Not By Degrees: Feminist Theoretical Analysis

One often pre-conceived notion about feminist theory that was discussed in the unit is the idea that theory does not relate to practice (Levan, 10). Even though I have taken multiple Women’s Studies courses prior to this course, I also used to believe this notion. I believed that studying theory would help my own understanding of feminist ideas, but that it was not practical. I admit that even reading the course manual, my opinion only wavered slightly. I agreed more with Andrea Nye’s perspective, that theory “seem to exist without reference to the real world” (Levan, 10). It was not until I read Charlotte Bunch’s article, Not by Degrees: Feminist Theory and Education, that my opinion changed. Her example about the creating a theory regarding lesbian oppression is what truly helped explain the connection between theory and application to me: “Having a theory about lesbian oppression did not tell us what to do tactically, but it did provide a framework for understanding situations, for placing them in a broader context, and for evaluating possible courses of action” (Bunch, 12). The end of this quote is what I needed to understand for me to see the connection between theory and practice. Feminist theory can be used as a guideline when trying to create action for social change.

I was surprised to find that I learned something from the first page. The course opened with an explanation of the difference between theory and theories (Levan, 4). Through previous classes, I learned that there are many different perspectives and focuses of feminists, and to say that all feminists want the same things would be inaccurate. I did not, however, know that the word ‘theories’ articulates this idea better than a singular ‘theory’, and I found this small distinction quite