Smith - Womens Studies: The Basics

WOMENS STUDIES

THE BASICS

Womens Studies: The Basics is an accessible introduction to the ever-expanding and increasingly relevant field of studies focused on women. Tracing the history of the discipline from its origins, this text sets out the main agendas of womens studies and feminism, exploring the global development of the subject over time, and highlighting its relevance in the contemporary world. Reflecting the diversity of the field, core themes include:

the interdisciplinary nature of womens studies

core feminist theories and the feminist agenda

issues of intersectionality: women, race, class, and gender

women, sexuality, and the body.

Providing a firm foundation for all those new to the subject, this book is valuable reading for undergraduates and postgraduates majoring in womens studies and gender studies, and all those in related disciplines seeking a helpful overview for women-centred, subject-specific courses.

Bonnie G. Smith is Board of Governors Professor of History and Womens Studies at Rutgers University, USA. She has published widely on the subjects of womens studies, womens history, and gender.

The Basics

ACTING

BELLA MERLIN

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY

NANCY STANLICK

ANTHROPOLOGY

PETER METCALF

ARCHAEOLOGY (SECOND EDITION)

CLIVE GAMBLE

ART HISTORY

GRANT POOKE AND DIANA NEWALL

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

KEVIN WARWICK

THE BIBLE

JOHN BARTON

BUDDHISM

CATHY CANTWELL

THE CITY

KEVIN ARCHER

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE

SUMAN GUPTA

CRIMINAL LAW

JONATHAN HERRING

CRIMINOLOGY (SECOND EDITION)

SANDRA WALKLATE

DANCE STUDIES

JO BUTTERWORTH

EASTERN PHILOSOPHY

VICTORIA S. HARRISON

ECONOMICS (SECOND EDITION)

TONY CLEAVER

EDUCATION

KAY WOOD

EUROPEAN UNION (SECOND EDITION)

ALEX WARLEIGH-LACK

EVOLUTION

SHERRIE LYONS

FILM STUDIES

AMY VILLAREJO

FINANCE (SECOND EDITION)

ERIK BANKS

FREE WILL

MEGHAN GRIFFITH

HUMAN GENETICS

RICKI LEWIS

HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

ANDREW JONES

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

PETER SUTCH AND JUANITA ELIAS

ISLAM (SECOND EDITION)

COLIN TURNER

JOURNALISM STUDIES

MARTIN CONBOY

JUDAISM

JACOB NEUSNER

LANGUAGE (SECOND EDITION)

R.L. TRASK

LAW

GARY SLAPPER AND DAVID KELLY

LITERARY THEORY (SECOND EDITION)

HANS BERTENS

LOGIC

JC BEALL

MANAGEMENT

MORGEN WITZEL

MARKETING (SECOND EDITION)

KARL MOORE AND NIKETH PAREEK

MEDIA STUDIES

JULIAN MCDOUGALL

THE OLYMPICS

ANDY MIAH AND BEATRIZ GARCIA

PHILOSOPHY (FIFTH EDITION)

NIGEL WARBURTON

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

JOSEPH HOLDEN

POETRY (SECOND EDITION)

JEFFREY WAINWRIGHT

POLITICS (FOURTH EDITION)

STEPHEN TANSEY AND NIGEL JACKSON

THE QURAN

MASSIMO CAMPANINI

RACE AND ETHNICITY

PETER KIVISTO AND PAUL R. CROLL

RELIGION (SECOND EDITION)

MALORY NYE

RELIGION AND SCIENCE

PHILIP CLAYTON

RESEARCH METHODS

NICHOLAS WALLIMAN

ROMAN CATHOLICISM

MICHAEL WALSH

SEMIOTICS (SECOND EDITION)

DANIEL CHANDLER

SHAKESPEARE (THIRD EDITION)

SEAN MCEVOY

SOCIAL WORK

MARK DOEL

SOCIOLOGY

KEN PLUMMER

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

JANICE WEARMOUTH

TELEVISION STUDIES

TOBY MILLER

TERRORISM

JAMES LUTZ AND BRENDA LUTZ

THEATRE STUDIES

ROBERT LEACH

WORLD HISTORY

PETER N. STEARNS

WOMENS STUDIES

THE BASICS

Bonnie G. Smith

First published 2013

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2013 Bonnie G. Smith

The right of Bonnie G. Smith to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Smith, Bonnie G., 1940

Womens studies : the basics / Bonnie G. Smith.

p. cm. (The basics)

1. Womens studies. I. Title.

HQ1180.S58 2013

305.4 dc23

2012029098

ISBN: 978-0-415-60941-8 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-415-60944-9 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-203-07102-1 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo

by Taylor & Francis Books

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my colleagues in Womens Studies and Womens History at Rutgers University for their scholarship and inspiring examples as teachers, both of which this book draws on extensively. Sincere thanks as well to Nova Robinson for her research on Middle Eastern womens global networks and for her help in the final preparation of the book for publication.

THE INVENTION OF WOMENS STUDIES

Womens Studies is arguably the most revolutionary new field of intellectual inquiry of our current age. In its simplest form, Womens Studies brings all of womens experience under the scholarly microscope, subjecting it to the most advanced scientific methods available in the university. Researchers dig up facts and develop insights about that experience and then teachers and students look at the findings coming from an array of disciplines, processing and often perfecting them. Womens Studies programs include almost every perspectivefrom the natural sciences to the social sciences, from law to the arts. This breadth makes Womens Studies the most wide-ranging of academic fields. Its rich diversity provides the judgments, research, and energy of a broad group of scholars and students to advance the discipline.

Womens Studies is a global undertaking. It began almost simultaneously around the world. Ewha University in Seoul, South Korea began its first Womens Studies program in 1977. In the United States, Cornell University and California State University, San Diego, began Womens Studies programs in 1969; more generally in the United States, Womens Studies grew from several courses in individual universities across the country in the late 1960s to more than 600 degree-granting majors and programs today. India established vigorous Womens Studies research in the early 1970s and became one of the most active countries in the world to investigate womens experience and thought. Even this phenomenal growth hardly captures the excitement that continues to motivate those in Womens Studies.