Networking women

Abstract

The history of women's studies has not always been a happy one, particularly academic women's studies. Indeed, there are those who have argued that women's studies has no place in the academy. bell hooks, for instance, has stated that whilst it is in the academy, women's studies will find it hard to resist becoming part of the mainstream academic culture, and will have little opportunity to challenge or alter prevailing higher educational structures (see hooks, 1989). Adrienne Rich has described women's studies as “compensatory history”, which fails to make sufficient challenges to existing structures (Rich, 1986, p. 2). In Britain, others have argued that as women's studies becomes increasingly institutionalised, it is in danger of losing its radicalism (see e.g., Brimstone, 1991). However, I will argue here that women's studies in Britain has been radical since its outset and throughout its development, and that there is every reason to suppose that it will continue to be so as it moves into the future, although it might also be that women's studies will (be) move(d) out of and away from the British academy. I will consider the links between women's studies and feminist political activism through charting some of the themes and publications of the Women's Studies Network (UK) conferences throughout the 1990s.