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Gender studies and interdisciplinarity

Article in Palgrave Communications · August 2015

DOI: 10.1057/palcomms.2015.18

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Received 11 May 2015 | Accepted 12 Jun 2015 | Published 11 Aug 2015 DOI: 10.1057/palcomms.2015.18 OPEN

Gender studies and interdisciplinarity

Kath Woodward1 and Sophie Woodward2

ABSTRACT In this article we consider the example of gender studies as an interdisciplinary

field, and argue that gender studies, and women’s studies, from which gender studies
developed, has a distinctive engagement with interdisciplinarity. By thinking about the tra-
jectory of women’s studies, feminist thinking and gender studies, we suggest that this has
always been an interdisciplinary field of study. We trace both the shifts and continuities in
thinking between different iterations of feminist thinking to consider the three core fields of:
gender, sex and sexuality; intersectionality and activism; theory and methods. The article
aims to open up debate over what the constructive possibilities are of a focus upon gender,
and what the relationship is between theory and activism. This article is published as part of
an ongoing collection dedicated to interdisciplinary research.

1 Faculty of Social Sciences, Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, UK 2 Department of Sociology, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Correspondence: (e-mail: kath.woodward@open.ac.uk)

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studies. It is a broad church, but it is also a field that is hotly

G
Introduction
ender studies form part of a significant shift into contested.
interdisciplinarity in academic fields more widely, which The move towards gender studies in the 1990s and into the
is reflected in the issue-based calls of funding bodies, twenty-first century has not been welcomed by everyone who
special editions of journals and the growth of interdisciplinary works on gender issues. For example, Braidotti (1994) pointed to
research fields. Gender studies are an integral part of this the way in which gender studies could be seen as taking over
interdisciplinary movement that offers theoretical and methodo- women’s studies and feminist achievements and de-radicalizing
logical advantages in understanding multiply constituted social the women’s movement by suggesting a postfeminist world where
worlds and addressing pressing global problems, such as the men’s studies and masculinity were more important areas of
dynamics of migration, uneven global power geometries and research. Gender studies do offer recognition of the importance of
climate change. Not only are most of the big issues in the critiques of masculinity but the extent to which, for example, gay
contemporary world underpinned by social divisions including studies and a male-dominated agenda has replaced feminist
those based on sex and gender, but also the issues addressed by activism and a motor for progress remains central to the debate.
sexual politics are often a key motor of activism and change. Gender studies have, however, put masculinity up for debate and
Gender studies are distinctive in their engagement with critique, and demonstrate that men as well as women are
interdisciplinarity, which have developed though a synergy gendered. Nonetheless the move towards gender studies,
between thought and activism. This field of research and study especially through its associations with postmodernist, post-
draws upon the tradition of women’s studies and feminist structuralist and some psychoanalytic approaches can be seen as
theories and activism, rather than being merely part of recent having involved a retreat from politics and activism. The shifts in
trends and fashions, in a shift to interdisciplinary theory, which the transmission from women’s studies to gender studies also
goes beyond multi- or trans-disciplinary approaches. Gender reflect changes in the ways in which issues of gender and sexuality
studies have grown out of the need to address some of the big have been woven into interdisciplinary studies. There remains a
issues in everyday life as well as on the global arena of tension between “mainstreaming” and the suggestion that battles
international politics in which cultural, economic, political and have been won in relation to gender equality and the expansion of
social inequalities are played out (Woodward, 2014). Gender gender studies as an important interdisciplinary field of research.
awareness has become integral to disciplinary fields as diverse as A consequence of this “mainstreaming” and assumption that
