Feminist History Essay

Who Is the “Woman” of Canadian Women’s Studies? Theoretical Interventions
Students frequently want to run away at the very mention of “theory.” Our students will often tell us that they find feminist theory difficult and detached from the everyday. But theory is simply about constructing informed interpretations of the world in which we live. If our goal as feminists is to promote social justice, then it necessary for us to critique the status quo; theory-making is essential to this task. Theory itself should not be rejected. Instead, particular kinds of theories need to be interrogated and displaced from their powerful position in shaping how we see the world and how we seek to act within it. As Chris Weedon argues, “To dismiss all theory as an elitist attempt to tell women what their experience really means is not helpful, but it does serve as a reminder of making theory accessible and of the political importance of transforming the material conditions of knowledge production and women’s access to knowledge” (Weedon, 1997, p. 7). Feminist theory emerged as a critique of the patriarchal values and interests embedded within existing social theories. Indeed, as feminists have pointed out from a variety of perspectives, “malestream” theory has not only tended to exclude women and their experiences; it has also been involved in justifying and rationalizing oppression and in privileging the masculine over the feminine. Feminist theorizing, while remaining attentive to the gendering of knowledge claims, has, by the dawn of the 21st century, been propelled to explore exclusionary, racialized, ableist, classist and heterosexist presumptions of its own growing body of texts. Indeed, as Chandra Mohanty argued over a decade ago, “Histories of feminism also document theories of domination. No non-contradictory or pure feminism is possible” (Mohanty, 1991, p. 20). Like the project of feminist theory, the project of Women’s Studies must be critically self-reflexive about its...