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BY SARAH POZGAY

In print | Published April 16, 2009

The Feminist Front at Swarthmore

A common perception of feminist activism on campus seems to be that it lacks unity, that it simply does not comprise a cohesive movement. While there are more than a few active groups on campus that could be classified as anti-sexist, many students said the groups don’t function as parts of a whole as much as they function as separate organizations with individual aims, resulting in what seems a fragmented approach to feminist activism. Though many of the groups have recently expressed interest in working to change that, the overall consensus is that the diverse nature of feminism at Swarthmore lends itself less to a single front of activism and more to approaching sexism from a variety of angles and in a variety of organizations.

Erin Heaney ’09, offering her perspective on feminist groups at Swarthmore, said, “I’m not involved in any feminist groups on campus because I feel and felt as a freshman that the existing groups are not very strong as compared to [other activist groups].” Heaney, who was involved in organizing the Women in Sport Symposium that took place last weekend, continued, “There are so many ways legislatively, but also just socially and in solidarity work, there’s so much work that still has to be done [that] I do think it would be a good thing if there was a much more formalized and united feminist presence on campus.”

On the other hand, Ariel Horowitz, a leading member of Vox, suggested that the reason for this absence may be a lack of strong demand by students for a cohesive movement, particularly with regard to facing sexism on campus. “I don’t think there’s a unified women’s movement on campus because I don’t think that people feel that we need one, and if people don’t feel like we need one then we probably don’t need one for the goals that people have here, for the level that we as a community are at in terms of feminism,” Horowitz said.

Feminist Majority leader Urooj Khan ’10 also commented that the pervasiveness of anti-sexism on campus in comparison to other places sometimes means that there is less of a perceived need for activism at Swarthmore. She said, “I think one of the reasons that the feminist groups on campus have kind of gone up and down in terms of membership is not so much that we don’t have feminists on this campus, I think it’s because we do have so many feminists on campus … and so it becomes an issue of people thinking ‘we don’t really need feminism at Swarthmore because we all believe in gender equality,’ and I think that’s not true at all. I think there definitely needs to be a space here for people discussing issues that are integral to feminism.”

Many, including Heaney, feel that regardless of campus-wide issues of feminism and sexism, Swarthmore should play an activist role in problems of sexism outside the college as well. “There’s not a lot of advocacy or legislative movement at Swarthmore around women’s issues,” she said, “I think if [that] was a stronger presence that would be a great thing.”

“In my opinion I guess the largest battles have been won — women’s suffrage, Roe v. Wade — but I feel that there are some battles, some issues that should not be ignored because they have not yet been achieved,” said Will Predun ’09, Delta Upsilon president, citing equal wages and funding for women in science and mathematics as two issues that still need to be addressed through political activism.

Others account for the lack of a unified feminist movement on campus, not as a result of a lack of demand, but as a result of changing approaches to feminism in today’s society. “Part of it I think is a function of time,” Heaney said. “The feminist movement today is a lot more diverse and has a lot more opinions, and there’s not such a dogma as there was with the first wave or second wave [of feminism] even.”

First wave feminism, which centered primarily on issues of suffrage, pioneered the cause of legal equality for women. With second wave feminism, or the feminism of our mothers’ generation, came campaigns for the Equal Rights Amendment and a focus on a broader range of issues affecting women living in a patriarchal society. Second wave feminism also describes the time in which movements such as feminist militancy and the exclusion of men from society were most popular. Today, the first and second waves in feminist activism are often criticized for too narrowly defining acts of feminism as well as for focusing exclusively on the plight of the middle-class white woman. With the coming of third wave feminism, many women have embraced a looser definition of the term. Many have also become more concerned with issues of sexism in a variety of demographics, including women of color, the lower class and transgender individuals.

These concerns are very much present in many activist groups at Swarthmore, two notable examples being Womyn of Color Collective and White Women Confronting Racism. While neither of the groups is explicitly feminist, in both organizations anti-sexist thought plays a large role in how issues of race are approached, and vice versa.

Cecilia Marquez ’11, a founding member of Womyn of Color Collective, said, “There’s no cohesive feminist movement because I feel like so many groups have feminist perspectives … It’s like a lens more than a movement.”

