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Abstract

From the Introduction:

This essay looks specifically at reflection in these areas undertaken in one sector of women’s studies: the master’s degree in women’s studies in the United States. That graduate education in women’s studies is the focal point of this essay is especially timely because graduate programs in women’s studies are experiencing substantial growth. This essay addresses one aspect of graduate education: the correspondence between feminist intellectual inquiry and pedagogy in master’s programs in women’s studies. In particular, the essay aims to assess women’s studies at the graduate level by asking graduate students what they think about the attention paid by their programs to the issues fore grounded in feminist inquiry. Questions about the diverse groups that make up “women,” the classroom climate, and ways in which feminist inquiry can balance theory and activism are engaged in this essay from the perspective of graduate students. Furthermore, this essay analyzes the students’ satisfaction with the attention paid by their graduate programs to these major components of feminist inquiry. What we find is that there are ways in which the pedagogy of women’s studies programs closely corresponds with feminist theoretical inquiry and other ways in which women’s studies graduate programs are missing the mark.

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