| From the key role that socialist feminists (who use some Marxist theoretical concepts) played in organizing many of the first academic women's studies programs (Kennedy 2008) to the central explorations of questions both with and against Marx in feminist theory, Marxist and Marxist feminist theory historically held a visible and vital place in the field. However since the introduction of post-theories to the humanities and social sciences in the late twentieth century, Marxist feminists charge that women's studies has abandoned Marx completely (Ebert 1995, Kelly 2002, Cotter 2007, Gimenez 2010) while some socialist feminists charge that Marxist theory is built into contemporary feminist theory in concepts such as "globalization" and "anti-racism" even if we don't call it "Marxist" (Gardiner 2008). So, who is correct? What is the place of Marxist theory in academic women's studies today?;Within the social and cultural foundations of education, one way to explore these questions is to analyze which theories and concepts are core to the field's undergraduate curriculum---to determine what women's studies is teaching in its core courses. Since introduction to women's studies and feminist theory comprise the field's core courses (Salley, Winkler, Celeen, & Meck 2004), a representative sample of current in-use syllabi from these courses was collected from across the US. The most frequently assigned core course authors and titles are established. A descriptive and deductive content analysis is performed as each of the most frequently assigned course readings is run through the Marxist Theory Filter, comprised of the theory's key components, in order to determine which, if any, of these core course readings are Marxist.;The study supports the assertions of Marxist feminists and finds that Marxist theory is not only marginalized, but is nearly invisible in the core curriculum; and post-theories, particularly multicultural, global and postcolonial feminist theories that utilize intersectionality theory, clearly dominate. The hegemonic presence of post-theories in the undergraduate core curriculum has significant implications for those who believe that a discipline needs a diverse knowledge base, for those interested in protecting academic freedom and for those who think that one of the only academic fields founded on questions of equality and liberation should continue to concern itself with social change. I propose a re-introduction of Marxist and Marxist feminist theory into the academic women's studies core curriculum as a means of both ensuring a diverse knowledge base and re-establishing a commitment to social change. |
