and that requires critical analysis of even the homeliest events of our day-today lives. This book is des igned for beginners in feminism and women's studies, for those who have not yet had the "click" of recognition and reappraisal, or who have had it only in the most inchoate way. Its intention is not only to impart information but also to precipitate the s tudent into an awareness of the self in the context of social constructions of gender. This is a primer in the most exact sense: It is directed at the prime, the spring, the level of consciousness out of which come the need and the decision to understand. It aims to engage students by revealing the gender issues embedded in the most familiar facets of life: family relationships, work, education, media, religion, popular culture, and more. Selections here are purposely diverse in character. They range across several fields of stud yliterature, anthropology, biology, theology, and others. They represent various viewpoints, from the "radically" feminist to the antifeminist and in be-

tween. They in.elude scientific papers, learned analyses, political arguments, and personal narratives. Some are funny, oth.ers despicable. Some will take little effort to understand; others are fairly demanding. It is hoped that every student, at whatever level of ability or accomplishment, may find a challenge here. These are not necessarily the most recent pieces, the most erudite, or even the most reputable. They are statements from the past and the present that are representative of the prevailing notions that have had a terrific impact on our lives as women (and the lives of men as well). These readings, diverse as they are, go together. They have been se1.ected for their collective powe.r to provide a picture of the pattern of ideas about women, to reveal issues in their interrelatedness. They a.re meant toeducate in the broadest sense-to bring students face-to-face with their own experiences of gender, and to provide them with a context within which to understand them. Although the material represents a range of academic fields, from psychology to economics, from politics to anthropology, its treatment is primarily out of the humanities. The driving questions presented here are: What do we see? What does this mean? How does this affect the quality of our lives? What would be better? Why does it matter? The methodology is essentially Socratic-we pose questions, articulate various responses, assess them, set the stage for further questions, and so on. The goal is understanding. Its consequence is growth in wisdom and spirit. Nonetheless, what we will be doing here is women's studies, a nondisciplinary, multidisciplinary, counterdisciplinary feminist exploration of the conditions of our lives, where we ourselves set the boundaries of what may be asked and what we may ultimately do with the answe.r s we devise. In broadest strokes, the outline of the text is this: Part I first introduces women's studies itself, then essential theoretical concepts, terminology, and issues; Part Il follows with examples of how these theoretical concepts are played out concretely in our lives, both personally and institutionally; and Part m closes with some of the important documents and events of women's history. SpecificaUy, Chapter 1 introduces women's stu.dies, its relationship to feminism and to the

Preface

women's movement, something of its history and reason for being, its goals, and its internal issues. Part I (Chapters 2 through 5) provides an explication of the major themes of sex-role arrangements: the male and female ideals, the roles and expectations of gender as they have been expressed in various aspects of our culture and as they crisscross with class, race, ethnicity, sexual identity, and other social categories. The book begins with these images, as coarsely defined as they are-the Mars and Venus ideals- because, in one variation or another, they are at the root of social beliefs and attitudes toward the sexes. They have great explanatory value-both for the traditionalist, as a justification for sexist structures, and for the feminist, as a schema to be explored. Chapter 2 explores the nature of patriarchy, masculinity, and the evolving notion of " masculinities." Chapter 3 begins the unpacking of patriarchal conceptions of womenstereotyping, misogyny, subordination, oppression. Chapter 4 provides examples of some of the responses women have made to patriarchal ideas and some of the ways women resist their impact. Chapter 5 describes the kinds of explanations various thinkers have devised regarding the origin of female subordination and h.trnishes some examples. In Part Il, the gender system is traced through its reflection in such concrete aspects of life as family structures, sexual mores, education, work, politics, health, and so on. Chapter 6 introduces issues usually ta.ken to be "personal"-personal identity, love relationships, motherhood, and so on. Although feminist theory years ago exploded the myth that there was a line between the personal and the political, young women need very much to explore that relationship. Chapter 7 examines the appearance of sexism in major social institutions, and Chapter 8 explores the way sexist ideology supports it and feminist activism resists it. PinaUy, Chapter 9 is a compilation of important feminist documents. Of course, in reality, it is impossible to separate the elements of these chapters into discrete little packets; they overlap and weave into one another, and there are many ways in which they could be presented. For this reason, one chapter does not assume knowledge of the selections contained in any other. Also, there are more issues and selections here than can usually be managed in one semester.

