Feminist Academics as Nomadic Subjects: Reconceptualizing Women in Universities

Abstract

From a feminist perspective, it is more than a little axiomatic to say that highereducation has traditionally produced and reproduced, naturalized and valorizedspecific sets of behavior, specific forms of knowledge and specific versions ofintellectual practice which celebrate that which is coded as masculine at theexpense of that which is produced as feminine.The production of this opposition is attendant on the primacy of the westerncultural separation of the public from the private and the celebration of all that isassociated with the first term at the expense of all that is subsumed under thesecond. This, in turn, is based on the construction of masculinity as synonymouswith rationality, intellect, reason, culture and the production of femininity as all thatis not male: in this binaristic logic women are irrational, emotional and nurturing.Braidotti (1994a) summarizes the situation well when she writes:the universalistic stance, with its conflation of the masculine to represent thehuman and the confinement of the feminine to a secondary position of devalued"otherness", rests upon a classical system of dualistic oppositions, such as, forinstance; nature/culture, active/passive, rational/irrational, masculine/feminine.Feminists argue that this dualistic mode of thinking creates binary differences onlyto ordain them in a hierarchical scale of power relations. (p. 155)Consistent with this logic, the university has been naturalized as a homogeneousmale institution: the true home, if you like, of the 'enlightened male subject'.Women's marginality within academic environments manifests itself in diverse andcomplex ways. Women have been consistently absent, not just from theclassrooms, offices, and meeting places of Academe, but also from the discourses,texts, and subjects on which a university education is based (Rich, 1979). Thereare fewer women academics in universities than men, they tend to be concentratedin the lower employment categories, and by extension, more likely to be engaged inteaching than in research. Women have been under represented on decisionmaking bodies, and have encountered a 'glass ceiling' in attempts to achievepromotion (Porter, 1995).The phallocentric nature of university environment has prompted significant debateamong feminists in academia and given rise to a wide range of activities designed,in one way or another, to challenge the dominant masculinist culture. Despite manyyears of effort, however, universities remain male dominated environments withinwhich women continue to be employed at lower levels, on shorter contracts, andwith narrower career prospects.In other words, there exists a significant gap between the hopes many of us heldfor the future of women in universities and the current (on-going) realities faced bythose of us working in these environments. It is this gap and what it tells us aboutthe on-going need for feminist reform in academic circles that has inspired thispaper. More specifically, we are interested in using the work of feminist scholar RosiBraidotti as a basis for identifying a particular 'mindset' that is valuable for thinkingabout the on-going challenges associated with the cultural transformation ofuniversity environments. We will illustrate the need for and value of these mindsetsthrough a discussion of one particular university, and one specific attempt bywomen within that university to improve women's participation in research activity.This introduction, then, is followed by four main sections. In the first, wedemonstrate the ways in which our case site, Central Queensland University,reflects the same kind of phallocentric ideologies that can be seen to characterizeuniversity environments more generally. In the second, we outline some of themajor (feminist) strategies developed within this university to improve women'sresearch activity and discuss some of the differences of opinion concerning how thisis best achieved. In the third section, we will explore what it is that Rosi Braidotti'smodel of nomadic subjectivity offers to those women engaged in the work ofcultural transformation, and in the fourth and final section, we will provide a briefexample of how nomadic consciousness can shape the day-to-day practice ofwomen academics.As any exploration of gender and its consequences necessitates analysis of theparticular context within which women are located, it is necessary for us to beginthis paper with a brief overview of the particular university that we will be using toillustrate our points.Section one: An old problem in a new context