There are many types of psychology, why can't there be many types of gender and women's studies?

Question

I often hear people say in the Gender and Women's Studies YA Forum that they know what feminists think, as though all feminists have a party line or the same exact belief system.

Yet others complain that feminism is inconsistent, since many feminists have different sets of beliefs. Other social sciences like Psychology have many different types of psychologists, theories, and ideas, as well as Sociology. Biotechnology, a blend of science and technology, is made up of many different ideas and theories, and no one knows if money being invested in different types of biotechnology will come up with a useful product. Why is Gender and Women's Studies held to a higher standard than other social sciences like Psychology or Sociology?

Answer 1

There are.

(But I suspect you know that.)

Feminists in academia may work in a Marxist paradigm, a Psycho-analytic one, or in a combination of these, drawing on other influences as well, typically influenced by the "Critical Theory" of the Frankfurt School. They may subscribe to Structuralist views or PostModernist ones (though PostModernism tends to methodological pluralism and pragmatism). The may work within a liberal framework, responding to but working within the agenda set forth by John Rawls. They may focus on Social Constructionism. There are a range of schools within Women's Studies.

EDIT

Opponents of feminism either simplistically assume that feminists are a monolithic group... an extension of the "What do women want?" mentality, expecting a "one size fits all" answer. Or they are simply looking for "inconsistencies" about which they can complain of "hypocrisy"... when two different people holding contrasting views is just lack of unity, but hardly hypocrisy.

Answer 2

It used to be Women's Studies. [It still is called Women's Studies in many other countries like Malaysia]. Then people raised a concern with proof that a bunch of Feminists here kept claiming that men shouldn't post here since it's a women's forum, and then the gender portion was added. But the word gender doesn't include just men -- it also includes gender related issues that the LGBT community would like to bring up. Hence the name, GWS.

Answer 3

there are different types of women's studies and forms of feminism (liberal feminists, global feminists....) however those have just recently made made a space for them in a formal university forum so many people have not had as much time to familiarize them selves with it like with psychology which has been a topic of discussion in a educational sphere forever or at the very least for a great amount of time. and i don't think that women's studies are held to a higher level, they are connected subjects however they attract different people.

Answer 4

Gendered Talk:
Gossip, Shop Talk,
and the Sound of Silence
What becometh a woman best, and first of all: Silence. What seconde: Silence.
What third: Silence. What fourth: Silence. Yea if a man should ask me til,
dowmes day, I would still cry, silence, silence. ( Wilson, 1533, cited in Baron,
1986, p. 56)

I think girls just talk too much, you know, they--they--talk constantly be­
tween themselves and--about every little thing. Guys, I don't think we talk
about that much. (What kind of things do you talk about?) Not much. Girls
. . . , cars, or parties, you know. I think girls talk about, you know, every
little relationship, every little thing that's ever happened, you know. (teenage
boy interviewed by Penelope Eckert, 1993)

Admonitions about silence directed at women are many and have a long
history in Western as well as non-Western cultures, as is obvious from my
opening quotation. Aristotle proclaimed silence as "women's glory." The
New Testament, by implication directed to a male readership, says: "Let
your women keep silence in churches: for it is not permitted unto them to
speak. . . . And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands
at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church" ( I Cor.
14:34-35). A male audience is also implicit in the medieval handbook
written in 1523 by Vives on the topic of Christian female institutions that
says, "Let few see her and none at all hear her. There is nothing that so
soon casts the mind of the husband from his wife as does much scolding
and chiding, and her mischievous tongue" ( Baron, 1986, p. 57). The Bedou­
ins describe the ideal woman as having a soft voice and not a long tongue.

Boys and Girls Together . . . But Mostly Apart
The landscape of contemporary childhood includes three major sites--
families, neighborhoods, and schools. Each of these worlds contains
different people, patterns of time and space, and arrangements of
gender. Families and neighborhoods tend to be small, with a relatively
even ratio of adults and children. In contrast, schools are crowded and
bureaucratic settings in which a few adults organize and continually
evaluate the activities of a large number of children.1 Within schools,
the sheer press of numbers in a relatively small space gives a public,
witnessed quality to everyday life and makes keeping down noise
and maintaining order a constant adult preoccupation. In their quest
for order, teachers and aides continually sort students into smaller,
more manageable groups (classes, reading groups, hallway lines, shifts
in the lunchroom), and they structure the day around routines like
lining up and taking turns. In this and the next chapter I trace the
basic organizational features of schools as they bear upon, and get
worked out through, the daily gender relations of kids. As individuals.
we always display or "do" gender, but this dichotomous difference
(no one escapes being declared female or male) may be more or less
relevant, and relevant in different ways, from one social context to
another.

Answer 5

It's held to a higher standard because it's politically engaged and motivated.

Answer 6

People focus too much on the names of ideas (this school,that school, sweeping generalization) and not enough on the ideas themselves. It's hard to see the wood for the trees.

I'd rather hear the ideas. That is what interests me.

Answer 7

You are referring to schools of thought. Hell, even the field of criminology encompasses a veritable laundry-list of 'schools of thought'. Feminism is no different than anything else.

Answer 8

Dfdsdsd is right. we should abolism feminism....because speaking your mind is wrong. let's also bring back racism, slavery, and every movement that required people to speak up.

Answer 9

Moot point.

Answer 10

i think gs should be eliminated completely. It just requires a loud mouth and vivid imagination. Remember feminists sexism is just your imagination. we dont see it so it isnt there.