xi

The intention is to provide the instructor latitude in choosing the material best suited for the students and assigning it in whatever order bes t satisfies the goals and makeup of the class. Issues in Feminism began as a collection of reading handouts for an experimental course I was " permitted" provis ionally to offer in 1973, whe n academic feminism was in its infancy and I was as yet an untenured assistant p rofessor in philosophy. Over the years, having been instructed by the work, by my students and my colleagues (I da re stilJ to use the word sisters), both the book and I have changed. l have lost many, although not alJ, of my blind spots. I am becoming, for example, increas· ingly aware of my own particularity- an older White, middlish-class, professional, Mid westerner, crusted around a working-class, Jewish, loner, Bronx kid. I understand better what that enables me to say and what I should lea,·e for others to say: I tend to be more careful in my speech-measuring, qualifying. l know how much I don't know, and how much I must learn from others. I hope that this is re.fleeted in this edition of Issues in Fe1111111sm. Many reviewers of this text ha ve asked for a greater range of voices in the selections. That I have gladly provided. Others, remarking that the book was " too feminist" for their s tudents or courses, asked for a change in " tone." That will not be forthcoming. A too feminist women's s tudies course is, I believe, an oxymoron. To complete a project like lss1tes III Fe1111111:;111 requires many kinds of help and support. I am grateful to many colleagues who ha ve reviewed the manuscript for the previous editions and offered guidance and suggestions including Joseph J. Arpad, California State University at Fresno; Susan Arpad, California State University at Fresno; Anne M. Butler, Utah State Universi ty; Carol Coburn, University of Kansas; Joan Hagman, Concordia College; Barbara S. Havira, Western Michigan University; Annis H. Hopkins, Arizona State University; Lynn Kamenitsa, Northern Illinois Universi ty; Bett\' C. Safford, California State University a t Fttllerto~; Pamela S. Thoma, Colby College; Tim \Veinfeld, Western Ma.ryland College; and Barbara A. \Nhite, University of New Hampshire. I would also like to than.k the reviewers of this fifth edition includ ing Cathryn Bailey, Minnesota State Uni versity, Mankato; Susan Gail Ba.ker, Oa.kland Uni\'ersity, Roch-

xii

Preface

ester, MI; Shereen G. Bingham, University of Nebraska, Omaha; Jodi Brodsky, The New School for Social Research & The College of New Jersey; Suzanne Cataldi, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville; Amy C. Lind, Arizona State University; Sheila Nyhus, University of Wyoming; and Karin Suesser, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. At Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, I am indebted to my colleagues in the Department of Philosophical Studies for their support and friendship over more than 30 years. To my girls, Amity and Kendra, goes appreciation for the joy of seeing women of a new generation- feminist women-making their own way, continuing the process, and flourishing in the legacy my generation wanted so much for them. To

Michael Allaband goes my deepest gratitude for the certainty that love and partnership between the sexes is a possible and worthy ideal.

Notes 1. Marilyn Jacoby Boxer, Whtn Ytbmffl Ask tlw Qiusticms: Crttiting Womm 's Studies in Ammco (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), p. 251.

2. Barbara Smith, "Racism and Women's Studies,.. in All IM Ytbmffl Art Whitt, All tM B14cks Arr Mtn, But Somt of Us Art Brlll!e, ed. Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith (Old Westbury, NY: The Feminist Press, 1982); quoted in Making Fact, Making Soul, Hacitnllo Caras: Crtti· tiw and Critical Persp«tivrs by Ytbmffl of Color, ed. Gloria Anzaldua (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Foundation Boob, 1990), p. 27.

CHAPTER ONE

----------------- - - ~ - - -----------------

Women's Studies, Feminism, and the Women's Movement

WHAT IS WOMEN'S STUDIES? In the mid- to late 1960s, a scattering of courses focusing on feminist issues began to appear on college campuses. In 1970, the terms women 's studies and feminist studies were first used to refer to them. Against strong resistance, two or three courses developed into thousands of courses, into programs, into a whole new educational and intellectual enterprise. According to an early study by Florence Howe, by 1980 university faculty were teaching more than twenty thousand such courses in institutions all over the country,' and the number is still increasing. Today there are programs at all levels of studyfrom the undergraduate minor to the doctorate. Accord ing to the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA), the number of undergraduate programs listed between 1988 and 1990 increased by 23 percent (creating a total of more than 500 programs!), and by 1990 there were 102 programs offering work at the graduate level.l In the United States today, women's studies is offered at over two-thirds of universities, half of four-year colleges, and more than 40 percent of institutions of higher education,' and its extent is even greater if we consider the thousands of noncredit courses offered through extension and continuing education programs. Nor is women's studies confined to the United States. As you will read in the selection by Florence Howe at the end of this chapter, women's studies is a majo.r intellectual force in universities all over the world, in countries on every continent. What is more, in the thirty or so years since its inception, women's studies has transformed not only the curriculum, the topics, and the material we teach but also our thinking about knowledge itself. Marilyn Boxer tells us:

Wl,etfier alluding to tl,e Renaissance or tl,e E11lig/1te11me11t, to Copenricus or Danuin, s1meral sc!,olars have compared tl,e impact of women's studies to tl,e major intellectual tra,1sformatio11s that mark human history. ln tire sense tlrat sue/, great moments in l, 11man experience give rise to an immense flowering of art, literature, and science, and to t!,e clr!illenging of previously accepted authorities of text or tradition, these comparisu11s are apt. Tire term feminist enlightenment,.first suggested by tire late sociologist Jessie 1

