ABSTRACT
The dialectical relationship between ‘pedagogy’ and ‘praxis’ vis-à-vis the ‘women’s question’ has been a matter of great concern for pioneers of women’s studies (WS). It was in the early 1980s that women’s studies’ centres, functioning autonomously or within the university system, started accepting empirical and experimental evidence from the women’s movement. It was a time when participatory research, action research and subaltern studies were gaining ground in the field of social sciences. By engendering mainstream academic disciplines in social sciences, humanities and liberal arts, WS has made great contributions in the construction of knowledge. Epistemological advances made by WS by bringing in intersectionality of gender with caste/race/ethnicity, disability, alternate sexuality and postcoloniality have enhanced academic rigour as well as solidarities across varied forms of marginalities. The state-of-the-art profile of WS at the end of this exercise is not neat and clear, as women’s life is also not simple. It is full of contradictions. This chapter attempts to critically reflect on the relationship of women’s studies (WS) and the women’s movement in the context of their historical evolution and offer dynamic assessment of the crossings and recastings that have happened in WS until the present time.
