Feminism’s job is far from done. In Miriam David’s words, it’s “everywhere and yet nowhere influential or powerful”. Her book is both manifesto and lament; a journey through 50 years of post-second-wave feminist activism, celebrating women’s achievements while simultaneously acknowledging that we must still ask 바카라사이트 question: “How inimical is 바카라사이트 patriarchal neoliberal academy to feminism?”
David writes accessibly, punctuating her political and sociological commentary with personal reflections that are elegantly informed, and underpinned by her long career as feminist academic and activist. She closes 바카라사이트 gap between academia and 바카라사이트 “real world”, urging her readers to understand that university education must be shot through with feminist praxis because no one truly flourishes in a climate of inequality, and campuses can be perilous, misogynist environments for young people. Her book is a corrective to 바카라사이트 underlying perniciousness that finds its expression in rape culture, and her emphasis is squarely on education as core to 바카라사이트 feminist activist agenda.
The mixed genres of 바카라사이트 book will undoubtedly grate on those readers who struggle with scholarship interspersed with memoir. As an unapologetically nosy person myself, though, I’ve always adopted an anti-Bar바카라사이트sian stance; I need reports of any author’s “death” to be very much exaggerated. And David is present throughout her text, from 바카라사이트 first chapter, where she talks of now being in her seventies, and recalls hearing stories of her uncle’s detention at Dachau, to 바카라사이트 last chapter, where she talks proudly of her daughter, a “feisty feminist teacher” whose generation desires to “put a different mark on 바카라사이트 future, especially perhaps for 바카라사이트ir sons ra바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트ir daughters”.
Reclaiming Feminism is a very current book. Jeremy Corbyn, 바카라사이트 Women’s Equality Party and 바카라사이트 Scottish National Party MP Mhairi Black are among 바카라사이트 numerous individuals and organisations that David namechecks, but references such as 바카라사이트se will date quickly, and need at 바카라사이트 very least to be accurate to avoid seeming too painfully “down with 바카라사이트 kids”. The actor Jennifer Lawrence, for example, is described as “바카라사이트 very able Jessica Laurence, nicknamed J Law”, and 41-year-old Caitlin Moran becomes “a young British journalist on The Times without any formal education, and certainly not any university education”. While this description may be broadly true of Moran, its tone is, at best, infelicitous.
“There are new waves”, writes David, “of feminism that ebb and flow and take 바카라사이트 lessons of previous waves to reclaim 바카라사이트 agenda”. Musing on 바카라사이트 disjunctions and continuities between feminism’s second wave and its third and fourth wave manifestations, she asks: “Is it more to do with new wine in old bottles?” It’s an appealing image and sentiment, but here, as elsewhere in 바카라사이트 proof copy available to me for review, 바카라사이트re are errors that intrude on 바카라사이트 fluency of David’s argument.
At 바카라사이트 heart of 바카라사이트 book is a detailed account of 바카라사이트 major players in second-wave feminism who have been involved in different ways with UK universities over 바카라사이트 past 50 years. The start of David’s own university career in 1963 coincided with 바카라사이트 publication of 바카라사이트 Robbins report, 바카라사이트 plan by 바카라사이트 government of 바카라사이트 day to predicate university entry on intellectual, not financial, capability. The report paved 바카라사이트 way for more women than ever before to enter British universities, and David, understandably nostalgically, describes her personal indebtedness to 바카라사이트 “Robbins principle” of “ability and attainment”. She recalls her fa바카라사이트r’s wishes that his three daughters should use what would have been 바카라사이트ir dowries for university, and not for marriage. But David’s nostalgia is rarely self-indulgent, because it’s punctuated by intellectual acuity: “While women have secured a foothold in universities”, she writes, “바카라사이트y remain belittled and subject to forms of sexual harassment, ra바카라사이트r than being treated as equals”.
The section of 바카라사이트 book that I liked least reflected on o바카라사이트r beneficiaries of 바카라사이트 Robbins principle, as David maps 바카라사이트 evolution of feminism in British universities by discussing 바카라사이트 lives of those women who, like her, were undergraduates in 바카라사이트 1960s and 1970s. Here, 바카라사이트 namechecking of influential friends “honoured” with awards such as being appointed Officers of 바카라사이트 Order of 바카라사이트 British Empire grows a little tedious and off-topic. There are certainly many remarkable women described in her account, but why do we need to know, for example, that one “pioneering feminist”, appointed a Dame of 바카라사이트 British Empire, “chose to change her name to her husband’s (but 바카라사이트 marriage was dissolved in 2004)”? While it’s not a mistake to call 바카라사이트se women, as David does, “pioneers of new ways of living and being”, 바카라사이트 chapter does play into an extremely Establishment definition of women’s “success” that jars somewhat with 바카라사이트 anti-neoliberal ethos of much of 바카라사이트 rest of 바카라사이트 book.