2

Chapter 1 I Women's Studies, Feminism, and the Women's Movement

Bernard, is appropriate to those meanings, although not insofar as it may evoke a search for universal laws or rules to define the world. Femin ist enlightenment stands instead for the mental "click," the spiritual conversion, the realiz.ation of a new capacity for vision that illuminates tire dark and enlarges the landscape. By posing new questions and seeking answers tlzat place women in the center, it allows altogether new ways of viewing women and the world to emerge.• From the beginning, the growth of women's studies as a discipline was extraordinary. ln 1977, barely a d ecade after its birth, the number of people involved in feminis t research had grown so large and their interests were so cliverse that it became necessary to establish some formal means of communication and support. ln January of that year, d elegates from institutions all over the country participated in the founding of the NWSA, which now has thousands of members, individual and institutional.5 NWSA's constitution, formulated in 1982, clearl y identifies the close association between the women's movement, a social process, and women's studies, an intellectual or academic enterprise: Because -Feminist education is a process deeply rooted in tlze women's movement and remains accountable to that community; -Feminist aims include the elimination of oppression and discrimination 0 11 the basis of sex, race, age, class, religion, ethnicity, and sexwll orientation, as well as other barriers to human liberation inlterent in the structure of our society; - Feminist education is not only the pursuit of knowledge about women, but also the development of knowledge for women, a force which furthers the realiuition offemin ist aims; Therefore -The National Women's Studies Association actively supports and pronwtes feminist education and supports the persons involved in that effort, at any educational level and in any educational setting.• For contemporary university education, and for some high schools, women's studies is a fact of life.

But what is the nature of this new enterprise? What precisely does it do? Because women's studies is still very youngslightly more than thirty years old- it is difficult to give it an absolute definition. One reason is that scholars are still only beginning to articulate the challenging new insights and methods that are developing within the field. Also, women's studies is a field that has few models. It consciously rejects many traditional forms of inquiry, concepts, and explanatory systems; at the same time, it is developing new and sometimes unique traditions and authorities of its own. ln this chapter, you will learn how feminist researchers are discovering that most accepted theories in all traditional fields-even methods of pursuing knowledge- are rife with prejudice and misunderstandings about women in particular and humanity in general. Because the task of uncovering this bias and restoring balance in knowledge is so complex, feminist thinkers are extremely hesitant to impose artificial limits on those who pursue this work. We are committed to be.ing tol.erant toward new methodologies and analyses to avoid creating additional rigid principles that would discourage research. Therefore, we place a high value on freedom and self-determination. Ideologically, and often temperamentally, we are suspicious of hierarchies and control in either social relations or intellectual pursuits. Self-disciplined freedom and cooperative efforts, we believe, are more apt to produce constructive results in most endeavors. Thus, most of us try to encourage and be open to ideas, even when they are very different from our own. You will see that openness and freedom from rigid preconception is not easy to attain, and the work is far from complete. For many reasons then- the rich diversity of perspectives and people engaged in women's studies; the newness of feminist research; the hesitancy to embrace constricting standards; and the unusually strong desire for tolerance, experimentation, and growth-the ideas, methods, curricula, and theories of women's studies exhibit great variety and resist easy definition. Those of us now working in women's studies have called it variously a process, a field of inquiry, a critical perspective, a center for social action, and the academic arm of the women's movement. It is all of these and more.

Chapter 1 I Women's Studies, Feminism, and the Women 's Movement

THE "STIJDY OF WOMEN" For centuries, women have been "studied." Aristotle theorized that we were "misbegotten males," conceived instead of men when the winds were not propitious. Aquinas agreed that women were flawed humans, but he decided that since women were at least necessary for procreation, God had not after all made some terrible mistake in creating us. Freud discovered the vengeful, castrating, penisenvying character of us all, and the philosopher Karl Stem speculated about our "nonretlective," cosmically tied life of nature.' Such concepts in past studies of women reflect their origin: They were conceived almost exclu sively by men working together in institutions and disciplines absolutely closed to women. An examination of the many traditional works on women reveals certain characteristics: • Women are generally looked at; rarely have we d one our own looking, and still more rarely are we asked for our opinions concerning our own experience. Ideas that women have offered tend to be ignored or debunked unless they reinforce existing beliefs. • Women are generally "studied" in a separate section or subsection of a work, as though we are some kind of extra appendage or anomaly, not readily understood within the general context of the inquiry. In Aristotle's Politics, for example, following a discussion of human excellence, is a separate section asking whether women as well as men might have "excellence," and if so, in what this excellence might consist.8 (Aristotle decided that unlike men, who should be intelligent, rational, dutiful, honest, generous, etc., women are va.lued for two characteristics alone: obedience and silence.) An l11troductio11 to Islam• contains fifteen chapters describing the funda.mental beliefs and practices of the Muslim people. One chapter is entitled "The Muslim Woman"; there is no chapter on "The Mus lim Man." • Professional and academic studies of women reflect the prejudices and attitudes that exist in the wider culture. Without women's own perspectives to balance the historical fund of

3

ignorance and superstition surrounding our lives, conventional {misogynist) "wisdom" has been carried into research by so-called authorities on the subject, has hardened into accepted theory, and has ultimately become "science." As science, these my ths about women have been used to justify all sorts of oppression, from witch-hunts to clitoridectomy. Until recently, the accepted studies of women from primitive times to the present have examined women as if we were senseless, semihuman creatures unable to speak for ourselves. We have been prodded, dissected, categorized and filed, researched and resolved. No wonder the traditional products of the "study of women " are d istorted Such an approach to understanding women's lives necessa rily produces p oor informati on Try reversing the gender, and treat the ma le as the adjunct of humanity ins tead of the female. Can you imagine a h istory of westward expans ion co ntaining a chapter on the pioneer husband or the pioneer male? Or how would you evaluate an anlysis of masculine attitudes on impotence that was researched and written entirely by women and was based on their observations alone, w1th no input from men?

