Abstract
Reviewed by: Laura Parson, Auburn University, USA
In We Only Talk Feminist Here, authors Briony Lipton and Elizabeth Mackinlay create a vivid picture of what it might look and feel like to “only talk feminist” in the neoliberal university. Drawing from qualitative interviews with six women academics in the humanities and social sciences, We Only Talk Feminist Here demonstrates the “performative and discursive moves feminist academics make in order to be heard and effect change to the gendered status quo in Australian higher education” (back cover). Lipton and Mackinlay blend the voices of their interviewees with their own personal experiences to reflect on how neoliberal discourses, practices, and procedures position and marginalize women in the higher education institutions.
At the time of publication, Briony Lipton was a PhD Candidate in the School of Sociology at The Australian National University, where she had been exploring in her research the relationship between academic women, feminism, neoliberalism, university leadership, and gender equality in Australian higher education. Lipton’s co-author, Elizabeth Mackinlay, is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Queensland whose research projects include the politics and pedagogies of indigenous Australians. The book is fairly short in length, but while it can be read quickly, the interplay of women’s voices, experiences, and theory can make it a dense read. The stories told by participants about their experiences as women academics have the potential to trigger discomfort or anxiety for readers who have experienced similar marginalizing or threatening experiences.
Throughout We Only Talk Feminist Here, the authors interweave narrative and personal reflection with theory. Their theoretical framework draws on Cixous’s notion of the “ecriture feminine” – women writing the unthinkable/unthought – and Ahmed’s idea of the “willful subject,” the woman who asserts herself willfully outside or beyond societal constraints. Cixous’s and Ahmed’s theoretical work informs the authors’ data analysis in ways that enable them to “reconsider what constitutes knowledge, research practice, and ultimately power that opens up a space for the reception of feminist academic voices” (p. 19). The book is structured into five chapters; each chapter is organized around the voices of the participants within concepts of writing (Chapter 2), voice (Chapter 3), speaking and silence (Chapter 4), and strategies to “talk feminist” in the academy. By writing from the margins of being a woman in a masculine institution, the telling and retelling of women’s experiences vividly demonstrates what it means to be a woman in the current neoliberal institutional climate. Although the writers are located in Australia and many of the women’s stories center on Australian higher education institutions, the stories mirrored those of mine and other woman academics I know in higher education across the globe.
As a text that both incorporated and reflected on personal narratives and alternative perspectives on the experiences of women in higher education, I found reading We Only Talk Feminist Here to be personally validating. Each chapter reinforced the importance of voice and provides an example of how feminist writing can be a conduit to being heard and empowered. Similarly, I appreciated how the variety of women whose experiences and perspectives were included in the writing of the book reinforced the importance of community and the collective without suggesting that there is a singular feminist voice: “Our work is collaborative and a product of our belonging to a community of scholars and activists. Rather than this being a limitation, this acknowledgement serves to strengthen feminist research” (p. 47). Third, despite the attention paid to the importance and value of being able to speak and hear the voices of women academics, I appreciated that Lipton and Mackinlay also acknowledge the role that silence can play in academic spaces – choosing not to speak, like choosing to speak, depending on the context, can also be a willful act. Finally, I appreciated the discussion of strategies to survive and even thrive in higher education: In order for feminist academics to be visible and effective change agents they not only need to be able to read the organizational micropolitics but also develop their own micropolitical strategies for intervention and change. Moreover, they also need strategies for self-care in order to maintain a willful feminist subjectivity when engaged in neoliberal patriarchal power relations. (p. 95)
My concerns about We Only Talk Feminist Here are small in number but significant. First, I found the use of the word “female” when referring to gender problematic – it contributes to the conflation of sex and gender and perpetuates the gender/sex binary. Indeed, I found that a false woman/man binary was reinforced in many places and ways throughout the book. It is critical, in my estimation, that we do not limit whose voices, perspectives, and experiences get to be heard as women academics. Similarly, while I appreciated the honest and authentic voices and reporting of experiences of each of the women featured in the book, I found there to be a lack of attention paid to intersectionality and consideration of how higher education and society marginalizes women differently according to their identity. For example, as a tenure-track faculty member, I am simultaneously privileged in my position as a white, woman, academic and marginalized as a woman. It is not necessary or useful to create a hierarchy of privilege, but as we emphasize that there is not one feminist voice and feminist experience, it is important to provide more description and discussion of how voices, experiences, and perspectives differ within the category of “willful feminist writing.” The message of the book could have been improved through attention to intersectionality and discussion of how these conversations can reinforce a man/woman binary that leaves out voices and experiences.
Overall, I enjoyed how theory interwove with the voices of women academics. I found each reading of the book to be affirming, empowering, and inspiring – while also being sobering, shocking, and disappointing. In some ways, the voices of the authors reflected what I was feeling as I read and wrote this review, particularly as they described their process of writing. I wrote this as I was on spring break, deeply in need of a break, but understanding that there was no break for me as a tenure-track professor: “The University of fast becoming the kind of place ... which [seems] to take almost no heed of the body’s need for food and downtime” – and sleep (p. 9). We Only Talk Feminist Here affirmed my experiences and reinforced my motivation to continue feminist work and teaching. As the final chapters of We Only Talk Feminist Here begin to discuss strategies for women in higher education, I hope this is a discussion that continues, perhaps in a future book.