Not By Degrees: Feminist Theoretical Analysis

One often pre-conceived notion about feminist theory that was discussed in the unit is the idea that theory does not relate to practice (Levan, 10). Even though I have taken multiple Women’s Studies courses prior to this course, I also used to believe this notion. I believed that studying theory would help my own understanding of feminist ideas, but that it was not practical. I admit that even reading the course manual, my opinion only wavered slightly. I agreed more with Andrea Nye’s perspective, that theory “seem to exist without reference to the real world” (Levan, 10). It was not until I read Charlotte Bunch’s article, Not by Degrees: Feminist Theory and Education, that my opinion changed. Her example about the creating a theory regarding lesbian oppression is what truly helped explain the connection between theory and application to me: “Having a theory about lesbian oppression did not tell us what to do tactically, but it did provide a framework for understanding situations, for placing them in a broader context, and for evaluating possible courses of action” (Bunch, 12). The end of this quote is what I needed to understand for me to see the connection between theory and practice. Feminist theory can be used as a guideline when trying to create action for social change.

What I appreciated about this unit was that it started out with new and interesting information right from the beginning, something many other courses could learn from.

I was surprised to find that I learned something from the first page. The course opened with an explanation of the difference between theory and theories (Levan, 4). Through previous classes, I learned that there are many different perspectives and focuses of feminists, and to say that all feminists want the same things would be inaccurate. I did not, however, know that the word ‘theories’ articulates this idea better than a singular ‘theory’, and I found this small distinction quite

interesting.
Moreover, one of the things I found most helpful from this unit was discussed on page four of the course manual. “Part of “doing theory” is learning to see the assumptions underlying our own and other people’s arguments about how the world is or should be. Developing this critical skill is one of the most important objectives of this course” (Levan, 4). This section stood out to me because I feel it is not only applicable to feminist theory, but also to my future career. I am a social work student, and, as the name suggests, our careers involve working with people from all sorts of backgrounds, which may influence their behaviours. It can be easy to only look on a surface-level, but I believe that the concept of actively trying to see what thought processes are behind what a person believes is an extremely valuable tool for social workers.