Academic attainment and feminism?

[suwoo]

I have wanted to start this thread all day but have been scared that it is stupid or I will be flamed. I want to ask if people feel there is a correlation between academic attainment and feminist principles. Is that a valid question?
I had no idea that I was a feminist. I knew I had these thoughts and principles but didn't know what they were or the significance of them until we did feminist literary theory this semester- it was like an epiphany and my whole world made sense

Had I not gone to uni at the grand old age of 35, maybe I would never had these revelations.

What do you think? Those of you that identify as a feminist, what level of education do you have?

Interesting thread. I've been a feminist for as long as I can remember, but a lot of my thinking was undirected. That's fine on the whole because the basic fact of inequality hardly needs to be verified in a text book: we can all see it where ever we look and collective action even on this most basic of premises could move mountains. But most people haven?t even accepted that basic fact. Having said that, I really relate to what you?ve said suwoo: I felt the scales fall from my eyes in a feminist theory class at university and the world looked like a different place at once. So, no I don't think one needs to go to university, but it can make a huge difference, not least because a good degree course teaches people to think analytically and also to argue a case well. That's important I think when we are constantly being told that we are 'not living in the real world', making things up, anti-sex prudes and so on...

I am an academic and I see things that make my teeth itch: the patriarchy is alive and well. But I also see positive signs in the women and men I teach. I entered a new phase of political feminism after having the dc and moving up the academic ladder a bit. I work a lot now on practical equality issues. This is rewarding but frustrating and of course. Women lead these equality campaigns for students and staff and that means of course that they have les time than men to do their research so they suffer in terms of career progression. But if we don't try to raise consciousness, who will? In this way, I think the academic world is like most others: damned if you do nothing about sexism, damned if you don't.

I can see how it would be, but not for me. I'm currently working towards a first degree (I'm 27), it was becoming a mother that kicked me into feminism.

I can see myself becoming more and more interested in feminism as my degree goes on though, I'm studying a traditionally male-dominated subject!

I was brought up as a feminist by my mother, although I have not used that term to describe myself until the last few years. My mother did not go to university until I was a young child, but as an intelligent woman taught me to think critically from a young age.

I don't think it is necessary to have a degree in order to think critically, but it is hard to do so unless you have a good outside influence from somewhere.

I now have a degree and post- graduate qualifications.

Suwoo, I have to admit I struggle with Judith Butler, I used to be in a feminst reading group where most of them adored her. I wondered if it was because I'm not from an English lit background and many of the group were, but I find her hard, and I'm used to reading a lot of complex academic stuff.

Thanks Dittany. When my tutor was telling me to apply Butlers works to that poem, I just didn't get it and couldn't see how it was relevant. Hopefully I nailed it anyway. I will re-look at the Sade/Dworkin stuff as you advised.

this seems sadly relevant here

also, I didn't really start thinking about feminism until I'd finished uni - I was studying in an area which seems pretty evenly split between men and women, until you get to Post-Doc level, when suddenly the women start dropping like flies (mainly due to wanting to have a family, and thus some stability and regular hours).

I'm on my second post doc position now, and have a small child, and from reading posts on here, and some blogs (and the Politics of Breastfeeding, which INCENSED me!), I'm leaning more and more towards the feminist view of things. (Especially since starting to work part time, so I can balance my need to work and my desire to spend time with DS - attitudes from male colleagues suck. I'm getting used to fighting my corner all the bloody time, in a way they don't seem to do - any ideas I have seem to be belittled until they are forgotten about, and then suddenly come back a few weeks later as one of the full time men's ideas, whereupon everyone sets to work frantically. I have learnt to guard my projects ferociously!)

not sure if that answers the question, but for me, the higher up the academic ladder I'm getting, the more I'm identifying as a feminist.

I've read Millet but only read bits about Dworkin on wiki and other shit sources. What you recommend to read of hers?

We haven't been 'taught' either TBH, it is just extra talks I have had with my tutor re that poem. We have been taught Butler and Sedgewick for Queer/Gender Theory though.

This is the professor who lectured us on feminist literary theory.

Just reading notes: Wollestonecraft, de Beauvoir, Millet is mentioned (briefly), Cixous are the main ones.

No mention of Dworkin even in the notes or secondary reading list. No mention of Butler either TBF.

When I've finished revising, I will get on to all these. Cheers Dittany.

I've only learned what I have learned from MN and mainly Dittany and SGM. Yes Dittany, I really do want to read them, I'm just stuck in poetry hell at the moment. Come June I'll be free!

I identify as a feminist & do have a degree. My mother definitely is a feminist and left school at 16 (and is the source of my feminism). She comes from a very politically aware family though, so perhaps that makes a difference - if you've been brought up to be aware of class inequalities, it's not a big leap to make . . .

As mentioned on another thread, there was (probably still is?) a lot of sexism in the union movement.

I think it rather depends on the course and to a certain extent on the academic's own interests. A survey or historical course on feminist literary theory would probably include Millett and Butler (one for setting the ball rolling the other for various circus tricks) but a more focussed course say, on the gothic (your professor's interest) would not.

There's an awful lot of theory/criticism to choose from even if you're starting point is the 1970s.

I would definitely call myself a feminist but do not have a university or degree level education. I work full time as a secretary.

I must admit a few weeks ago I was at a feminist meeting and was made to feel extremely small by one of the other women who said that she thought a university education was necessary to understand feminism!!!

However, I do agree that there are not many unacademic women who read about feminism.

I wasnt brought up by a feminist I just am. I have always been a person to stand up against misjustice, whoever it is aimed at.

I think Butler is fashionable in that post-modern way. I wouldn't teach Gender Trouble myself and from what I can tell (reading essays written by students who have been studying her work), they simply extrapolate that basic idea of gender as performance and apply it to certain literary texts (Carter, Woolf especially).