history, literature, science, sociology and economics, as well as many feminist battles have been won can be seen in the language
emerging as a field of studies, which goes much further than the used to describe fields of social inequalities and policies are
mainstreaming of gender. Sexual politics and gender studies de-gendered. For example, in the seemingly gender-neutral
have more recently engaged with some of the dilemmas, which discourses of policy that refer to parents and parental leave
have been presented by diversity policies, for example, European rather than acknowledging the specificities of maternity and its
Union equality policies, which might be seen to have gone beyond embodied actualities. Similarly, in the context of health and well-
gender or in which gender has been marginalized (Agustin, 2013). being, there is a trend towards neutralizing gender difference
through the use of generational categories such as teenagers or
children. For example, eating disorders are perceived as a teenage
Women’s studies, feminist studies and gender studies problem, without regard to the gender differences in relation to
It is increasingly more usual to describe the field of study to differential experiences of adolescence. Gender studies need to
which gender and gender relations are central as “gender studies” acknowledge and address the material and enfleshed differences
rather than “women’s studies”, which reflects an historical, as well as equality.
chronological shift as well as intellectual connections and the Women’s studies always aimed at crossing disciplinary
growth of empirical research in the field. Although gender studies boundaries and challenging subject compartmentalization, which,
are relatively recent in the academy, most work in this area builds it has been argued, needs to be dismantled and broken down to
upon the growth of the women’s movement as part of the identity both study and undertake research and combat oppression (Klein,
politics of the 1970s and 1980s (Woodward, 1997) and the 1995). Crossing the boundaries and thinking creatively about
development of Women’s Studies Centres in North American, disciplinary intersections has been expanded to generate different
Australian and European countries. All these centres were ways of explaining and of acting upon the social relations,
characterized by emancipatory aspirations that sought to provide differences and inequalities, which include sex, gender and
robust empirical evidence and scholarly bases for political sexuality. Some research centres focus upon gender and sexuality,
change, in particular by putting gender, and in the 1970s and such as Birkbeck in London, or politics of gender, such as
1980s, more specifically women onto the political agenda and into the London School of Economics, whereas others emphasize
discourse. more gender studies as part of interdisciplinarity, for example, in
Feminist studies, especially feminist theories, remain central the United States at centres such as the University of California,
to the field, although gender studies, like women’s studies are Berkeley and New York State. Interdisciplinary gender studies
marked by diverse, and sometimes overlapping intellectual constitute a broad church (Richardson and Robinson, 2015).
traditions and movements, which also manifest changing times, In this article we consider this interdisciplinary focus across
not least in the shift from the liberal, Marxist, socialist and radical three dimensions, which are at the heart of the project of gender
strands of the women’s movement to the wider inclusion of black studies: the relationship between sex, gender and bodies,
feminism, ethnicization, racialization, and issues of bodies and including how sexuality is implicated in these debates, the
corporeality, disability, sexuality, class defined and geographically intersection of different structures and forces of inequality and
located inequalities. finally the relationship between activism, theory and methods.
The shift towards gender studies also reflects a widening
intellectual base, including psychosocial as well as psycho-
analytical theories, poststructuralist, postcolonial studies, critical Sex, gender and sexuality
studies of masculinity, queer studies and LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, Gender studies have as their foundation an engagement with the
bisexual, trans, queer) critical race, critiques of whiteness, sexed body and with the interrelationship between sex and
ecological feminism and materialist feminism and technoscience gender, which at times are inextricably entangled. Gender has

