st
21
century feminism:
theoretical framework
and/or social movement
Gaby Weiner
October 2014
Helsinki University
Timeline of feminism (approx. in UK)
• 1st wave: mid 1800s to early 1900s
• 2nd wave: 1960s-1980s
• 3rd wave: 1990s
• 4th wave: 2000s plus
Always delicate balance between
theorisation and activism
2
Questions
• To what extent 21st century Academia is
compatible with political activism
• Have feminist academics lost sight of their
aspiration to challenge and reduce inequalities
between men and women within and outside
education – or has neoliberalism done that for
them?
3
Has academic feminism failed?
Again and again over the last few years, I
turned to modern feminism to answer
questions....but found that what had once
been the one most exciting, incendiary and
effective revolution of all time had somehow
shrunk down into a couple of increasingly
small arguments, carried out among a
couple of dozen feminist academics, in
books that only feminist academics would
read (Moran, 2011, 12)
4
How to be a woman
(2011)
Unspeakable Things: Sex,
Lies and Revolution (2014)
5
New feminism
Feminism is not a set of rules. It is not about
taking rights away from men, as if there were a
finite amount of liberty to be had if we have the
guts to grasp it for everyone. Feminism is a
social revolution, and a sexual revolution, and
feminism is in no way content with a missionary
position. It is about work, and about love, and
about how one depends very much on the
other. Feminism is about asking question, and
carrying on answering them even when the
questions get uncomfortable (Penny, 2014, 16).
6
Argument
• Success of feminist academics (in education,
social sciences, humanities)
• Emergence of academic field of gender (and
education)
• Gap between feminist academics and
practitioners
• Corporatisation of higher education
• Continued inequalities & disparities between
girls & boys, men & women,
• Need for politics of gender and feminist action
7
Rethinking Contemporary
Feminist
Politics (2010)
Gender and Education
Journal
8
Fawcett Society
9
Women’s Aid
10
F-word website
11
Amnesty International
12
Feminist actions
13
Feminism actions
14
Feminist Political Organisations
LWiE
Labour Women in
Education
Gender and Education Association
16
Questions (2)
• Is there such a thing as feminist praxis or pedagogy?
• What role has (feminist) research in feminist action?
• Which (feminist) theories best aid transformations of
practice and action?
• To what extent can (feminist) leadership models be
effective and/or transformative?
• How can networking and social media be best
utilised in the interests of feminist activism?
Where does academic feminism
fit into activism?
Feminist theorists
e.g. Chris Weedon,
Judith Butler, Karen
Barad, Gilles Deleuze,
Jacques Derrida, Donna
Haraway, Julia Kristeva
Contact details
Gaby Weiner
email
gaby.weiner@btinternet.com
website
www.gabyweiner.co.uk