WOMEN'S STUDIES AND IBE ISSUE OF DIVERSITY AMONG l \lOi\t EN Gaining freedom from rigid preconceptions is not easy. This is true for any thinker. As has the wider society, feminist scholars have been subject to bias and misconception, to prejudice, and to narrowness of vision, and our work has reflected this . \\/omen's studies and the women's movement are now engaged in the arduous process of correcting serious errors. Among the isms with which we ha,•e been struggling are racism, ethnocentrism, heterosexism, able.ism, classism, and age.ism. Early enthusiasm for "sisterhood," for cohesion among women as women, blinded many to the 101 portance of understanding the differe11ces an1ong women as well as the similarities, and it led to serious theoretical and practical mistakes. In 1988, Elizabeth Spelman de.linea ted the problem very sha rply when she sa.id that there is

4

Chapter 1 I Women 's Shuiits, Ftminism, and the Women's Motlffllfflt

a tendency in dominant Western feminist thought to posit an essential "womanness" that all women have and share in common despite the racial, class, religious, ethnic, and cultural dijfrrtnces among us. I try to show that the notion of a gmmc "woman" functions in ftm inist thought much the way the nc>tion ofgeneric "man" has functioned in Western philoscphy: it obscures the heterogeneity of women and cuts off examination of the signifiamce of such heterogeneity for ftminist theory and political activity. 10 Spelman summed the issue up quite succinctly in citing Audre Lorde (whose sel.ection you will see in Chapter 4): "There is a pretense to a homogeneity of

experience covered by the word sisterhood that does not in fact exist." 11 Sociologist Jessie Bernard, author of several books about women's experiences, had earlier addressed the issue this way: . .. Ruth Useem, a sociologist, once commented on the imuw,uaey of the single mark she had to mah on all documen ts askingfor "sex." All she could do was check the F box. But shL kntw that this "mark of Eve" told the reader very little about her. There were so many kinds of F: F11 F21 ••• F•. ... Whatever the difference may be between M and F, and whatever the origin of these differences may be, they are matched and in some cases excttded by differences among women themselves. A woman may in many ways be more like the average man than she is like another woman . . .. In many situations F, may have more in common with M, than with any of the Fs. Rank, for example, is more important than sex in many situations. A princess has more in common with a prince than with a domestic; a professioruil woman often has more in common with a colleague than with a cleaning woman; an heiress with an heir than with a woman receiving ttJelfare payments. Sometimes F, and F1 have not only different Ind opposing points of view, each seeing the other as a threat either to a vested interest or to opportunity for achievement. The wife of a workingman may not agree with the woman worker on the principle of equal pay for equal work; she believes her husband should get more because he has to support his family.... It would, then, be more in line with thL facts of life if, instead of compressing all women into thL F

category, the diNTSity among them could be rte0gniud by allowingfor F,, F1, • • • F•. 12

For feminist research, understanding the diverse circumstances among wonien is critical. Obviously, we cannot allow ourselves to malce the same mistakes we so abhor in other fields of study and in the wider society. Comprehending differ. ences in pe,spe..tive and circumstances among women is not only requited to maintain the kind of relationships we desire among ourselves, it is a prerequisite for making credible sense of reality. Masculine bias among men not only impain wonien's lives, it deforms men's own lives as well because it distorts their discernment of reality. The pernicious isms among and in women have the same effect They injure the women who are marginalized, and they diminish the lives of all women, including those of the dominant group. The mzson racism is II feminist issue is taSily uplllined by the inherent definition offeminism. Ftminism is the politiclll theory and prtu:tice that struggles tofr« all women: women ofcolor, working-class women, poor women, disabled women, leshillns, old women-as i«ll as white, mmomiallly privileged, heterostXWll women. Anything less than this vision of tollll frttdom is not feminism, but merely female selfaggrandiument. ... White women don't work on racism to do 11 favor for someone else, solely to benefit Third ~ women. You have to comprehend how r11cism distorts and lessens your own liva 11S white ioomenthat racism affects your chances for surviwl, too, and that it is very definitely your issue. Until you understllnd this, no fundamentlll change will come about. - BAllllARA SMmt, Racism •114

Nimm's Shldin"

Our particular perspective affects the way we experience our lives in a patriarchal society, how we see ourselves, how we understand ourselves in relation to different groups of women and men, and how we seek solutions to our problems as women. When we explore women's studies, then, we all must come to terms with "particularity." In Yhmffl's Rt11litits, l-\bmen's Choices, the Hunter College Women's Studies Collective explains the issue this way:

