Feminist Theory in Education

Feminist theory contributes significantly to the social and cultural foundations of education. This entry traces the history of the feminist movement in the United States, explores various meanings of feminist theory, and considers what feminist theory contributes to education.

In the United States the feminist movement is associated with three waves, or periods of time, with the “first wave” feminist movement (1848–1920s) representing women's efforts to get the right to vote, to own property, to divorce and receive alimony and child support, and to manage their own bodies (e.g., sexual reproductive rights). First wave feminism is associated with Seneca Falls, New York, and the sustained agitation for concrete social change of suffragettes such as Lucreta Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Sojourner Truth.

The “second wave” of the feminist movement corresponds to the 1960s to '70s and to women's efforts to obtain equal access to higher education in all fields of study and to be free from discriminated in the workplace due to their gender. While second wave feminists sought equal treatment in the classroom and on the job, they continued the fight for the right to manage their own bodies (e.g., sexual reproductive rights). Second wave feminism is associated with Ms. magazine and with Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinern, and Mary Daly, to name a few. It was during [Page 341]this time that women's studies programs opened on college campuses across the country and feminist theory began to develop in earnest.

Starting in the early 1990s, a “third wave” of the feminist movement began to develop. This third wave represents an explosion of multiple, diverse perspectives as Third World, lesbian, Chicana, indigenous, and Black feminists and others add their voices to the movement. They critique the essential-izing of “woman” as a category, one which has privileged heterosexuality, First World, middle-class, and White norms. Third wave feminism is associated with Audrey Lorde, Adrienne Rich, María Lugones, Gloria Anzaldua, Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray, Donna Haraway, Gayatri Spivak, and Trinh Minh-ha, to name a few.

Beyond a general agreement that women have been oppressed and unjustly treated, and that discrimination on the basis of gender is wrong, there is much upon which various feminists do not agree. It is dangerous to assume there is a “female point of view” or that women have special resources available to them due to their experiences as females. It is also problematic to think that only women can be feminists. In fact, some postmodern feminist scholars, such as Judith Butler and Luce Irigaray, recommend that we get rid of “gender” as a general category, because of the false binary it establishes (man/woman) and the androcentric and/or heterosexual norms and standards it imposes of people's shifting sexual identities. The feminist movement, in all its waves, has helped us understand that the personal is political, that what goes on in the home is very much related to how the larger society defines individuals' gendered roles, and that those roles need to be critiqued. Feminists have demonstrated that language is not gender neutral, but in fact affects our consciousness, and that social institutions are not natural or given, and therefore settled for all time. Feminist theory reveals how gender roles are socially constructed, by showing how they have varied across time and cultures, and how they continue to adapt and change. Feminism is concerned with the forms and functions of power and how power is wielded, in particular against girls and women.

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