SURVIVING IN DANGEROUS PLACES - WORKING-CLASS WOMEN, WOMENS STUDIES AND HIGHER-EDUCATION

In this article, I juxtapose the experiences of the working-class, you ng woman I was 30 years ago and the ''middle-class'' academic research er that I have become with an attempt to theorise the difficult relati onship of Women's Studies to the academy in the U.K. I exemplify the w ays in which the issue of women's social class is particularly problem atic for Women's Studies by drawing on my own personal history of bein g working-class in the British higher education system. I maintain tha t, just as my sense of integrity and autonomy as a working-class woman was continually under assault in higher education, the position of Wo men's Studies in the academy is also about ''surviving in dangerous pl aces,'' which continually jeopardises Women's Studies' aim of validati ng women's experiences across social classes. Drawing on my recent exp erience I argue that issues of co-option, insecurity, and lack of auth enticity are also hallmarks of Women's Studies in the late 1990s. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.