ABSTRACT
French feminist theory is traditionally steeped in psychoanalysis and explores the difference manifest in language and culture that is specific to women. Frequently criticized for being 'essentialist', the explorations into a specifically female 'psyche' nevertheless opened up a new way of understanding difference and marginalization. In the 1970s, Women's Studies departments sprang up at universities around the country and the first thrusts of these new curricula were concerned with the 'rescue and recovery' of women writers from the past who had been neglected by academic syllabi. Representing the rights of African Americans, both men and women, Frederick Douglass spoke out for women's rights right up until the day of his death in 1895. The emphasis on 'multiculturalism' has meant that we can no longer talk in singular about 'feminism'. Feminist Studies has continued to expand into Gender Studies over the decades to include a multiplicity of genders, class, and alternate sexualities, and to encompass the cultural specificities of them all.