Erika Slaymaker ’11, who’s involved in White Women Confronting Racism, elaborated on her experience, saying, “I come to the group very much with a politics based in intersectionality — so really thinking about how sexism, racism, heterosexism, classism, ableism — how so many different oppressions come together and intersect.”

Slaymaker also remarked that thinking of feminism in conjunction with other identity issues is often helpful in addressing the problems that the different groups face. The example she cited was the relationship between queer and feminist identities. “I think that feminists really need to think that through and figure out ways to be not just inclusive of the trans community but to realize the need to rework understandings of womanhood … I think a general feminist politics has to come from an anti-gender binary space,” Slaymaker said, adding that she feels “we can find power in the fact that there aren’t just two genders and really use that as a base to come from.”

Professor Patty White of the Film and Media Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies departments said it’s not hard to see why this less classical approach to feminism is so often found on campus. “[At Swarthmore] there’s a lot of commitment to global issues and community-based issues which almost always can be defined along gender lines as well as lines of poverty and access and race and all of that. But that requires … an intersectional analysis, which is another place that feminism has gone.”

Beginning this year, the Women’s Studies Program underwent a name change, making it now the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program. This also reflects a less rigid and more intersectional approach to feminism, according to Lisa Riddle ’09, who is pursuing a minor in the program.

White added that the decision to change the name was also a practical one. “One reason we did that was structurally, we didn’t have enough people on this campus to have two academic concentrations, one on historically women’s studies … and then to do gender and sexuality; we were the same people, we couldn’t run two concentrations,” she said, explaining that in the end, faculty felt that gender and sexuality studies couldn’t be pushed by the wayside in academics at Swarthmore.

Commenting on rejection of classical feminism on campus, Heaney commented, “That may be why some of feminism died at Swarthmore — [with] the rise of identity groups and this real desire to not look like the old school white feminist, but I do think there’s a way to bring in the feminist identity but also be progressive and realize that feminism means lots of things to lots of people.”

Regardless of differing approaches to feminism on campus, both explicitly and non-explicitly feminist groups have recently expressed interest in increasing communication and coalition building between the organizations on anti-sexist projects.

Using the “F” Word

The use of the word “feminist” itself has been highly contested. Either thrown around as an epithet that conjures the militancy of second wave feminism, or viewed as an emblem of a movement that marginalized and excluded some groups of women, “feminism” as a label has been both embraced and rejected, debated and imposed.

“[The word feminism] carries lots of layers of associations and meanings. I think a lot of people mean really different things when they say feminist,” Slaymaker said.

Andrew Petzinger ’09 echoed this, saying, “I don’t think we actually hear the word feminist very often, and I guess that may have a lot to do with the ambiguity of using a term that’s been used in a lot of different ways and has been criticized in a lot of different ways.”

The decision to use or reject the term reflects political and philosophical outlooks on the meaning of feminism, its expression as a component of individual identity, and its political utility today.

“Now in third wave feminism a lot of things are called feminism that aren’t necessarily feminism; a lot of things aren’t called feminism that are feminism because women don’t necessarily want the label of feminism because they associate it with all these militant second wave things, whereas [feminism] can support many goals of women,” Horowitz said.

Slaymaker agreed with the latter part of this statement, emphasizing that the term “feminism” does not necessarily represent the goals and perspectives of contemporary advocates of anti-sexism. “There is no one feminist movement … and lots of people are calling themselves feminists that have really different perspectives. So if I call myself a feminist, what people are perceiving me to be with that term is so, so unclear,” she said.

While various groups on campus advocate the empowerment of women with respect to specific issues, few that do so are explicitly feminist.

“It’s hard to nail down a feminist group,” Marquez said. “Not everyone identifies as a feminist, which isn’t to say that they don’t have progressive anti-sexist values, they just may use different terms,” she said.

Speaking about her experiences in White Women Confronting Racism, Sara Forster ’11 said, “For us, being a group of all white women, using the word feminist is loaded, so I don’t think it’s something that I want to be made explicit.”

Yet, some advocate reclaiming the term “feminist” both as a political tool and as an act of empowerment in itself.

“I think there’s something very unifying about … people coming together and identifying as feminists, given that the word has historically often been used in a derogatory way … I think it really works to break down those stereotypes and negative connotations that exist along with being feminist,” Khan said, adding, “I think calling yourself a feminist is very much a political act, and it’s a political act that I definitely want to engage in.”