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become the preferred term for referring to social difference, partly cultural systems of gender derive directly from the anatomical,
because of its wider scope and remit than sex, which has been biological and genetic inheritances of sex. Interdisciplinary
assumed to be biological and anatomical and to challenge the approaches also need to be necessitated through the exploration
apparent limitations of biological reductionism (Moi, 1999). of some of the interrelationships between biology, genetics, bodies
However, there is a case for the inclusion of sex and gender as and social systems. Gender studies have been most creative and
part of the explanatory framework of sexual politics. Gender productive in embracing mathematics, science, psychology and
studies have taken over from women’s studies in the academy for technology to understand how sex and science and technology are
a number of reasons, not all of them liberatory. Women’s studies enmeshed, for example, in Harraway’s (1997) work on tech-
and feminism not only put gender into the agenda but also noscience and Franklin’s (2013) research on genetics.
offered new ways of understanding gender as a social, cultural
and political process and structure through which societies are
organized. Although many earlier accounts suggested a division Intersecting structures of oppression
between sex as anatomical and biological and gender as the social Gender studies demand an understanding of power relations and
and cultural manifestations of sex, there are strong arguments for thus of politics within and beyond government, as well as of the
sex as shaped by cultural forces and made through social social, economic and cultural processes that are the subject of
practices. One of Butler’s major contributions to gender studies arts, humanities and social science disciplines. The structures of
and to the study of social relations and the operation of power oppression and the processes through which economic, social and
across disciplines is her critique of sex and sexuality as well as cultural forces intersect in different contexts, both actual and
gender as performative. Sex, as much as gender, is produced by virtual and within systems of governance. The processes of
the processes and practices through which it is defined and racialization and ethnicization and class-based divisions intersect
classified. Butler’s (1990,1993) work has generated questions and and gender studies highlights the need to make sense of these
debates about the materiality of sex, the fluidity and the processes and particularly to why it is necessary to understand
transgressive properties of sex, gender and sexuality. Debates them together, rather than as separate, discrete forces. Feminism
within gender studies about the nature of sex and gender invoke engages with pressing social inequalities, which endure, even if
the need for interdisciplinary approaches as well as drawing upon they demonstrate and are underpinned by temporal and spatial
a range of disciplines and theoretical frameworks. particularities. Contemporary international societies remain
Gender studies have incorporated studies of masculinity marked by gendered inequalities (UN Women Reports, 2015)
(Connell, [1995] 2005, 2014) and interdisciplinary approaches and the focus of gender studies upon power relations makes this
have stressed the possibilities of transformation of traditional interdisciplinary field of enquiry even more significant in the
stereotypical masculinities (Hooks, 2004). Gender is not just twenty-first century. Far from living in a postfeminist world,
about women, as has so often been the case in the promotion of empirical evidence suggests that inequalities persist, and that we
policies of equal opportunities in neo-liberal democracies in need the feminist and gender studies tradition of engaging with
recent times. Men are gendered too and the interrogation of empirical, quantitative evidence. As Connell (2009) argues, there
hegemonic masculinity raises challenges to power structures in a is substantial statistical evidence of gender inequalities, including
vast range of social, economic, cultural and political systems most pervasively, the exploitation and oppression of women
where traditional, seemingly gender neutral norms are called worldwide. However, big data demands analysis as well as
into question. However, challenges to an essentialized category of description. Gender has been put into the discourse of the
‘woman’ have led to a marginalization, and even absence, of some classificatory systems of data collection in different ways but
of the critiques of structural oppression such as patriarchy, which United Nation’s evidence, especially following the Beijing
was a key concept in second-wave feminist critiques of the Conference on Women in 1995 and the 2010 UN decision to
operation of power at all levels. prioritize gender issues (UN Reports, 2015; UN women, 2015)
Gender is both an empirical category and a theoretical and to eliminate violence against women (UN Violence Against
conceptualization, which facilitates greater understanding of Women, 2015), raised important questions about the collection of
social relations and divisions as well as describing them. Sport data as well as their interpretation. When gender is on the agenda,
is an example of a field that is underpinned by a binary logic of the collection of evidence raises questions about the interconnec-
sex, in which traditional masculinity has been particularly valued: tions between public and private spheres, which has long been a
often literally, financially more highly rewarded and valued. concern of feminist critiques. Gendered inequalities operate in the
Gender binaries have been challenged in the public space apparently private arena of the home (Violence Against Women,
occupied by elite athletes and the governing bodies of sport, like 2015), but it is only through an interdisciplinary approach,
the International Olympic Committee and at more local levels of which brings different critiques and diverse analyses that the
routine sporting practices. For example, debates about gender interrelationship between the personal and the political can be
verification testing in sport demonstrate well some of the understood and, most importantly addressed.
interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary capacities of gender Another significant aspect of the analyses of big data on
studies that have been invoked in the ever more desperate international social, economic and political divisions and
attempts by sporting bodies to provide a scientific classification of inequalities relates to the relationship between disciplines.
sex (Woodward, 2012). Testing currently involves a range of ever Feminist critiques have developed possibilities for theorizing
more complex, trans and interdisciplinary tests in pursuit of some intersection of different power axes (Hill Collins, 1990) that have
kind of stability and draw upon a mix of disciplines that include been adopted by gender studies more widely to explain complex
medical science, genetics, psychology, anthropology, cultural processes through which different groups of people become
geography and sociology. disenfranchised and resist oppression. Activism and resistance
The example of sport highlights the ways in which how sex and demonstrate diverse connections and disconnections, for exam-
gender are understood, categorized and lived is always in ple, between classes, sexes and ethnic groups. The shift towards
relationship to bodies. Interdisciplinary thinking has been intersectionality presents opportunities for overcoming some of
generated within gender studies by the pressing need to move the perceived limitations of focusing upon gender but also offers
beyond some of the limitations of biological reductionism and challenges. Contemporary activism, for example, as expressed on
essentialism and the suggestion that the social practices and social media and other Internet forums demonstrates the

