Feminist Studies

LIS 6409: Introduction to Library Administration

Research Paper on Feminist Leadership Theory and Practice

The emerging discourse on feminist leadership theory is attempting to keep up with the impacts that feminism has made on the economic and cultural landscape. Beginning with second-wave feminism in the 1960’s, women began seeking employment regularly outside the home. This unprecedented amount of women entering the workplace continued through third-wave feminism in the 1990’s. According to the 2017 Department of Labor report, 57% of women in the US work outside the home. Having more women in the workplace has had a significant impact on management and administration theory and leadership styles, as the very feminist ideals that promoted the concept of working women was quick to criticize the patriarchal leadership practices long practiced in the business and administration spheres.

In response to patriarchal leadership theories that perpetuated the institutionalized marginalization of women and minorities, feminist leadership theory developed as means of integrating feminist theory into leadership. This paper will seek to define feminist leadership theory and the goals of feminist leadership as well as argue why feminist leadership theory is the only effective and responsible leadership tactic to use in the modern age, especially in the field of librarianship. Feminist leadership theory emphasizes the importance of equal pay, paid parental leave, sexual harassment prevention, and employee reproductive rights, so some of these issues will also be discussed in relation to management. From evidence provided, it can be determined that feminist leadership theory is a viable and effective management practice that can vastly improve the quality and productivity of private and public businesses, organizations, and institutions.

LIS 5020 Foundations of Library and Information Science

Issue Analysis: Feminist Digital Archives

Digital archives are an increasingly important resource for conducting research in a library, and it is the duty of the archivist or librarian to ensure that the information cataloged in the archive is free from unconscious prejudice. Feminist scholars aim to apply feminist theory to archival methods in order to ensure that the information contained within an archive or collection is presented without underlying sexism or racism. For instance, traditionally, a search for “American Novelists” will primarily only list white male authors. In order for a researcher or library patron to locate female or minority novelists, they would need to search “American Women Novelists” or “African American Novelists.” Feminist archivists argue that this deviates the works of women and minorities by presenting their work as “other” or different from the canon of American novels, for instance, and defines the work of women and minorities as less important by designating them as sub-categories. As scholars address the issue of feminist archival methods, there is much discussion about what specifically makes an archive feminist and what needs to be taken into consideration when creating a feminist archive.

LIT 6934 Environmental Literature

Discovering the Inner and Outer Wild: An Ecofeminist Approach to Toni Morrison’s A Mercy

Set during the 1680’s within the wilderness of the New World, Toni Morrison’s novel A Mercy forces its readers to examine the ideologies that founded our current society. Throughout the novel, Morrison explores the perceptions of multiple characters, which allows the reader to perceive the differing mindsets about nature, slavery, and oppression. From Jacob Vaark, we see the natural world as something to be conquered and as resources to be exploited. Florens discovers her connection to the natural world after experiencing heartbreak, first from the abandonment of her mother and then from the blacksmith. Lina, who perhaps has the greatest connection to nature, experiences a connection that provides her with the agency needed to maintain a sense of identity within a world that claims she has none. Applying an ecofeminist lens to the novel allows for an expanded reading, in which we can further understand the complicated relationships that the female characters have with each other and their environments. However, A Mercy is also a novel that has the potential to help explain some of the core issues that are engaged in ecofeminism and perhaps reconcile the primary issues within ecofeminist theory, which is often accused of marginalizing issues relating to women of color.

ENL 6236 18th Century Literature

“Educating a wife for himself’: The Motives of Women’s Education in Edgeworth’s Belinda and Austen’s Mansfield Park

Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda and Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park are novels published towards the end of the long 18th century that include various portrayals of the education of young women. Both novels, implicitly and explicitly, are concerned with the motives of a young woman’s education, with Virginia St. Pierre (from Belinda) and Fanny Price (from Mansfield Park) either consciously or unconsciously being educated for their future potential husbands. Although Virginia is not a protagonist like Fanny, her narrative in the novel is significant because of its educational commentary on Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s philosophies. For both Fanny and Virginia, the goals of their education are primarily geared towards creating an ideal companion for a husband, without providing an education that would allow them to acquire the agency needed to achieve absolute social and intellectual equality.

There exists an underlying, problematic assumption in the novels that the goals for women’s education is ultimately for securing a husband either through the accumulation of accomplishments or through training to serve as a proper companion to those husbands. This derives from Rousseau’s model of female education, which Mary Wollstonecraft opposes in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. These contradictory theories on women’s education can be seen in both novels, but Rousseau’s philosophy that women should be educated specifically for their husbands is maintained throughout both, as the majority of the female characters are educated primarily for their future husbands, and not for establishing their own intellectual agency or achieving social autonomy.