“I think on this campus you can definitely see how feminism is sometimes really claimed, but a lot of times really isn’t, and I don’t think that that’s just here. I think there are a lot of people grappling with the term feminist from a lot of different angles,” Slaymaker said.

Heaney expressed the sentiment that finding a medium between positive and negative attitudes toward the word is both practical and possible. “I think that there’s a way to recognize the women who came before us and celebrate what they accomplished but also be critical of what they missed and the people they excluded. And I think there’s a balance there that white women have to figure out, but I don’t think it’s an impossible feat,” she said.

“To me, feminism brings the gender analysis to the table,” White said, adding that in part because of this, “I don’t see why feminism couldn’t still be the word for anti-sexism.”

Some have framed the discussion in terms of the goals of the individuals and groups who choose to do so.

“I think the decision of what you want to call something depends on what you’re trying to do. Are you trying to get legislation pushed through? Are you trying to build a coalition on campus? Are you trying to do awareness-raising of something? The name you want to put forward will change based on that,” Riddle said.

Petzinger explained that in certain situations, he feels leaving the term open can allow more space for individuals to grow in their philosophies regarding the issues. “To say that I haven’t heard the term a lot, but still feel like I’ve gotten a lot inoculation of really great gender theory and anti-sexist thought, means that maybe at a place like Swarthmore, it’s something of an effective strategy to downplay the question of self-identifying as a feminist and push forward more at the level of what are the effects of your identifying as a feminist and how do you manifest your identification as a feminist,” he said.

Riddle added that whatever label one goes by, it’s important to clarify the term you choose. “Ultimately what’s more important than what you call yourself is your thoughts and your beliefs, but I do think it helps, if you’re going to say ‘Yes, I am a feminist,’ to know the history behind that word and be able to qualify [that].”

Confronting Sexism in the Classroom

Sexism in the classroom is an issue that all coeducational college campuses grapple with, including Swarthmore. It’s also a type of sexism that can manifest itself subtly, often yielding no perceivable results except a greater number of male and lesser number of female contributors in class discussion.

“I do think that because we’re at Swarthmore we’re not as critical of how [sexism] gets played out not overtly, but in the assumptions we make,” Heaney said. “Just because we’re at Swarthmore shouldn’t exclude us from being critical on a day-to-day basis.”

At Swarthmore, the common perception is that sexism is more of a problem in select departments. In particular, the philosophy department has often been cited as a concern. For that reason, some students started the Lady Philosophers, a group for women to discuss philosophy. “In my case, I think the group primarily exists because philosophy classrooms, and sometimes college classrooms in general, can be pretty intimidating places, not just for women, but especially for women it seems,” said Brianne Gallagher ’09, an involved member of the group.

However, the way that sexism manifests itself in the department may not be so much due to professors as it is a matter of women feeling uncomfortable. “A big part of the reason we have the group is that we’ve identified that women often don’t feel comfortable talking in philosophy classrooms for whatever reason, and so we wanted to open up a space where they could talk about things that are important to them, and talk about things that aren’t talked about in philosophy classrooms either,” Gallagher said.

The paucity of female professors in this department and others also contributes to the issue, Gallagher said, noting however that there are also male professors who create a more welcoming environment than some female ones. “I haven’t encountered significant sexism in the classroom, but I do think that there are reasons why female students aren’t talking as much, and I’m certain that they don’t begin with Swarthmore,” she said.

Khan expressed the same thought with respect to the state of academia. “I think it’s important to recognize that there’s a lot of bias in terms of academia in general,” she said. “I think that the way academia is set up, and I think this is true in a lot of different professions, is that women who don’t have a lot of experience by the time they’re 35 are looked down upon.”

Furthermore, some say that sexism in the classroom is often an endemic but unseen problem that has to do with gender dynamics and simply who is speaking up in class, more than it has to do with preferential treatment or other traditional signs of discrimination. “You can see it in classrooms when men talk first; I find it really, really frustrating. And I think a lot of men on this campus haven’t thought about the way power works in this society and the way men have power, especially white men,” Slaymaker said.

Feminist Majority member Michael May ’11 agreed that sexism is often a silent scourge at Swarthmore. “I think to find instances of sexism that we’re talking about at a school like this, you do have to look for it; you can’t just have it present itself to you because it’s not blatant … I do think that could be a factor, because if you don’t expect it, you’re not going to be looking for it.”

