Reclaiming Lives


Men's Studies, Women's Studies, and Feminism


by Christine Overall

Knowledge
created by
men, about
men, and for
men is the
staple diet of
education at
all levels.

In this paper, I want to talk about women's studies in the university setting, their values and goals, their place in the university curriculum, and what they offer to students. I shall approach these topics by discussing the transition now under way (partial and incomplete though it is) from men's studies to women's studies, and the essential connection of women's studies with feminism.

What are men's studies? One is unlikely to see them offered, under that label, in a syllabus. But men's studies are what we have all been learning for most of our lives. Knowledge created by men, about men, and for men is the staple diet of education at all levels. Although generally referred to by such neutral, innocuous, and misleading labels as "knowledge," "learning," "education," and "scholarship," men's studies have nevertheless both a specific subject matter and a definitive point of view.

For example, in history we hear about men's decisions and exploits, about what men have been creating and destroying throughout our human past. In literature we read fiction, drama, and poetry written by men, with a majority of male personae, and imbued with themes of interest to men. In psychology and sociology we study male motivation, attitudes, and behavior. In philosophy we examine male-defined issues within the context of theories created by men. In politics we analyze men's political participation within male-dominated and male-oriented political institutions. And in science we observe, classify, and theorize about the natural world from the confines of male paradigms. In short, men's studies are defined by male attitudes, beliefs, behavior, and research.

Interestingly, men's studies are not entirely incompatible with the study of women - but only of some women, viewed within a predominantly male context, and seen from a male perspective. Within the worldview of men's studies, women can be, at most, only the objects of study, just one more among many possible classes of entities to be examined. No reference is made to the experience of women, to how the world is looked at, felt, and thought about by women. Instead, when they are discussed at all, women are seen as individuals, often as exceptional individuals, who have little in common by virtue of being female. Examinations of and references to women thus become a sort of addendum to existing disciplines.

Christine Overall, professeur adjointe de philosophie à Queen's University, nous parle des valeurs et des objectifs des Études de la femme, et de la place qu'elles occupent universitaires. Pour cela, elle considère la transition encore partielle et incomplète qui se fait actuellement entre les études conçues par et pour les femmes, et examine le lien essential entre le féminisme et les Études de la femme.

L'expression Études de l'homme est rarement utilisée. Pourtant, elle reflète une situation qui nous est depuis longtemps familière. L'histoire nous apprend les hauts faits d'hommes, nous parle de décisions d'hommes. En littérature, nous lisons des livres écrits par des hommes, avec des personnages masculins. En sciences, nous observons la nature définie par les paradigmes masculins.

Par opposition, les Études de la femme sont centrées sur la femme, c'est-à-dire sur la vie des femmes, sur leurs sentiments, leurs valeurs et leurs idées. Dans ce cadre, les enseignantes comme les étudiantes comprennent qu'en étudiant la femme, c'est elles-mêmes qu'elles étudient. Les études de la femme ne sont pas seulement des études sur la femme, mais véritablement des études conçues par les femmes et pour les femmes. Le féminisme est la théorie politique et éthique qui doit les sous-tendre.



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