Professing Feminism

Education and Indoctrination in Women's Studies

By (author) Daphne Patai, Noretta Koertge

Publication date:

04 February 2003

Length of book:

456 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

223x142mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780739104545

Feminists have often called Women's Studies the 'academic arm of the women's movement.' But Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge charge that the attempt to make Women's Studies serve a political agenda has led to deeply problematic results: dubious scholarship, pedagogical practices that resemble indoctrination more than education, and the alienation of countless potential supporters. In this new and expanded edition of their controversial 1994 book, the authors update their analysis of what's gone wrong with Women's Studies programs. Original chapters feature interviews with professors, students, and staffers who invested much time and effort in Women's Studies, and new chapters look primarily at documents recently generated from within Women's Studies itself. Through critiques of actual program mission statements, course descriptions, newsletters, and e-mail lists devoted to feminist pedagogy and Women's Studies, and, not least, the writings of well-known feminist scholars, Patai and Koertge provide a detailed and devastating examination of the routine practices found in feminist teaching and research.
This unsparing account of the troubles that beset Women's Studies programs should incite vigorous debate.