However, others say that for them sexism in the classroom is not a significant problem. “I think the academic atmosphere is fine; I know women who don’t like to talk in class, but I also know men who don’t like to talk in class, and I haven’t seen it be predominantly men or women. I’m a major within the sciences as well as a minor within the sciences and in both departments I’ve had very female-positive experiences. I think in the academics people are very conscious of it,” Horowitz said.
Sexism and Feminism in Student Life

Sexism and Feminism in Student Life

Outside of the academic and activist spheres, sexism and feminism can be found in very specific parts of student life, according to students. The most notable locale of sexism in Swarthmore social life is, unsurprisingly, the party scene on campus.

“I think that patriarchy, that sexism, is slippery and finds new ways to manifest throughout, and I think that Swarthmore needs to take a serious look at its parties and the way sexism plays out in parties … And I don’t think it’s just the Genderfuck party that’s not a safe space for women,” said Slaymaker.

Given the college’s reputation as an overtly liberal-progressive campus, some find it hard to reconcile the way many students identify as anti-sexist with the way the same students behave in a party setting. “I think this puzzles a lot of people,” said Gallagher.

Marquez continued in this strain, “You’d be pressed to find someone who would say ‘women shouldn’t have sexual agency,’ and yet when they find themselves at a party, they’re acting as if women shouldn’t have sexual agency.”

Horowitz added, “If the party atmosphere really reflected the beliefs that most people hold, no one would ever get raped here, and that’s just not the case.” For Petzinger, these inconsistencies in student behavior can be traced back to attitudes of feminism and the motivations behind claiming an anti-sexist identity. “The question is really the degree to which people feel like they have an obligation that’s a burden to be thinking about feminism and the people for whom it’s the opposite of a burden and is energizing and strengthening,” he said.

Still, most students still hold that sexism in parties at Swarthmore is significantly less of a problem than on many other campuses, particularly those in which traditional Greek life holds more of a presence. “I’m somewhat concerned about — and this is probably a common sentiment among Swarthmore students — universities and schools where fraternity/sorority presence is really pronounced because I think dangerous things happen to women in those types of environments,” Gallagher said.

While there is some Greek life on campus, it’s not necessarily the type one associates with large public universities and rigid rules regarding gender expectations, according to Predun. “I don’t feel that DU enforces gender norms in comparison with [for example] big state school fraternities … Within my four years we have had openly gay brothers and have given bids to men who we know to be openly gay.”

Horowitz noted that even with the presence of fraternities on campus, “There aren’t gender segregated social events very often.” Horowitz said she feels this is an important part of why sexism is less pronounced in the social life at Swarthmore than in that of many other schools.

In terms of extracurricular activities, students said they have not frequently encountered sexism. “I haven’t felt like I’ve needed to be a feminist here because I’ve been doing everything I wanted to do and not faced a lot of barriers [at Swarthmore] in terms of my academics and my extracurriculars,” Sara Lipshutz ’11 said. Lipshutz was involved in the Expanding Your Horizons conference several weeks ago as well as in the “Women in Comedy” discussion that took place on campus several weeks ago.

Speaking from her experience as a female student athlete, Heaney praised the athletics program at Swarthmore, saying, “I think our athletic department does a really good job treating women and men equally.”

More than one student also observed that while feminism on this campus presents itself in a variety of ways and under a variety of headings, the most notable aspect of Swarthmore feminism is the degree to which anti-sexist thought envelops the campus community on an interpersonal basis. “I would say what really defines [feminism at] Swarthmore is the pervasive belief among female students that we can do whatever we want, that we have options and are full people … I don’t think I’ve met any women here who don’t believe that,” Horowitz said.

According to Marquez, no one formal group could claim responsibility for maintaining the presence of feminism on campus. “I think it’s unique that while we do have Feminist Majority, feminist values pervade the campus community and campus organizing,” she said. “We’re not depending on one organization to bring that critique to the campus community.”

Petzinger, who was involved in Feminist Majority last semester, said that while activism certainly has a place, his most valuable experiences with feminism on campus have taken place in informal settings and through one-to-one interactions with other members of the Swarthmore community. “I think that it’s more in private, very personal things that happen over the course of being at Swarthmore that maybe push [students] from that place of first being interested in thinking about gender and patriarchy and make that more robust … [at least] for me that’s been the case,” he said.

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