Danielle Isabel Moreno

University of California, Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, CA 93106

December 9, 2019

Joshua Smith
Classics Department
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106

Dear Josh,

To complete Writing Project Two, I chose to analyze my “Introduction to Gender Powers”

course that I am taking this quarter. I selected this discipline because I thought it to be the most
compelling of my classes given that it is the subject that I have shown the most interest in this
quarter. In addition to this, I thought it would be interesting to address the unique challenge of
the interdisciplinarity of Feminist studies. Through this essay, I have examined the conventions
of feminist studies as an academic discipline.

The purpose of this essay is to address and explore the conventions seen within the discipline of
Feminist studies. When addressing this topic, I kept in mind the audience of my paper. The
audience would be you along with other academic scholars seeking to become more
knowledgable about Feminist studies as an academic discipline. To address my audience I wrote
my Writing Project two in the form of an Academic essay.

To portray my understanding of the conventions utilized within my academic discipline, I chose

to write my essay using the structural elements that most papers that are written in the academic
discourse follow. As stated in my essay, peer-reviewed articles within this discipline are divided
into sections based on headings addressing the main idea of the information about to be
discussed. I chose to mirror this technique used by members within the feminist academic
discourse communities because it provides an easily readable guideline for you, the reader, to
understand the information I discuss in my essay. I also chose to use MLA citations in my paper,
as this is what I found to be most common within articles in my discipline.

Sincerely,
Danielle Moreno
Danielle Moreno

Joshua Smith

Writing 2

09 December 2019

Writing Conventions in Feminist Studies

Introduction

Feminist Studies is a broad discipline discussed by many activists, scholars, and people in

their everyday lives. At the University of California Santa Barbara, Feminist Studies is

established as a discipline in the “Introduction to Gender Powers” course offered on campus.

This course focuses on Feminist Studies as a discipline in which discourse communities examine

the four important threshold concepts. The threshold concepts discussed within the discourse

communities are the social construction of gender, systems of privilege and oppression, power

and gender as they intersect with other identities, and Feminist Praxis. Feminism is a social

justice movement that many people identify with, because of this it is interdisciplinary. The

interdisciplinarity has lead to the establishment of a variety of different discourse communities

discussing feminist issues and a variety of different ways to examine the threshold concepts

brought up within the discipline. Although there are many discourse communities within

feminist studies, they are all united under a central goal which leads to continuities in the

conventions throughout the discipline.

Goals

The concepts within feminist studies and the issues discussed by the discourse

communities range from an assortment of topics due to feminism being a social justice
movement that many take part in. Feminist studies discourse focuses on the diversity of issues

through a feminist lens. The “Introduction to Gender Powers” course at UCSB describes the

feminist lens as allowing for the examination of different issues through the eyes of a feminist in

order to analyze how women are portrayed and presented in comparison to men. The feminist

lens is used to identify inequality based on oppression regarding issues of interest within the

discipline. Issues brought up in feminist discourse communities fall within a very broad range

because of the number of activists advocating for different rights within the group. Feminism is a

movement that can be practiced by anyone, but one common goal is to gain equal gender rights.

A large amount of the literature within feminist studies as a discipline is focused on

debunking the notion that feminism is irrelevant in the contemporary world and addressing the

patriarchal institutions’ our society functions under. Putting aside these preliminary issues,

feminist academic discourse communities address a wide range of social justice issues. The

academic discourse communities are united under the goal of partaking in the movement for

social, political, economic, and cultural equality between men and women.

Evidence

To comprehend the specific writing conventions utilized within the discipline, it is

important to compare peer-reviewed articles within the community to identify resemblances.

Because of the interdisciplinarity of feminist studies, analyzing articles engaging in discussion

about the same threshold concept makes correlation in writing style more apparent. When

concentrating on the precise threshold concept of intersectionality, many peer-reviewed articles

share continuities in the presentation of evidence. For example, within the article

“Intersectionality, Work, and Well-Being: The Effects of Gender and Disability” Brown, Robyn
Lewis, and Mairead Eastin Moloney state, “In 2014, women with disabilities working full-time

were paid 67.3 percent of what full-time working men without disabilities were paid, and 82.5

percent of what their men counterparts with disabilities were paid. There also is some evidence

that working women with disabilities are less likely to engage in self-directed or autonomous

work than their nondisabled women counterparts and men with and without disabilities” The

scholars who wrote the article address the question of if gender and disabilities have an impact

on different aspects of life. The provided evidence within the article focuses on statistics

depending on the intersection that is being addressed throughout the paper. The section revolving

around disability discrimination provides statistics on how women with disabilities are

statistically paid less than women and men without disabilities in the United States. Parallels to

this structure of providing evidence can be found in other articles within the discourse

community revolving around intersectionality. This is because providing statistics helps to

strengthen an argument and provide valid evidence of an issue in society.

Another continuity in the way evidence is presented within the discipline is the use of

relevant personal anecdotes to establish the author’s argument as a present issue within society.

