![]() All these centres were characterized by emancipatory aspirations that sought to provide robust empirical evidence and scholarly bases for political change, in particular by putting gender, and in the 1970s and 1980s, more specifically women onto the political agenda and into discourse.įeminist studies, especially feminist theories, remain central to the field, although gender studies, like women’s studies are marked by diverse, and sometimes overlapping intellectual traditions and movements, which also manifest changing times, not least in the shift from the liberal, Marxist, socialist and radical strands of the women’s movement to the wider inclusion of black feminism, ethnicization, racialization, and issues of bodies and corporeality, disability, sexuality, class defined and geographically located inequalities. Although gender studies are relatively recent in the academy, most work in this area builds upon the growth of the women’s movement as part of the identity politics of the 1970s and 1980s ( Woodward, 1997) and the development of Women’s Studies Centres in North American, Australian and European countries. ![]() It is increasingly more usual to describe the field of study to which gender and gender relations are central as “gender studies” rather than “women’s studies”, which reflects an historical, chronological shift as well as intellectual connections and the growth of empirical research in the field. Sexual politics and gender studies have more recently engaged with some of the dilemmas, which have been presented by diversity policies, for example, European Union equality policies, which might be seen to have gone beyond gender or in which gender has been marginalized ( Agustin, 2013). Gender awareness has become integral to disciplinary fields as diverse as history, literature, science, sociology and economics, as well as emerging as a field of studies, which goes much further than the mainstreaming of gender. Gender studies have grown out of the need to address some of the big issues in everyday life as well as on the global arena of international politics in which cultural, economic, political and social inequalities are played out ( Woodward, 2014). ![]() This field of research and study draws upon the tradition of women’s studies and feminist theories and activism, rather than being merely part of recent trends and fashions, in a shift to interdisciplinary theory, which goes beyond multi- or trans-disciplinary approaches. ![]() ![]() Gender studies are distinctive in their engagement with interdisciplinarity, which have developed though a synergy between thought and activism. Not only are most of the big issues in the contemporary world underpinned by social divisions including those based on sex and gender, but also the issues addressed by sexual politics are often a key motor of activism and change. Gender studies are an integral part of this interdisciplinary movement that offers theoretical and methodological advantages in understanding multiply constituted social worlds and addressing pressing global problems, such as the dynamics of migration, uneven global power geometries and climate change. Gender studies form part of a significant shift into interdisciplinarity in academic fields more widely, which is reflected in the issue-based calls of funding bodies, special editions of journals and the growth of interdisciplinary research fields. ![]()
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