Chapter 1 / Women's Studies, Feminism, and the Women's Moveme11/

Individuals come to women's studies and feminism from a variety of cultural and social backgrounds. As members of different races, ethnic groups, economic classes, and age groups, we bring with us different interests and preoccupatioll.S which sometimes make it difficult to arrive at a consensus. Those of us who were brought up as members of oppressed racial and ethnic groups and social classes may find it particularly difficult to see what we have in common with those whom we have learned to classify as members of privileged, dominant groups.. . . Our identity as black, Jew, Chicana, Puerto Rican, Native American, Asian American, or member of a less privileged economic class depends on our consciousness of the l1istory of our oppression by others. Freedom from racist, etlmic, or class oppression may ra11k highest amo11g our priorities, and to focus atte11tic 11 011 a division withi11 our groups, betwee11 women and me11, may seen• to us a betrayal of our common cause. How can we co11cem ourselves with the problems of the womrn among 011r oppressors or even with our own experie11ces of sexism in 011r particular group when the men in our group daily suffe r oppression from more privileged groups a11d classes?" Yet we are becoming more sophisticated in our analyses, and as we grow, we encompass and integrate more diverse perspectives, enlarge our understanding, and create the possibilities of connection. Says Robin Morgan, feminist theorist, activist, and past editor o f Ms. Magazi11e:

After all, 0 11 the 011e /1a11d, as feminists we celebrate our diversity. 0 11 the other ha11d, we've all experienced how difficult attempts at dialogue amo11g dif ferent women can be. So what do we mean when we say we "speak feminism"? It's nothing so srntimental (or arrogant) as presuming our differences don't exist. But it's nothing so cowardly (or lazy) as overemphasizing them lo the point of justifyin,~ not engaging each other across them. It's a complex, delicate kind of 'feminist diplomacy" that we're still i11 t/,e process of developing. lt involves respect, courtesy, risk, curiosity, a11d pati1mce. It 111ea11s doing one's homework in adva11ce, being willing to be vulnerable, a11d attentively listening lo 011e a11other. (A se11se of humor never

5

hurts, either.) Skill improves with practice, and practicing feminist diplomacy is challenging, exhilarating, rewarding-and al times exhausting. Feminism itself dares to assume that, beneath all our (chosen or forced) diversity, we are in fact much the same- yet the ways in which we are similar are not for any 011e woman or group of wo11u'11 to specify, but for all of us, collectively, to explore and define-a multiplicity offeminisms. In other words, our experience as female human beings in patriarchy may be the same, but our experiences of the experience differ.' 5

WOM EN'S STUDI ES AND FEMJNIS1"1 What transforms the "study of women" into women's studies is reflected in the terms themselves. ln the "study of women," women are objects; in women's studies, we are subjects. Women's studies has a feminis t base. Feminists do not agree among themselves on one aU-indusi,·e and universall y acceptable d efiniti on oi fe111111ism . Depending on a number of factors, the term fe111111ism can mean different things and have a variety of functions. We shall see later that several different theories of fem.in.ism exist, and considerable discussion centers on what it means to be a icminist, what goals feminism s hould have, and how feminists should behave. Feminism may be a perspecti,·e, a worldview, a political theory, a sp iritual focus, or a kind of activism . Actually, one learns best what feminism means by listening to women who consider themselves to be feminists and by understanding how they respond to events and conditions. Just how much range in meaning there can be for the term is reflected in this partial list of the definitions of feminism, as reported in Cheris Kramarae and Paula A. Treichler's Feminist Dictumary:"

May be defined as a movement seeking the reorga111zation of the world 11po11 a basis of sex--.!q11ality 111 all /111111a11 relatio11s; a move111e11t w/rich ll'Oulrl r~1,·ct every differentiation between i11divid11als upon t/re ground of sex, would abolish all sex priti1legt"S a111i sex burdens, a11d would strit•e to set up ti,,• recog111tio11 oft/re common l111manity of woman 1111d man t1S the foundation of law and custom. - THERESA BILUNCl'ON-GREtC. "F~m,nt,ICH.

Tra,i,fr,rmi11g K11otdt'dge"

Another issue raised in regard to men's studies is the matter of separatism, a strategy designed to maintain the independence of women's theorizing, and adopted during the ea rly part of twentiethcentury feminism. Sandra Bartky, a feminist philosopher, argues in favo r of profeminist men, "gender traitors," having "a place at our table: They have listened and learned from us; there is much that we can lea rn from them."

While I 110 longer accept t/ie overgeneralized claim that "all men oppress all women," I still believe //,at patriarc/ry, like racism, is a letl1al, and,

13

unless we act wit/, some dispatch, quite possibly a terminal illness of the social body. I still believe that a movement fo r the liberation of women should be led by women and anS1.uerable to them . ... Nevertheless, 1feel that the profoundly srparatist moment that animated radical feminist organi: i11g twenty-flue years ago is a moment that is passing. The reasons for this are manifold. First of all, we /,ave discovered in the course of over two decades offeminist agitation I/rat many men hat•e bee11 stalwart, committed, and politically ejfectil'e allies, while many women, even some self-styled fe1111111sts (the proverbial wolves in sheep's c/ot/1i11g), har,e 11,ade crude and uninformed criticisms offeminism , trivialized our ideas, distorted wltat we say almost beyond recog11itio11, and called for tlte deJ1111d111g of women's studies programs. Second, yo1111gerfem111ists appear 1101 to have tire same need f or ,L'Paration of tire genders tliat feminists of my generation needed so badly. I do 1101 think that th is 1s a ri'S11lt of '1alse consciousness" 011 the part of younger women. We are at a different historical moment 110111• many of the insights that my feminist gi>nerat1011 wrested wit/1 suc/r difficulty out of tire confusion of our lives, insights that needed a prott'cti,•e space 111 w/1ich to come to co11scio11s11ess and tlie11 to ,t'Ord. are now accrpted by yo1111ger fe111 1111sb 11, obr,1011,, even self-evident.~· The problem is su mmed up well by lmelda Whelehan:

