THEORIZING WOMENS STUDIES, GENDER STUDIES AND MASCULINITY - THE POLITICS OF NAMING

This paper theorizes the relationship between women's studies and gend er studies and will explore the increasing use of the category 'gender ' to analyse sexual divisions and the related growth of gender studies courses. it will also examine the creation of 'men's studies' courses and an increasing emphasis on the deconstruction of masculinity withi n social theory. A number of questions are raised around these shifts and changes. Should we welcome them because they broaden the scope of theoretical enquiry, encompassing both female and male experience, and further the institutionalization of gender issues within the academy? Or should we be critical of such developments because they may lead t o a narrower political and theoretical agenda in terms of analyses of women's experience?