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contentious nature of debate in relation to priorities about the importance of lived experience through to gender studies, where
power axes that intersect to generate social divisions. How these methods allow the description of lived experience and of
important is gender in these intersections? We argue that gender, excluded voices, as well as an understanding of how dominant
although changing, remains a key determinant of inequality in structures are the means through which exclusions and inequal-
contemporary global politics. ities are perpetuated. These methods are present both in
academic-based studies and also in popular activism, which
increasingly occupies cyberspace, as manifest in the Everyday
Activism, theory and methods Sexism campaign (Bates, 2014). The Everyday Sexism campaign
Gender studies have emerged from the activism that has long started as a Website inviting women to send in their stories of
characterized women’s studies and associated feminist politics everyday sexism and harassment, and developed into a Twitter
and gender studies in part grew out of the identity politics of the feed as well as a book. This project bridges the qualitative method
1980s and 1990s. Theory and practice are widely enmeshed in of women having their stories heard as well as the accumulation
sexual politics more broadly in gender studies: acting and of a huge collection of these stories (50,000 stories by December
explaining are part of the same project. Feminism does not just 2013). When placed together, these stories highlight the links
seek to explain social inequalities but also to campaign to redress between individual incidences and structural inequalities that
these gendered inequalities. Activism includes struggles aimed at academics within the field of gender studies are seeking highlight
legislative change, in which different aspects of inequality and redress.
intersect, for example, as expressed in the UK 2010 Equality The interdisciplinary nature of gender studies means not only
Act, which encompasses an ever expanding range of sexualities as that scholars can draw upon the distinctive methods of particular
well as diverse sources of social exclusion, including generation, disciplines but also they are well placed to create new approaches,
ethnicization and racialization, and human rights campaigns such including mixed methods. By starting with questions about what
as those against people trafficking and Female Genital Mutilation. shapes gender relations and how sexual politics shape experience
Activism worldwide generates very different positions, not least and social, economic and political relations, gender studies
with the growth of and the recognition of cultural diversity. demand robust empirical evidence, including statistical, quanti-
Sexual politics can be located within and in relation to diverse tate data as well as qualitative, ethnographic, critical, discursive
political traditions, which include those of socialism and liberal- and psychosocial approaches that seek to understand some
ism, as well as having their own distinctive structures. Gender of the ambivalence and contradictory aspects of sex, gender and
studies constitute a contested terrain of often strongly conflicting sexuality.
positions, which are disputed within the pages of academic
journals and in the academy and in the democratic space of
activism, including virtual spaces of the Internet and social Conclusion
networking sites. One of the defining features of much We welcome debate about the theory and practice of gender and
contemporary feminist and LGBTQ activism is the possibilities the interdisciplinary implications of gender as a means of making
of Internet-based campaigning, such as the signing of online sense of social divisions and lived experience. Gender studies also
petitions, Websites that encourage people to relate stories of offer a means of exploring what is involved in interdisciplinary
sexism (Bates, 2014), through to feminist Website and blogs. work and the relationship between multidisciplinary and
Cyber space offers both opportunities for women and a range of transdisciplinary approaches, which emerge from interdisciplin-
socially excluded groups to be heard as well as being the site for ary studies as an established field of enquiry with its own
additional sexist abuse (Penny, 2014). capacities and distinct features. Gender is itself a contested
Gender studies offer scope for innovation in methods as well as category an exploration of which creates new ways of thinking
having established a tradition of mixed methods in response to about the relationship between sex, gender and sexuality. Gender
social change. The development of gender studies as an is both an empirical category and a theoretical conceptualization,
interdisciplinary field retains the dynamism of different and which facilitates greater understanding of social relations and
often very productive conversations, across generations, empiri- divisions as well as describing them. A focus on gender generates
cally in terms of lived experience and theoretically through different and often innovative methodologies as well as a plurality
intellectual dialogues (Woodward and Woodward, 2009). There of theoretical approaches, which are directed at making sense of
are connections and disconnections, between policies and inequalities and at celebrating the experiences and contributions
practices, which are differentially inflected across time and space. of hitherto marginalized groups.
For example, there may be consistencies in the lived experience of The journal in which this article is published encourages
gender relations in different parts of the world, but there are also contributions to ongoing debates, including what is distinc-
significant divergences. Transformations are temporal and spatial tive about gender studies and the nature of the relationship
change and encompass intergenerational as well as interdisci- between activism, policymaking and theoretical and methodolog-
plinary dimensions of gender studies. ical approaches. Gender studies are part of a developing field,
Along with the big data already discussed, which highlights the which retains the excitement of interdisciplinary innovation,
scale of gendered inequalities globally, feminist approaches have which characterizes feminism and women’s studies, but extends
often been dominated by qualitative approaches, which highlight this field of research by presenting engagements with pressing
the lived experiences of those inequalities. Earlier feminist work, contemporary debates and issues. This is also a contested terrain
which sought to foreground women’s stories emerged in a wide characterized by lively debate about the relationship between
range of disciplines, such as history (Rowbotham, 1975), gender and women’s studies, between activism and theoretical
sociology (Oakley, 1979) and anthropology (Moore, 1988,1994) frameworks and about political action and the policy implica-
emerged as a useful strategy to highlight the ways in which tions, globally and locally of focusing on gender. Many of the
women’s experiences had been excluded from dominant tensions and contradictions of gender studies are those of
historical and social narratives, by suggesting ways in which the interdisciplinary studies at a time when there has also been a
stories of the disadvantaged and dispossessed could be put into move towards the reinstatement of single disciplines in the field
discourse and made audible and visible. Qualitative methods have of higher education suffering from financial constraints and
continued from the feminist tradition of highlighting the reduced resources. Gender studies present productive possibilities

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