ABSTRACT
At its earliest entry into the field of academic work, second wave feminism argued that it is essential to do more than add women into existing frameworks of knowledge and research (Smith 1974). In some areas, most notably women’s literary work, this has been possible and new genres of writing are being produced which are not simply ‘on’ women but which succeed in expressing a fully gendered world view. In the social sciences and law this endeavour seems to have been much harder. We seem to have been constrained into producing courses and books with titles like Women and Law, Women and Crime, Women and Society. To some extent this reflects institutional constraints and compromises. Indeed many teachers are aware that without courses and books on Women and…, women and the issue of gender would still be invisible. But this tendency also reflects how difficult it is to effect major reconceptualizations in a relatively short space of time. We may know that our present modes of conceptualization are inadequate but there is a lot of work that needs doing before we can build a new way of seeing.
