Women's Studies: Women's Lives

by Judith Grant

If women's
studies is new
knowledge, how
is it affecting
the women
students within
the
program's?

Women's Studies Program's, now presently taught in many universities across Canada, provide an alternative way of knowing for students. As a researcher interested in the growth of this discipline, I wished to know the following: If women's studies is new knowledge, how is it affecting the women students within the program's? Is this new knowledge making an impact in terms of the re-definition of their roles in society? How do they integrate such knowledge into their lives?

Ten students between the ages of 23 and 48 were interviewed for my M.A. thesis. The interview schedule consisted of four open- ended questions that queried the respondents regarding their experiences while in women's studies program's. The questions asked were then organized into four main categories, and the following is a summary of the students' responses.

Decision To Take Women's Studies Courses
There were four distinct reasons why these students were in a women's studies program: they had seen an advertisement of the program; they were motivated by their intellectual curiosity; by their view that their experiences as women were missing in the regular curriculum; or they had simply "stumbled" into the program by accident.

One student stressed that from the beginning, she believed her past experiences were valid and that she could connect them to the relevant women's studies curriculum. She purposely took the courses because, as she said, "I understood what was being taught was my experiences. ... I wanted my experiences. I knew my experiences were valid because it worked. It worked from the day I was born. ... So I never questioned that it (women's studies) wasn't valid."

An interesting finding was that the younger students tended, as a group, to take the feminist courses without being aware that they were part of the women's studies program. Only after they had completed some of the courses did they consider enrolling in the program as a minor. The older students tended to enroll more out of intellectual curiosity and a belief that what they were learning in traditional courses neither validated their lives nor their experiences. One student admitted she had been criticized as "too subjective" in her regular courses, which made her realize that she needed feminist teaching and a place where she could "speak."

Études de la femme: Vies de femmes

par Judith Grant

Dans le cadre de ma thèse de maîtrise, j'ai interrogé dix étudiantes quant à leur décision de suivre des cours d'études de la femme, leurs expériences pendant les cours, leurs réactions à l'égard de ces cours et du style d'enseignement et les conséquences qu'auront ces cours sur leur carrière professionnelle et leurs objectifs personnels. Beaucoup d'étudiantes s'intéressaient à suivre ce genre de cours, car elles estimaient que les cours traditionnels ne tenaient pas compte de leur vécu et de leurs connaissances. Elles recherchaient un endroit où elles soient acceptées et puissent s'exprimer sans être critiquées. Pendant ces cours, elles avaient l'impression de détenir du pouvoir et de partager avec d'autres femmes la colère que suscitent en elles les injustices sociétales. L'enseignement féministe m'a été décrit de façon très positive, les étudiantes préférant en général la formule "séminaire" et "partage d'expériences en salle de classe" à la traditionnelle conférence. Les répondantes ont également décrit des changements dans leur vie et relations privées et ont expliqué qu'elles comprenaient mieux l'état d'oppression dans lequel les femmes vivent. La plupart d'entre elles ont exprimé le désir de travailler avec des femmes dans leur vie professionnelle pour déclencher des changements sociaux.

Mes recherches m'ont donné de l'espoir. Ensemble, et grâce à un programme qui déterre leur passé et le relie à leur présent, les femmes peuvent vraiment s'efforcer de provoquer des changements positifs dans notre société.


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