ABSTRACT
Yet one can say without error that the United States is a pioneer in this aspect, that there are more women’s studies programs in the United States than anywhere else in the world. And from this point of view, to criticize women’s studies-from whatever aspect-is an error, a mark of ignorance, of obscurantism, since anywhere else in the world women’s studies does not have the institutional power that it already has in the United States. One can only wonder: what are the risks and the stakes of the institution of women’s studies? Do the women who manage these programs, do they not become, in turn, the guardians of the Law, and do they not risk constructing an institution similar to the institution against which they are fighting? In other words, the first question could be, what is the difference, if there is one, between a university institution of research and teaching called “women’s studies” and any other institution of learning and teaching around it in the university or in society as a whole? It is certain that the range of work in women’s studies is enormous, and that there are already considerable problems to pose, of bodies of work, of objects to define, and that women’s studies has a great future. Nevertheless, if this future is of the same type as that of all other departments, of all other university institutions, is this not a sign of failure of the principles of women’s studies?
