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Feminist Subjectivities: Sources for a Politicised Practice of Women's

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FEMINIST SUBJECTIVITIES: SOURCES FOR A POLITICISED PRACTICE OF WOMEN’S PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION A thesis submitted by Anne Bridget Ryan, Candidate for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts Research supervisor: Dr. Thomas Collins Centre for Adult and Community Education Department of Social Studies National University of Ireland, Maynooth November, 1997 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE SUMMARY vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS viii LIST OF TABLES ix PART ONE CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION TO THE THESIS 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Subjectivity 3 1.2 Pedagogy 5 1.3 Poststructuralism and feminism ■ 7 1.4 Political and epistemological commitments 9 1.5 Politics 11 1.6 Feminist poststructuralism, structures and the gender regime^ 13 1.6.1 A gendered division of labour, or production. \ 13 1.6.2 A structure of power 13 1.6.3 A structure of cathexis 14 1.7 Power, resistance and agency 15 1.8 Personal development education examined in the context of the position of women in Ireland 17 1.9 What does a personal development course look like? 24 1.10 Why I am undertaking this study 26 1.11 The research questions 34 CHAPTER TWO FEMINIST POSTSTRUCTURALISM AND THE MODERN SUBJECT 2.0 Introduction 36 2.1 The modern subject 39 2.2 Social change and humanist models of the subject 42 2.2.1 Roles and a real self 43 2.2.2 Human relations psychology 45 2.3 Feminist poststructuralism 49 2.3.1 Language 50 2.3.2 Discourse 51 2.3.3 Power and Gender 55 2.3.4 Essentialism 57 2.3.5 Difference and deconstruction: Derrida, Cixous and Kristeva 58 2.4 Politics and feminist poststructuralism 62 2.4.1 Identity politics 64 2.5 Conclusion 67 CHAPTER THREE THE RELATION SHIP OF FEMINIST POSTSTRUCTURALISM TO OTHER EMANCIPATORY THEORIES 3.0 Introduction 68 3.1 Liberal feminism 68 3.2 Radical feminism 71 3.3 Object relations theory and Chodorovian psychoanalysis 77 3.4 Marxist feminism 81 3.5 Dual-systems theory 84 3.6 Structuralism’s account of the relationship between ideology and the subject 87 3.7 Marxism and feminist poststructuralism 91 3.8 Psychoanalysis and feminist poststructuralism 95 3.8.1 Lacan 101 3.8.2 Desire 103 3.8.3 Some problems with Lacan’s account 106 3.8.4 Using Kleinian concepts 108 3.9 Conclusion 113 CHAPTER FOUR PEDAGOGICAL VIEWS OF THE HUMAN SUBJECT AND OF KNOWLEDGE 4.0 Introduction 115 4.1 The emergence of the subject of pedagogy 117 4.2 The structure-of-the-disciplines approach to knowledge and the human subject 124 4.3 The psychologisation of pedagogy 129 4.3.1 The growth of social sciences, psychology and the development of the family and individual as sites for intervention 130 4.3.2 Interactionism 134 4.4 Liberatory pedagogies 136 4.4.1 Social movements and pedagogy 141 4.5 A universal female subject 142 4.6 The challenges for a feminist poststructuralist emancipatory pedagogy 147 4.7 Conclusion 151 CHAPTER FIVE METHODOLOGY 5.0 Introduction 154 5.1 The research questions revisited and the information required to answer them 155 5.1.1 Concern with meaning 157 5.2 Gathering the information 160 5.2.1 Collecting data: theoretical sampling 160 5.2.2 The research participants: an overview 164 5.2.3 Collecting data: feminists’ interviews, conversations and discussions 165 iii 5.3 Issues of experience and description in feminist research 171 5.3.1 Descriptive research 176 5.4 How the information was analysed 178 5.4.1 Focusing on accounts 178 5.4.2 Identifying and analysing discourses 181 5.4.3 Subject positions and positioning within discourses 183 5.5 Interpretation of data and creation of shared knowledge 186 5.6 Conclusion 187 PART TWO CHAPTER SIX THE DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF FEMINIST SUBJECTIVITY 6.0 Introduction 188 6.1 Discourses analysed as the content of subjectivity 189 6.2 Identifying discourses of feminism 190 6.3 Discourse One: feminism as an expression of a naturally occurring femininity which is oppressed under patriarchy. 