" ... younger women ... were
still ready to buy the myths
about women."

The younger women, though, who hadn't experienced as much, would deny the problems initially. They were still ready to buy the myths about women, and believed in individual power. So they didn't develop a systemic sense of women's problems as readily.

Susan: How long have you been teaching women's studies?

Greta: A few years at Concordia and Vanier College, in a more objective academic style, and since I arrived at the New School. The philosophy of education is much different here though. We start with topics of interest to the students and build a course around that, so the courses are constantly changing.

Susan: Can you give me an example of how this works?

Greta: A group of students decided they wanted to study some historical material on women, so I gave them some de Beauvoir to read. They were to write about what interested them in the chapter being discussed each week. At one point in the book, de Beauvoir makes just passing mention of virginity, and that week, seven out of ten students wrote about virginity.

So we stopped right there and began extensive discussions about virginity as a male construct which served male interests. This evolved into a course on women's bodies and body images which has had a number of spin-offs in the school and in my own writing.

One year, a young man wanted to be involved in the course. The women did not feel they would be as free to discuss the issues with him present, so a separate part of the course was set up for young men, with both groups getting together for a time at the end. The young men discovered that the materials available on men's sexuality and roles was dismal. As a result of this experience, I was encouraged to edit a book of materials on women and men.

"It is critical to help them
separate out what is given and
what is not, in their identity
as women."

Susan: What do you feel are the most essential ingredients for young women's education?

Greta: It is critical to help them separate out what is a given and what is not, in their identity as women, and to develop a collective consciousness which will lead to collective action. They need to understand the relativity of gender identity. As Margaret Meade observed years ago, in every society, women and men do different kinds of work and, although the actual work they are responsible for varies from one society to another, the constant is that, whatever work women do, it is valued less than men's work.

It is important that they learn to trust their own instincts and to validate one another's experience of the world as women, compared to how women are described by society. And in this regard, they need to explore who has the power to define their reality. We also discuss race and culture in this context.

The objectives of this kind of education are to help them identify where they stand as individuals on a variety of issues; to examine the choices they have in their own lives; to assist them to develop a public stand in order to be consistent with their own values. The objective for young men is to sensitize them to women, and to turn them into feminists as well.

Susan: Do you feel that the women's movement has been successful in integrating young women and their concerns?

"The women's movement is
not really making a place for
young women.