The dilemmas of working from within. Feminist academics in Mexican universities: Social origins, institutional experiences, and social activism

Abstract

This dissertation explores the experiences of feminist academics in Mexican universities, particularly how they perceive themselves and their work in relation to the broader Mexican women's movement. My analysis is based on interviews with academic feminist professors in three different woman's studies programs in Mexican higher education institutions, as well as document analysis of curricula vitae, syllabi, and other programmatic materials from those academic units. I find that the social origins and institutional positions of these women yield a complex, variegated set of perspectives, pointing to the value of a post-structural reading of peoples' lived experiences. At the same time, I find patterns in terms of the pressures and directional push of professionalization, Western feminisms, and the new managerialism that yield important commonalities in the perspectives of feminist academics in Mexican universities. Overall, there is a clear sense of a division of labor in feminisms, with academic feminists playing an important but distanced role relative to grassroots community-based activists and women from the base. They appear as experts who generate ideas and influence public policy through scholarly activity.