Women’s Studies emphasizes 'activism over academics': My experience at Georgetown University

washingtonexaminer ^ | 5/26/2018 | by Amelia Irvine

[caww]

When I initially decided to take a Women’s and Gender Studies class, I knew that the course readings would be liberal-leaning and overtly feminist. I did not know how open the professors and administrators would be about this 'leftward bias', however.

Right from the very beginning, Women’s and Gender Studies was presented not just as an academic discipline, but as preparation for activism.

Our assigned readings for a class discussion on abortion were both written by pro-choice authors, and the professor made no attempt in class to provide an alternative perspective.

When I attended a portion of the program’s 30th anniversary conference, every professor on the panel seemed to hold the same political and ideological beliefs. When one professor spoke about her initial difficulties in convincing her students that anti-capitalism was a tenet of feminism, her co-panelists and the professors in attendance nodded sympathetically. Not only did they accept that their job was to persuade students to change their beliefs about economic and political systems, but they appeared to be in full agreement about what exactly those beliefs should be.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks caww. I agree with your thoughts there. I don’t really have any access to PTA type information these days.

I’ll defer to you.