No Angel in the Classroom: Teaching through Feminist Discourse, and: Teaching Introduction to Women's Studies: Expectations and Strategies (review)

Abstract

The world is quite a different place in 2001 than it was in the late 1970s when feminists created women's studies programs. Some of the goals of the women's movement have been realized. Many universities incorporate women's studies courses as part of a general education core to fulfill diversity requirements that are themselves the result of the efforts of women's studies faculty. However, while institutional climates may at least nominally be more welcoming to women's studies, the political and social climate has chilled considerably. The women's movement seems currently to be in abeyance. Feminism has morphed into a startling variety of feminisms with varying and sometimes conflicting perspectives and goals. Other social changes also affect feminist pedagogy in women's studies classes. More students now attend universities, and students' expectations of and preparation for higher education are different. Students in the twenty-first century are both more technologically sophisticated and more politically naïve or conservative than were students in the 1970s. They read less and watch television more. Most students seem to think of themselves as consumers rather than scholars.