Tire central question 11111st be-iffr1111111s111 rs to re1110i11 a politics as u•ell as a polemic . ,l'liat art' the political consequences of "11ialefem1r11s111" ' T/11s q11estio11 is an etlrical one ranging from tht' 1o,su0111e11 's studies-,vill faa r,•11,ru't'd • threat.14 ln 1994, Ronni Sandroff, then edito r oi a feminist quarterly called On the Iss ues, wrote in her editorial:

BEWARE OF PHALLIC DRIFT A rnmp,1:;.s 11,·t'dle always drifts to the North, 110 matter /row 11011 tum tire instmment. P/rallic Drift is tire sim1la;, pt>il'er,

18

Chapter 1 I Women's St udies, Feminism, and the Women's Movement

that ill our present c11lt11re of mystification- a culture wlziclt continually pulls us away from systemic understanding and inclines 11s toward constnLctions that emplzasiu individual freedom, choice, power, ab,1ity-simply becoming more conscious is a tremendous ac/1ieveme11t.» Consciousness-raising can be painful. Yet p ain is not in itself something to avoid at all times, for there are two kinds of pain: d estructive and constructive. Destructi ve pain is s uffered in a no-win situation. Embedded in the status quo, it leads to no benefits, n o improvements. It just hurts. Such pain is best avoided . Constructive pain d iffers dra matically. It is like the physical distress we feel w hen we d ecide to get our bodies in shape after some disuse. Our muscles ache; we strain and groan, but we grow stronger. Much the sam e thing happens when we grow emotionally or intellectually. Our insight, memories, and feelings- not accustomed to such use-may cause us pain. Our new sense of autonomy and freedom, and the attendant responsibility, may make us anxious. We hurt, but we grow stronger. Emotional and sp iritual strength are necessary to well-being . Consid er some of the comments taken from the journals of students in an introductory course in women's stud ies: • "I feel like a ton of bricks has been Lifted off my shoulders. l finally found me. For the first time in my life, 1 really looked at myself and said, ' I like you!' I d ecided that there is only one companion that you can count on all through your life-yourself. lf I d on' t like me, who will? I took a full survey of myself and d ecided what I liked and what I would like to change, no t because 1 wanted to look good in someone else's eyes, but because 1 wanted to look good in my own eyes. I feel so free, happy; like I could Lick the world. This is the way l wan t to stay-this is the way I always want to feel. And I will because I like me." • "l have more pride; I am more confident in myself as a woman. I used to w onder if my womanhood would be a slight hand icap. I now realize it is my strongest asset!"

• "While we were talking about fear and pain being all a part of growing, I found a great d eal of consolation because I had felt both.. .. It took a while, but I now realize that all the things I learned and have become aware of will not allow me to keep silent. Also, those feelings of unders tanding and support will never really be left behind because I' ll carry those feelings inside of me forever."

THE TERMS AND TECHNIQUES OF WOMEN'S STUDIES Women's studies must be pursued on its own terms if it is to ma.intain its integrity. Although the integration of feminist p erspectives and insights into the regular curriculum is an u ltimate goal of most femin.ist educators, the absorption of w omen's studies into the masculinist d omain is not something we seek. That might involve a loss of th.e unique configuration of methods and approaches we have developed . The feminist classroom typically differs from others, and feminist research bears the mark of its status outside the mainstream.

Feminist Pedagogy Feminist faculty, like any other, gather information and ideas and impart them to students. Often they do this in traditional ways: They lecture, lead group discussions, show films, assign term papers, and give exams . Just as often , however, they opt for other, sometimes unorthodox, procedures . Feminist faculty frequently diverge from their colleagues in attitudes, experiences, or methods. Many of us have come to academia from the learning laboratories o f social action ou tside the university- from civil rights organizations, from fe.m inist groups, from political parties and social change associations. From these experiences we have come to understand the strength of the entrenched power structures. Others of us, having lived within the established system and having tried its regular channels and found them resistant, have learned the same lesson in another way. Experiencing life, as philosopher Mary Daly puts it, "on the boundaries of patriarchal space,"'.l-1 we have developed ways that are often in opposition to traditional academic etiquette.

Chapter 1 I Women's Studies, Feminism, and the Women's Moveme11t

AJthough women's studies is beginning to generate some kinds of formal credentials, for the most part we enter this field as thinkers entered any field centuries ago-through experience and self-directed research. We have few models on which to style our activities. The criterion for our methods is producti vity. The resuJt of these factors and others is a highly innovative, spontaneous, and authentic modus operandi. 1n a feminist classroom, one is apt to find group projects, small-group discussions, self-directed or student-directed study, credit for social change activities or for life experience, contracts or selfgrading, diaries and journals, even meditation or ritual. Noticeable in a feminist classroom are two factors not typical in college classrooms: an acceptance of, and even emphasis on, the personalaffecti ve element in learning; and a warm, human relationship among persons in the class, students and teach er. Feminist teachers are no longer at pains to maintain the manly aura of distance- from thei.r work or from one another. Re..ognizing, too, that hierarchicaJ structures can beli~ what is common to female experience, feminist faculty often seek alternatives to the traditional stud ent-teacher dichotomy. These different strategies and perspectives often bring criticism on us, but w e believe that they are sufficiently advantageous to maintain them.

