Abstract

Despite the many obstacles women's studies programs and faculty have encountered during the past 25 years, it is time to consider Women's Studies in higher education a success. The point of claiming success is not merely to celebrate Women's Studies but, rather, to take responsibility for the maturity of the field, recognize challenges obscured by an adversity mindset, and articulate the field's contributions to knowledge, as well as its weaknesses in that important area. This article explores the benefits of claiming success by applying lessons we have learned from grappling with three familiar dilemmas in the past and present to three challenges we face as we claim and define our success: 1) developing Women's Studies as a site for transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary research; 2) articulating the value of multiplicity among the "feminisms" that form one important knowledge base of the field; and 3) establishing the meaning and the value of women's studies degrees in differing institutions and on multiple levels.

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