Women's Studies and Feminist Scholarship: A "Different Voice" in Academe

Women's studies were the academic outgrowth of the women's movement. Initially there was a push for equality and women were encouraged to move into nontraditional roles; success was equated with success in the male world. As women's studies evolved there was a growing recognition and valuing of feminine qualities, and caring and interpersonal relationships were recognized as playing a meaningful role in the human endeavor. Feminist scholarship and women's studies programs are using feminism as a critique to analyze existing knowledge and in the process are transforming how knowledge is constructed