A Midcareer Feminist Reflection.

FEMINISM; HUMANITIES education; GUBAR, Susan, 1944-; UNIVERSITIES & colleges; COLLEGE teachers

The author reflects on what it means to be a feminist in an era of increasing contingency and devaluation of the humanities. She cites feminist academics Susan Gubar, who long pointed out that the academic profession started to decline at about the time that women gained entry to it in significant numbers. She mentions that women remain a protected class at the City University of New York's English department where she teaches. She also suggests that humanities departments should step up their outreach efforts using their talents to communicate the importance of the humanities to the greatest number of undergraduates amid the decline of this field of study.