CHAPTER 8

FEMINIST FUTURES AND EDUCATION

Introduction

The significance and impact of feminism both as a set of ideas and as a political project is evident in recent socio-political change. Over the last 35 years there has been an unprecedented social revolution with regard to the position of women: within the family, the economy, education as well as in public life. For some groups of women, predominantly privileged, academically able women, there have been opportunities available that not just our grandmothers but perhaps even our mothers might not have dreamed of. However, this is by no means the universal experience of women both in the developing world as well economically developed democracies where, though greater opportunities are available, significant groups of women and girls do not access education. It might be argued that the differences between women, especially in a global context are so great, that to work for women’s equality is nearly impossible − and so feminism has really little to contribute to discussions about socio-political change or specifically to education. One of the contentions of this book, however, is that feminism remains a vibrant and significant body of thought and political practice. The strong visionary quality in feminism has continued to evolve and feminist utopian thinking and can add to discussions about gender and education. The idea that there is sufficient commonality between women in relation to their socio-political position is the fundamental principle upon which feminist thought and politics is based. However, the contrast between the material circumstances of different groups of women has been used to critique feminism and suggest it no longer a viable body of work that has any relevance within the 21st century. Such a view fails to recognize the dynamic nature of feminist thought and politics particularly the way in which it continues to provide a critique of contemporary politics and culture. Feminist thought does continue to grapple with the dangers of a monolithic notion of what it means to be a woman and in Spivak’s (1988) notion of ‘strategic essentialism’ we have a pragmatic solution through which we can find sufficient commonality between women to develop praxis to bring about socio- political change towards gender equality. Further, as I argued in previous chapters, the dominant ideal in feminist eutopian visions is not based a simplistic notion of ‘woman’. Instead, the ideal is to recognise multiplicities in identity and to build coalitions across different groups. It is because there are significant differences in relation to women’s and girl’s position globally that we must continue with a feminist analysis and praxis to not only highlight the subordination of large

119 CHAPTER 8 numbers of women and girls but to continue the political project of feminism of seeking a just and equal society. Feminist utopian thinking has much to offer in the efforts to achieve socially just educational systems, policies and practices. The current context of education now demands that we look critically at the ideologies of gender underpinning current policy paradigms by drawing from feminist discussions about gender and the process of social transformation. In this chapter I will firstly explore some of the arguments about the currency of feminism in the 21st century. Then I will consider ways in which feminism can continue to contribute to our thinking about educational futures by examining the emerging perspectives of feminism in a global context. Finally I will return to the three alternative approaches to gender outlined in the first chapter.

THE END OF FEMINISM? Feminism since the mid-1990s has been subject to critical appraisal by women, who identify themselves as ‘feminist’ but who see the debates particularly around radical and woman-centred approaches as limited, as wrong headed and, at times, dangerous. Christina Sommers is an extreme example of this position. In her work, Who Stole Feminism: How Women Have Betrayed Women, published in 1994, Sommers divides feminism into two camps ‘equity feminism’ and ‘victim feminism’ and advocates for ‘equity feminism’ in which women seek entry into and work within the existing regimes rather than attempt to alter the underpinning ideals and understandings of gender. Sommers adopts, what I regard as, an anti- feminist stance in that she rejects any sense of challenging the current power regimes within patriarchal gender relationships. In this position it is up to individual women to claim the privileges of (privileged) men within an advanced capitalist society. While Sommers can be seen as anti-feminist, others such as Katie Roiphe (1994) and Naomi Wolf have tried to provide a critique within feminism. These writers also see themselves as ‘feminist’ but they want to rescue feminism from what they see as the dominance of a ‘victimology’ underpinning feminist analyses and politics. There is a tendency in writings by Roiphe and to some degree Wolf to caricature feminism, particularly a form of cultural feminism dominated by woman-centric ideologies as narrow minded and doctrinaire. It is particularly the alignment of personal issues and politics − ‘the personal is political’' − within feminist politics that is held up for criticism. Roiphe, in her discussion of sexual politics on university campuses in USA, argues that from the radical feminist construction of sexual politics: “What comes out is a universe of victims and aggressors, of violation, subjugation, dominance, and oppression” (Roiphe, 1994: 159) and this ‘victim feminism’ feeds into women’s lack of ‘get up and go’ and limits their sense of agency to bring about social and political change. Wolf (1991) adopts a similar position to Roiphe and seeks to develop another form of feminism, that of ‘power feminism’ where the aim is one of making feminism both accessible and desirable to women rather than perpetuating a vision of women as inevitably subordinated. In this work there is very much a focus on the enrichment of the lives of individual women, a sense of self-determination in

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