For and about women: women’s studies in New Zealand universities 1973-1990

Abstract

This study is about the process of constructing feminist educational history. It has as its focus the development of women’s studies in New Zealand universities between 1973 and 1990. The central question addressed is ‘how does one research and write a feminist educational history?’ Both traditional literary historical techniques and feminist oral history techniques were used to collect research data. Three theoretical models were then used to arrange and analyse the research material. The five phases of women’s history as advocated by Gerda Lerner provided a conceptual framework for the identification of parallel phases of development in women’s studies in New Zealand. Phase theory was used by Renate Klein in 1986 to document characteristics of development in women’s studies across a number of countries. In this study, I argue that although women’s studies in New Zealand shared early characteristics with those of overseas universities, by the mid-1980s it had developed its own unique developmental features. These were closely tied to the small size of New Zealand universities, the strong lobbying power of groups of feminist academics and the competition for students between the universities. Basil Bernstein’s theory of the structure of the curriculum offered insights into the nature of knowledge codes and provided a way of conceptualising the university as an academic institution within which feminist academics experienced both constraints and possibilities in their bid to establish women’s studies. This study documents and analyses the history of women’s studies in New Zealand universities and, at the same time, serves as a methodological guide for future feminist educational historians.