Special Issue: Inheriting Women’s Studies

Abstract

  The term “Josei-gaku” was coined from “women’s studies” in the mid-1970s, and our Women’s Studies Association was founded in 1979. In the half century since then, women’s studies have progressed as a study to clarify and eliminate the structure of gender discrimination; especially in recent years, however, the meaning of the word “gender” has changed due to the growing interest and attention to transgender issues. Contrary to women’s studies, which has sought to dismantle or dissolve gender, in the context of transgender studies, gender has shifted to be seen as the core of individual identity, something to be defended and even expanded upon as “diverse gender”.

  Both of these should have academic and social meaning and significance, but they are often at odds and in conflict with each other, therefore creating serious discrepancies and problems for current feminism and women’s studies.

  In this symposium, each presenter and discussant reexamines the specificity and contemporary meaning of women’s studies in light of this history and situation. This is not simply an attempt to play with “theory” at all, but an attempt to earnestly pursue and fight against women’s concrete lived experiences.

  Therefore, this in itself is an unmistakable “development” of feminism and women’s studies, and may be a sign of the resilience of women’s studies.