The Interdisciplinary Nature of Women's Studies Almost all women's studies programs, curricula, and analyses are interdisci plinary. For the most part, the programs have avoided separating into discrete d epartments. Although this has raised some seri ous practical problems-of funding, staffing, and scheduling, for example-it serves important purposes. Some of these are pragmatic, having to d o with survi val in the institution, professional flexibility for ins tructors, and the like; but the most importan t reasons for the interdisciplinary structure of women's s tud ies are philosophical. Feminist theorists have found that insights into the elements of women's lives and their effects on the progress of humanity do not sensibly divide into the traditional academic disciplines. Understanding, for example, how the concept /11m1a11 na-

19

ture is distorted by the omission of women from the subject requires sophisticated knowledge of history, sociology, psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and other fields. Feminist analysis requ ires g lobal knowledge. Sensitized by our own investigations, many feminists ha ve gone on to challenge the entire departmentaJ or d isciplinary structure as it exists today. Some of us suggest that the division of knowledge into neat areas wi th boundaries that ought not to be crossed is analogous to (and possibly d erived from) the wa rrior behavior of separating land into territories that then mus t be justified and guarded. lntellectuaJ boundaries, we may argue, are not only artificial, they are destructi,·e. Feminist theoreticians then, recognizing the importance of globaJ knowledge and not typically given to territorial competition, are at least interdisciplinary; I tend to think of us as counterdisc1plinary. Elizabeth Ja newa y, feminist a uthor and educator, comments: Wo111e11 have bot II history and reality 011 tlu•ir sule. Our knowledge of the world as it is is really q111tr formidable, broadly based, aware of de/111/, 1111d 1101 afraid to make co1111ectio11s between area,- ,d11c/1 the traditio11ally 111i11ded see as separate. Our expt·ne11ce makes 11.5 interdisciplinary. Well, 1/zrs rs a 1110:-t useful and needed ability i11 a fragme11ted sonet.11, a11d particularly i11 a11 ed11catio11a/ syste,n ,1 1/zere tire tre11d for years has been to know more ,md more about less a11d less. Research is pa/uab/e- if rl rs 11sed; a11d to be used, it m11.St be allou,•d to .-01111ec/ with other research and, ei1e11 more, ,r•itlr r,•M_v· day life."

The Scope of Women's Studies Given what has been said about the global nature oi feminist research, you can see how broad a scope women's studies must have. It ranges across history, psychology, art, economics, literature, philosophy, sociology, political science, biology, mathematics, law, and on thro ugh every area called an academic discipline. Of course, no one can be con,·ersant with the details of all fields, but the s tudv of women's experience requires some sophistication in each. Thus, women's studies scholars must be multtfaceted in perspectives. ;

20

Cliapter 1 I Women's Studies, Feminism, and tlie Women's Movement

At the same time, however, there is specialization. A feminist psychologist is a psychologist with a woman-defined orientation. She pursues her work with a feminist perspective and challenges the sexist bias and beliefs in her field, often-though not always-focusing on issues most pertinent to women. As a feminist philosopher, I have the traditional interests in metaphysics, ethics, and epistemology, but I add to their study my special feminist awareness. I might, for example, challenge the validity of Hobbes's argument that life is "a wa.r of all against all," wondering whether this may be so for men (warriors?) but perhaps not so for women. I question the traditionally accepted basic assumptions of philosophy-its definition of objectivity, for example-and its relationship to prescribed ma.le emotional reserve. But beyond a femin.ist analysis of traditional questions, I am involved in raising other questions crucial for women. What does the feminist idea of matriarchy imply for utopian visions? How does a notion of God as female change theology (thealogy?). What does my woman's understanding of the dehumanizing effect of rape tell me about the ethical implications of physical integrity?

Women's Studies and Feminist Theory36 Women's studies is the academic arm of the women's movement. As such, it is engaged in, among other things, discovery- learning about the world. Discovery is not only the uncovering of facts, although it includes that. More importantly, it is coming to understand those facts. Understanding, at any level beyond the very simple, involves theory. Theory and theorizing can be very complex concepts, and there are several ways to use or define them. For our purposes, let us say that a theory is a system of concepts and principles designed to enhance the understanding of a collection of events, facts, and phenomena.J' We observe certain facts (the constitution of the United States was not originally formulated so that women had the right to vote), or e\7ents (during the 1920s, feminist movements became increasingly active in many countries of the Western world), or phenomena (women are the victims of male violence everywhere around the world), and we want to "make sense" of them; we want to "understand." There may be a va riety of

