Academic Feminism Against Itself

This article focuses on the often-lamented distinction between Women's Studies as an academic entity and feminism as a social movement. Whereas many feminist scholars urge us to return to social movement to counter the forces of institutionalization, I question the assumption that the political future of Women's Studies as a field can be guaranteed by repairing the distinction between academic institutionalization and feminism as a world changing social force. Indeed, I worry more about the implications for Women's Studies of refusing altogether the distinction between the academy and activism than about the difficulty of repairing the distinction between them.