Theories of Women's Studies

Womens Studies investigates the world from women-centred perspectives which cross the boundaries of traditional academic disciplines. Thus every issue, every question is material for Womens Studies. The worldwide development of Womens Studies during the 1970s and 1980s presented a radical challenge to the male-centred bias which dominated knowledge-making at the time. Originally published in 1983, in this book feminist scholars discuss the assumptions and aims of Womens Studies, its connections with the womens movement, its research, its teaching and its emerging methodologies. The contributors come from a range of disciplines: the humanities, the social and natural sciences, and from international backgrounds, primarily the USA, and Britain, Germany and Switzerland. They are united in working to develop a trans-disciplinary approach to the generation and distribution of knowledge and it is these new questions and their implications that demonstrate the exciting potential of a feminist education in womens international quest for social change.