Tuesday, 5/20/97 Column misses point of women’s studies program
EDUCATION: Writer’s life turned around because of UCLA
department
By Jeremy Wintringer I would like to respond to your article
"Women’s Studies Major Fails to Give Competitive Edge." When I
heard that someone had "bashed" women’s studies in The Bruin, I was
very concerned, but wanted to give the article a chance as I
believe that no program is perfect and can’t learn from criticism.
However, after reading your article three times, I am surprised and
a little disappointed at what seems to me like an underinformed,
underresearched and quick-judging piece on a program that has been
very meaningful and enriching for me and many other students in my
major. I am a fifth-year student at UCLA who was kicked out of
school for poor grades two years ago. Although I had my own
personal issues, one very strong reason for my expulsion was that
the courses and programs at UCLA didn’t earn enough of my respect
(I am very stubborn sometimes) and so I didn’t commit the time
needed to get good grades. The only class that did impress me was
Women’s Studies 10, which challenged the way I thought about things
and introduced me to an inexhaustible world of history, current
issues, theory, research and more that leaves me thankful I did not
abandon my education and, instead, fought to be reinstated. Soon
after, I chose to be a women’s studies major and have been so for
the last two years. Let me tell you about a few of the women’s
studies courses I’m currently taking. First, there’s "Global Gender
Systems" in conjunction with the Anthropology Department, dealing
with different systems of gender and family roles and a rich
analysis of women’s oppression around the world (including factory
work, forced sterilization and rape as a weapon in war). Second,
there’s an internship course where I’ve been placed with an amazing
group called New Economics for Women, which is helping hundreds of
single-parent Latino families, many of them young and monolingual,
get housing and better jobs to get out of poverty and off welfare.
Finally, there’s my senior seminar on the history of sexuality,
exploring not only straight vs. lesbian, gay and bisexual issues,
but how groups of people in history have been assigned a sexual
image through social power relations that led to things such as the
Southern institution of "lynching" in U.S. history, the politics of
the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas trial and the numerous ways in which
different sexual lifestyles existed and struggled before we
developed this modern idea of the "heterosexual/homosexual" divide
of not only our sexual choices, but who we are and are allowed to
be in the world. When we currently face things like the Defense of
Marriage Act, the increasing number of single-parent families,
countries (including the United States) using women for cheap labor
and making their reproductive choices for them, and how domestic
violence is fast becoming a part of everyone’s awareness, I
consider my educational experience at this university to be my best
tool in approaching these and other issues in the world. For all
the observations you have made in your article, I don’t find a
single one that discusses a specific student’s experience in a
women’s studies class, even yours. The two articles you cite from
seem not to degrade women’s studies, but to raise important issues
for women that are missing from how we deal with these and other
issues outside a women’s studies course. For instance, I
wholeheartedly agree that there should be more women in programs
like math and the sciences, but why should a women’s studies
program be teaching them? Are you proposing separatism of the sexes
or a takeover of those departments? As for looking to more than
"books" and "brains" to learn something, that is also one of the
truly encouraging aspects of a women’s studies education that I’ve
enjoyed. Women’s studies is more than learning a field – it is a
meaningful education that draws on our own experiences and emotions
to empower us in seeking change as much as putting our facts and
figures to them. How do you deal with domestic violence armed only
with statistics? How do you help people with books and lectures if
they are illiterate or spend their whole day in a factory instead
of a classroom? I think women’s studies demands more conviction and
creativity than most "cram-for-the-final" programs. I also think
you’ll notice that other programs are asking more of this too, such
as the ethnic studies programs and lesbian, gay and bisexual
studies at UCLA. If you ask women (and men) not to look to their
bodies and experience as a necessary resource in their education,
would you then tell the African American, Chicano, American Indian
and Asian American studies programs not to look to their skin for
the same or lesbian, gay and bisexual studies not to look to their
sexuality? This is part of what really bugs me about your position.
Your final point was that "career and financial independence" was
the only goal for women, but how are they supposed to get that with
husbands that beat them or leave them with three kids to care for,
companies that won’t provide for child care and governments that
are tying their tubes without telling them the full story and
allowing corporations to exploit and sexually harass them while
making circuit boards and shirt sleeves for dollars a day? Oh yeah,
you were only speaking to "women entering college." So what kind of
jobs do you want them to have? Personally, I think nothing advances
feminism more than women and men making a career out of fighting
the oppression of women world-wide by dealing with these problems
I’ve learned about in my 13 women’s studies classes. I look forward
to graduating next year with honors after finishing my thesis on
integrating feminist theories and activism. I hope this letter
encourages you not only to ask a few students in women’s studies
what they think of their program before evaluating it so harshly.
Better yet, why not take a class yourself? I wish more men did take
them, because as a man I really learn a lot from women’s studies
courses. Not only that, but my girlfriend (she’s in anthropology
and psychology) and I have developed a lot of respect and
encouragement for each other in the numerous discussions we’ve had
about things I’ve learned in class. I hope you keep looking for
criticisms, though – I know they are there and need to be brought
up. Women’s studies has taught me to look deeper into things in
doing that, maybe you could learn that too. Wintringer is a
fifth-year women’s studies student. Related Links: UCLA Women’s
Studies Program