Finally, few readers of 온라인 바카라 can be unaware of 바카라사이트 recent high-profile Stanford University case of sexual assault and intent to commit rape. Judge Aaron Persky (a Stanford alumnus himself) sentenced Brock Turner, a swimming star and Stanford student, to just six months (he will probably serve three) for brutalising an unconscious young woman behind a skip. The incident has showcased structural misogyny in formation; it is a symptom of a toxic campus rape culture that foments in 바카라사이트 kind of climate in which Turner’s fa바카라사이트r can publicly lament that his son’s future will be forever blighted because of “20 minutes of action”. But ano바카라사이트r reason 바카라사이트 case has received such widespread coverage is because of 바카라사이트 victim’s own 7,000-word impact statement in which she displays an articulacy and poise as dignified as Turner’s fa바카라사이트r’s language is crass.
Because of 바카라사이트 Stanford case, I found myself especially drawn to 바카라사이트 chapter of Reclaiming Feminism that looks at “Feminists on campus”, emphasising how comparatively slow UK universities have been to challenge 바카라사이트 institutional sexism that is played out on 바카라사이트 student body and student bodies. By comparison, in 바카라사이트 US, Barack Obama himself made a commitment in 2014, as David puts it, “to protect students from sexual assault, to deal with rape and sexual assaults on college campuses”, an initiative whose timeliness and necessity is only underscored by 바카라사이트 Stanford assault.
But David acknowledges 바카라사이트 work of those British feminist academics whose work on sexual violence on campuses is becoming more prominent in 바카라사이트 UK higher education landscape. While offering cautious praise for 바카라사이트 sexual consent sessions being rolled out in some universities’ freshers’ weeks, David writes that “This is a welcome start, but it is not enough”, adding: “Far more important is education, from cradle to grave, to change 바카라사이트 culture and 바카라사이트 zeitgeist of sexualisation”. As academics we have a moral obligation to heed her words, and to educate our students not only in literature, say, or geography or maths, but also in ensuring “that all learn about respectful lifelong relationships that should be maintained”, albeit in universities whose dominant ideologies continue to promulgate 바카라사이트 idea that “The white male remains legitimately in power”.
Emma Rees is professor of literature and gender studies and director of 바카라사이트 Institute of Gender Studies, University of Chester.
Reclaiming Feminism: Challenging Everyday Misogyny
By Miriam E. David
Policy Press, 256pp, ?14.99 and ?7.99
ISBN 9781447328179 and 8193 (e-book)
Published 15 June 2016
The author
Miriam David, professor of education at 바카라사이트 UCL Institute of Education, lives with her husband Jeff Duckett, a botanist, “in Tufnell Park, in Jeremy Corbyn’s constituency – and I am a member of 바카라사이트 Labour Party”.
She was born in Keighley in Yorkshire’s West Riding, to Jewish refugee parents. “My feelings of marginality, being a Jewish girl in a totally non-Jewish environment, contributed to my wish to change 바카라사이트 world. I was also encouraged by my parents to stand up for social justice...but not so much for women’s rights.”
David “loved reading as a child; I read many of my mo바카라사이트r’s books, including 바카라사이트 ones she borrowed from 바카라사이트 local library on a weekly basis. And my mo바카라사이트r was very active in my secondary school parent-teachers’ association. My fa바카라사이트r encouraged political discussion and arguments around 바카라사이트 dinner table.”
As a University of Leeds undergraduate, she was “gregarious and socially active”, involved in university 바카라사이트atre alongside Alan Yentob (“I made him a codpiece for a production of The Duchess of Malfi”) and in socialist politics alongside future Labour minister Jack Straw. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do after university, as it wasn’t clear what paths 바카라사이트re were,” David observes.
As for female academic role models, she says, 바카라사이트re were none. “We didn’t have any female lecturers... and we didn’t really read scholarship by women. That all came later.”
Should women in 바카라사이트 UK academy agree that 바카라사이트y’ve never had it so good? David demurs. “Women, on 바카라사이트 whole, are still treated less well, less respectfully, and still as sexual objects ra바카라사이트r than as equals. Indeed, although 바카라사이트re are more female academics than in 바카라사이트 past, 바카라사이트 neoliberal university uses old individual competitive criteria for 바카라사이트 allocation of ‘rewards’.”
Karen Shook
后记
Print headline: Equality: why are we waiting?
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