reasons to understand, to change things per:haps, or to put an idea in context. There may be a variety of ways to understand: to determine what gives rise to something, or to place some event in the context of other events we already know. For this reason, there are different kinds of theories. Some, called descriptive theories, describe; they tell us what is going on. Others, called normative theories, prescribe; they guide our actions by telling us what should be going on. Yet other theories are combinations of both. Most feminist theories fall into this third category. A theory can help us to understand by providing a system of explanation, a framework, a way of looking at things so that we may know not only that something is a certain way but also why it is that way, either in the sense of giving reasons for it (for example, Susan is praised for her "sweetness" to induce her to comply with the expectations placed on her) or in the sense of revealing its causes, that is, what gives rise to it (for example, sexual abuse gives rise to latent anger). This is crucial, for should we decide to influence events (change them or eliminate them, for example), we do this by manipulating the conditions that precede and give rise to them. ln other words, through explanations, theories give us ways to predict events and to control them. As an example, suppose feminists note tha t poor, single women are being used as scapegoats in an election campaign (we observe it), and we want to stop it from happening again (change or influence events). We must comprehend why women are being used as scapegoats in this way (come to identify what factors in the makeup of society give rise to individuals taking this tack) and find ways to alter their behavior, perhaps by making scapegoating unsuccessful, or by changing voters' reactions, or what have you (that is, by manipulating the elements that give rise to the behavior we are concerned about). The more consistently we are able to inf111ence 011tcomes as we wish, the more confident we may be that we have correctly understood (explained) what has been taking place. When we are able to accumulate a group of related explanations of this kind, we can weave them into increasingly complex explanations, which we call a theory. The goal is to create patterns of explanations broad enough to answer more and more questions, even ones we had not thought of before.

Chapter 1 I Women 's Studies, Feminism, a11d the Women 's Moveme11t

Now descriptive theories do not tell us that we should do a certain thing, like eliminate scapegoating- th.a t lies in another rea lm, the realm of normative theory, which is in the province of ethicsbut ethical values may affect the development of a theory by influencing the researcher in a variety of ways, such as the "facts" she chooses to explain, the information she finds relevant, the kind of evidence she will accept, and so on. Value may be "presupposed," assumed in implicit ways in the terminology or interpretation of " facts" (observations). The word scapegoati11g, for example, is not value neutral. A theory contains a number of elements and strategies that lead to its success in reaching its goal (dependable information): lt sets forth a series of assumptions or presuppositions, ideas that are taken to be true from the outset, without proof, such as, "What has happened consistently in the past is likely to happen in the future" or "Women's experience is more dependab le in this study than men's." A theory provides a kind of rulebook to help us proceed, what we call method; ,t tell us what kind of information we may use ard how we are to use it. For example, it might say that one may use only data that can be measured, or instead, one may use ma terial that cannot be measured or even verified in the traditional way, such as first-person accounts, stories tl,at people tell about their own experiences. A theory provides principles to determine which facts may be considered relevant and important and which will be deemed less so. Or it may tell us how to d etermine if a discovery is reliable or not; for example, it may set forth a rule that an idea is taken to be true if it is consistent with experience, or an idea is taken to be true ii one can use it to predict the future. A theory describes, analyzes, interprets, and tests. Ultimately, it provides a framework within which to comprehend what we observe. Experientially (how it " feels" inside, how it strikes us), it clarifies, it elucidates, it makes events meaningful. When a theory becomes highly developed, it may be able to predict events, and tl1en it is capable of showing us how to control events, how to change outcomes as described above. Notice tl,at a tl1eory is not simply an unproven fact, as it is sometimes taken to be in everyday language. A tl1eory is a conceptual tool for making sense of things and for givin g u s some purchase in participating in the direction tl1at events may take.

21

Whetl1er a tl1eory is considered "successful" or not depends on its capabilities, on what it can do, and, of course, on what one wants it to do. That, ob\'iously, wilJ be determined by tl1e theorist. For example, if I were looking at theories of \'iolence, hoping to find a way to secure women's safety on tl1c streets and at home, tl1en a tl1eory of violen ce tl1at did not speak specifically to gender issues, particularly men's violence against women, would not be a "good" tl1eory, so far as l was concerned. If possible, I might try to improve it-change or augment it. If no t, I might discard it entirely as not being a proper (dependable? true? adequate?) tl1eory o f violence. Gender tl1eories, like any otl1ers, contain a~s umptions, guide observation, choose what is relevan t, provide tests, and so on. Considering tl'l.i!,, one can see how much a theo ry can be a reflection of its creator(s), especially in tl1e social soences, where observations and evidence depend on one':, perspective, and testing is difficult. One can SC(.' why tt would distort analyses o f femaleness and women's relations to men to prohibit women from parttctpating in the making of gender theories. The frame of reference of tl,e researchers (men) would be skewed because it would be partial. Important ob,erTahons would be missing, and matters of rele,-.1nce {what counts) would be determined br tl,o,,e not ma position to make such judgments. Male researchers might make certain procedural choices that women would not make because of different attitudes o r interests. The first selection in tl11s chapter, "The Myth of tl1e Male Orgasm," humorou5ly demonstrates just tl1ese issues. For a very long time, tl1e pre,·,'l.aling theories about gender were tl1oroughly ma;,cuhms t Purporting to describe or explain wo men