191 6.3.1 Female culture 192 6.4 Discourse Two: feminism as a rejection of women’s and men’s socialisation into roles 196 6.4.1 Socialisation 197 6.5 Discourse Three: feminism as a move away from dualism 201 6.5.1 Rejecting dualism 202 6.6 Commentary on the three discourses and the regimes of truth they provide about gender difference 204 6.7 Discourse Four: the ‘real feminist’ discourse 206 6.7.1 Achieving feminism 207 6.7.2 Being positioned by other people 209 6.7.3 Femininity having an effect on feminism 211 6.8 Conclusion 214 CHAPTER SEVEN SUBJECTIVITY AS A PROCESS OF RELATIONS 7.0 Introduction 217 7.1 Feminism as a stimulus for individual development 218 7.2 The relational production of subjectivity 223 7.2.1 A collective strategy 226 7.3 The difficulties of acting strategically, in order to produce feminist agency 231 7.4 Feminist agency in the heterosexual dynamic 234 7.5 Finely balanced strategies which depend on situations in the present moment 241 7.6 Multiple feminist subjectivities 242 7.7 Conclusion 248 CHAPTER EIGHT PSYCHODYNAMIC PROCESSES AND RADICAL SELF-REFLECTION 8.0 Introduction 251 8.1 The need for an emotional dimension to feminism and change 253 8.2 Feminist emotional work within the heterosexual dynamic 255 8.2.1 P3’s comments on the analysis of her account 264 8.2.2 Emotionally charged relations and cathectic structures 265 8.3 New positions: moves suggested by a psychodynamic analysis 267 8.4 P i’s account: femininity and feminism 268 8.5 Doing politicised self-reflection: a commentary on the accounts of PI and P3 277 8.6 Conclusion 279 8.6.1 Theoretical conclusions 283 8.6.2 Pedagogical implications 285 CHAPTER NINE USING A THEORY OF MULTIPLE SUBJECTIVITY IN WOMEN’S PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION 9.0 Introduction 288 9.1 Locating resistance and constructing agency 290 9.2 Personal development as a political process 292 9.3 The facilitator’s relationship with the group and relationships within the group 295 9.4 Facilitating skills 296 9.4.1 Naming power 297 9.5 Challenge and empowerment 299 9.5.1. Personal development education: providing a context within which the process of becoming politicised and agentic can begin and develop. 300 9.5.2. Communicating a belief that women can be agentic 303 9.5.3. Providing information which may be contrary to the discourses through which women interpret their experiences 305 9.5.4. Helping women to take action in their lives 310 9.6 Personal development education: the beginnings of a pedagogy of the body 314 9.7 Personal development education: part of a feminist project 316 9.8 Conclusion 320 CHAPTER TEN SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER WORK 10.0 Introduction 321 10.1 Summary of findings 322 10.1.1 Discourses of feminism 322 10.1.2 The relational construction of feminist identity 324 10.1.3 Psychodynamic processes at work in the construction of feminism and feminist identity 326 v 10.1.4 Applications to women’s personal development education 328 10.2 Theoretical conclusions 329 10.2.1 Discourse 330 10.2.2 Theorising the person, the personal and human agency 333 10.2.3 Political implications for feminism 335 10.2.4 Power and agency for feminist change 336 10.3 Pedagogical conclusions 340 10 3.1 Implications for politicised adult education 344 10.4 The contribution of this work to critical adult education and feminism 346 10.5 Suggestions for further research and pedagogical work 349 10.5.1 Subjectivity 349 10.5.2 Power 351 10.5.3 Treating gender differences as produced, rather than as given 352 10.5.4 The production of feminist discourses of emancipatory relations between women and men 353 10.6 Concluding remarks 354 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS CONSULTED 358 vi SUMMARY This thesis offers an account of the processes through which feminist subjectivities are constructed. Subjectivity is a central theoretical concept of the work and is conceptualised throughout from a poststructuralist perspective. Implicit in this perspective is the understanding that subjectivity is social, dynamic and multiple. Drawing in particular on feminist poststructuralist and psychodynamic thought, the theoretical objective of the work is to advance theories of adult politicisation, human agency and critical adult education. Based on original fieldwork with self-defined feminist women, feminist subjectivity is characterised as a three-way production involving a) different feminist discourses, b) relations in present situations and c) emotional responses. Taking into account the complex picture of feminist subjectivity which the research provides, the thesis also asks if politicised subjectivities can be produced within the context of women’s personal development education. This is a timely question, given the enormous popularity of women’s personal development education in Ireland. Such education is predominantly practised within a human relations psychology framework which in turn draws on liberal humanist assumptions about the person, power and the nature of social change. Such practice is shown in this work to have depoliticising effects. It is argued that personal development education can be practised in politically radical ways, if it draws on theoretical resources outside liberal humanism. The thesis builds on its own picture of feminist subjectivities to make proposals for a practice of personal development education which meets the stated needs of many women for attention to the personal, but without sliding into a depoliticised individualism. The proposals are living, practical and specifically designed for an educational context.
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