Can We Wear Our Pearls and Still Be Feminists?: Memoirs of a Campus Struggle [Paperback]

Joan D. Mandle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 2000

When Joan Mandle accepted the position of Director of Women's Studies at Colgate University, she had specific goals in mind—to make the program stronger, more academically rigorous, and publicly open. The program would resist becoming the captive of identity politics and would refuse to allow itself to become marginalized on the campus. It would reach beyond the negative stereotypes of feminism on campus by appealing to and challenging all students and faculty interested in gender issues and social change.

Just as Mandle anticipated, she faced obstacles during the transformation. Among her critics were feminist students and faculty whose views of a successful program directly contradicted Mandle's. While the new director called for outreach, they insisted on isolation. While she set forth a policy of inclusiveness, they sought to maintain an exclusive community. These individuals preferred the former model of the women's studies program, despite its tendency toward separatism.

Can We Wear Our Pearls and Still Be Feminists? explores women's studies from Mandle's perspective as a program director, feminist activist, and scholar. She offers a vivid account of being forced to grapple with fundamental issues of what women's studies is and should be. Her strong commitment to feminism and women's studies does not prevent her from voicing her concerns; instead, it compells her to share the story of her directorship in hopes of shedding light on the strengths and weaknesses, pitfalls and triumphs of women's studies as an academic discipline.

Through her examination of the battles involved in creating an academically significant and ideologically open program, Mandle provides insight into a possible avenue of change for feminism. By showing how the program at Colgate University was able to encourage campuswide discussions on feminism, Mandle demonstrates that women's studies can succeed as an inclusive and rigorous field. This enlightening memoir provides readers with a window on important debates concerning feminism and women in academia.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Director of Women's Studies at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, for six years, Joan D. Mandle is currently Associate Professor of Sociology there. She is the author of Women and Social Change in America, among other books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: University of Missouri (June 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826212891
• ISBN-13: 978-0826212894
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,424,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Courage and conviction on campus, June 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Can We Wear Our Pearls and Still Be Feminists?: Memoirs of a Campus Struggle (Paperback)

Joan Mandle has written a wonderful, bittersweet memoir about her years as the director of a women's studies program at a liberal arts college. Her passion for feminism is palpable, and her willingness to be openly critical of the intellectual, philosophical and emotional blunders she encounters along the way is as refreshing as it is courageous.

The narrative line of this slim volume moves along at a rapid clip. She tells scores of stories -- about herself, her students, her interns at the center, and her colleagues both on campus and across the country. The tales are both fascinating and instructive. What sets this memoir apart, though, is her unshakeable commitment to social change and her equally rock-solid belief that feminism is strengthened, not weakened, by a rigorous and often critical self-appraisal of both the academic discipline and the social movement.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Facinating account of campus politics, August 3, 2000

By 

Eileen M. Mulhare (Hamilton, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Can We Wear Our Pearls and Still Be Feminists?: Memoirs of a Campus Struggle (Paperback)

In this cogent, thought-provoking and ultimately hopeful memoir, sociologist Joan D. Mandle chronicles the six years in the 1990s when she directed the women's studies program at Colgate University, an elite liberal arts college in upstate New York. Her main challenge was how to transform a program narrowly focused on identity politics, talk therapy and male bashing--the agenda favored by the program's former director--into an intellectually rigorous, ideologically open, campus-wide forum on women and gender issues. Mandle's efforts were only partly successful, but you'll be fascinated (and disturbed) by the obstacles she faced. Chief among them was self-censorship in the classroom and at faculty gatherings. People avoided frank discussion of certain issues for fear of being labeled a sexist or a traitor to the women's movement. Mandle also analyzes why certain groups rejected, or felt excluded from, the program in the past--male faculty and students, sorority sisters (hence the reference to "wearing pearls"), women athletes, African-American women, pro-life advocates and others. Notably, Mandle counts herself as a feminist. But her vision of women's studies as an ideologically neutral field, anchored in evidence not political dogma, is shared by all too few in the academia. If you've ever wondered why most Americans believe in equal rights for women but reject "feminism", this book is a good place to start.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars inclusive feminism, July 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Can We Wear Our Pearls and Still Be Feminists?: Memoirs of a Campus Struggle (Paperback)

Mandle has written a memoir of her years running the Women's Studies Program at Colgate University. During that time, she struggled to make it a non-dogmatic, inclusive, academically rigorous program. She had many setbacks but also successes. It is depressing to read about the narrow-minded ideologues - usually people who thought of themselves as feminists - who resisted her admirable goals. Still, the larger message is one of hope. Feminism really can be an open, inclusive force for education and social change. Mandle avoids jargon and her writing is vivid and accessible. This book is a must for anyone interested in an alternative vision of feminism.