Experiencing second-wave feminism in the USA

Abstract

How has feminism mattered in the lives of particular academic feminists? Three scholars in education whose careers developed during the era of second-wave feminism describe how their personal and political stances were affected by theories, methodological advances, the milieus of academia as well as legal, and political events in the USA. The article relies on three narratives, a popular feminist form, to suggest how discourses of second-wave feminism imbued the work of these women.

Keywords:

• feminism
• race
• identity
• academic careers

Notes

1. As a career survival strategy, I followed advice of male sponsors who warned me that concentrating on gender issues would jeopardize my chances of support for tenure and promotion. It was the early 1980s and they were probably right.

2. Endarkened feminisms came to me through, for example, Cynthia Dillard's (1995, 2003) and Michelle Foster's (1993), valuing of African American women educators and alternative understandings of schooling and leadership.

3. Men are uncomfortable with the thought that their advantages were not necessarily earned but rather bestowed by institutions and professions structured to support them’ (Marshall, 1997a, p. 25), but we answered challengers, as demonstrated in Bensimon and Marshall (2003).