Postfeminist passions The demise of women's studies has more to do with changes in the job market than lost battles
Angela McRobbie
The disappearance of women's studies at undergraduate level from British universities, to be marked in July by the graduation of the final batch of 12 students from London Metropolitan University, is symbolic of the changes that have been taking place in the landscape of gender, sexuality and feminism during the last decade.
oung women, in many universities including my own, flow through the doors of academy from across the world. In Britain, the success of girls in education has in itself been a key factor in the expansion of higher education. More and more young women expect to gain a degree qualification as a requirement for an interesting and rewarding career, which in many ways has replaced marriage and motherhood. This in itself, when considered as a global trend, is the mark of a quite epochal change, such that the need for women's studies to understand its consequences might be obvious. But alas, as this graph of participation rises, so does the popularity of women's studies decline.
Opinion is divided among the academic feminist community. Some point to the vilification of feminism within popular culture as a deterrent. If women's studies is only associated in the popular imagination with 70s radical feminism, then it is not surprising it is no longer deemed worthy of study. Many feminists work hard to counter this view, but it is an uphill struggle. Others point to the way in which women's studies has been mainstreamed. It has transmogrified into gender and sexuality studies which, when offered as options within humanities, social science, law, business studies and management degrees, are among the most popular subjects. Given the more career-oriented outlook of students today, this is not so surprising. There are also those who see the passing away of women's studies as a sign that gender equality has been won. This postfeminist position is almost always reluctant to acknowledge the energy and massive commitment that was required to make a case for a curriculum which brought gender issues to the forefront across what we might call epistemic communities.
The feminist academy I inhabit might not have women's studies on offer, but it is nevertheless a place of intensity, enthusiasm and experimentation. I observe a number of patterns that merit further sociological analysis. In my undergraduate classroom of up to about 100 students, of whom about 80% are female and come from around the world, there is a high degree of interest in women's issues, including questions of gender and sexuality. This is also the case for young British Muslim women tackling questions of reconciling faith with the secular values of the university. Outside the classroom I am frequently asked questions like "What can you recommend as reading for our Muslim women's study group on prostitution?", or "What did feminists in the 70s have to say about the family and housework?".
Often it seems feminism has become a kind of private passion, a way of working through the intractable issues of the day in regard to sexuality, and the requirement to fulfil so many normative expectations. There is also a genuine interest in feminism from the late 1960s onwards. But so denigrated and devalued is the women's movement that it is often hard to dislodge the assumptions that it routinely required hostility to men. In fact it is as though the thing young women most fear is being seen as critical of men. Tired of trying to counter this feminist image, I often find myself persuading them that, actually, most reasonable men had respect for female grievance and found diminishing, as they might also do today, the endless need to be pleasing to men.
· The Aftermath of Feminism by Angela McRobbie will be published in July