This can be seen in the article “Intersectionality 101: Why “we’re focusing on women” doesn’t

work for Diversity & Inclusion,” author Jennifer Kim states “If I’m a black woman, I have some

disadvantages because I’m a woman and some disadvantages because I’m black. But I also have

some disadvantages specifically because I’m [a] black woman, which neither black men nor

white women have to deal with. That’s intersectionality; race, gender, and every other way to be

disadvantaged interact with each other.” A plethora of evidence found within the Peer-reviewed

articles is reported through first-hand accounts of a situation or other’s experiences within a

particular situation. By doing this the author can set up the relatability within the discourse

community of their evidence. This strategy of recounting evidence reiterates the feminist motto

that personal is political and that the issues being brought up do need to be addressed within

society.

Structure

Along with the presentation of evidence found in feminist articles, the structure of the

articles presents consistency among the academic discourse communities. When examining

another peer-reviewed article that addresses the threshold concept of intersectionality, the

structural aspects of the article become apparent. In “Intersectionality at 30: mapping the margins

of anti-essentialism, intersectionality, and dominance theory,” like the peer-review article

previously examined, the essay is organized into separate sections with headings addressing the

themes of intersectionality in feminist studies. This is a common structural element seen within

the articles of the discourse community. By arranging the paper in this manner, it provides an

easily readable guideline for the reader to understand the information being discussed. The

formatting of the arguments is clear and thus strengthens the article. This continuity is seen

because this particular structure provides a straightforward, understandable method of presenting

evidence to address the claim being made within the article.

Grammatical elements

There are many grammatical elements that are utilized in order to strengthen the central

claim being argued within an article of the feminist discourse community. As seen in the

previously analyzed two articles and the article “Race and feminist care ethics: intersectionality

as method,” The author uses formal diction when addressing the topic. This is shown within the
sentence, “Just as caring activities are racially marked so too are there variations in who cares.

For instance, the role of community in helping to combat the effects of racism can be crucial.”

By writing in this manner the diction does not seem casual and no slang is used making the paper

appear more credible. If the author were to use informal words, it would increase the chances of

their article containing an unclear communication of the intended ideas. By not writing with

slang words or casual language and by using formal grammar conventions, the author is creating

a more credible first impression and increases the chance of successfully developing their

argument.

Another important grammatical structure necessary for articles within discourse

communities is the method of source citation. The citation standards for feminist studies are

loose and vary between authors because there are no overall discipline-wide standards. The lack

of an overall standard is because of how large of a community there is discussing feminist

studies and how many different platforms there are to participate in the discourse community.

Despite the lack of complete standardization of citation methods, within the majority of articles

in the community, MLA citation standards are used. MLA citation standards can be seen within

all three articles previously examined.

Universal language

There is a universal vocabulary present throughout the communities discussing feminist

issues because all branches of feminism share a common goal. The common vocabulary can be

seen through the glossary of words created by women to refer to sexist behaviors men partake in.

In “Feminist Vocabulary: Words To Empower Yourself,” author Sarah Santos provides a

glossary of common terms used throughout discourse communities. The article defines specific
words such as the word “Mansplaining”. This word was created to name the trend of men

devaluing a woman’s knowledge by explaining topics that she already knows about. Men

oftentimes explain obvious issues to women and assume that because they are women they can’t

understand the concepts. Feminists with the community have created this vocabulary to describe

their experiences in a way that the entire community can discuss it. By creating a universal

language, it provides an easy way for people within the discourse community to discuss

prominent issues and share their ideas. The universal vocabulary also aids in the feminist studies

practice of observing issues through a feminist lens.

Conclusion

The discipline of Feminist Studies focuses on the social justice movement of feminism. A

wide variety of people identify with feminism and feminist ideals. There are many discourse

communities discussing feminist ideas, in a variety of different ways. Although there are many

discourse communities within feminist studies, they are all united under a central goal which

leads to the continuities in the writing conventions throughout the discipline. The many academic

discourse communities are united under the goal of partaking in the movement for social,

political, economic, and cultural equality between men and women.

 Works Cited

Brown, Robyn Lewis, and Mairead Eastin Moloney. “Intersectionality, Work, and

Well-Being: The Effects of Gender and Disability.” Gender & Society, vol. 33, no.

1, May 2018, pp. 94–122., DOI:10.1177/0891243218800636

Kim, Jennifer. “Intersectionality 101: Why ‘We're Focusing on Women’ Doesn't Work for

Diversity & Inclusion.” Medium, Awaken Blog, 23 Sept. 2019, https://medium.com/

awaken-blog/intersectionality-101-why-were-focusing-on-women-doesn-t-work-for-dive

rsity-inclusion-8f591d196789.

Santos, Sarah. “Feminist Vocabulary: Words To Empower Yourself.” Babbel

Magazine, https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/feminist-vocabulary/.

Raghuram, Parvati. “Race and Feminist Care Ethics: Intersectionality as Method.”

Gender, Place & Culture, vol. 26, no. 5, Apr. 2019, pp. 613–637., Doi:10

.1080/0966369x.2019.1567471.

Yurtoğlu, Nadir. “​Http://www.Historystudies.net/dergi//birinci-Dunya-Savasinda

-Bir-Asayis-Sorunu-Sebinkarahisar-Ermeni-isyani20181092a4a8f.Pdf.” History Studies

International Journal of History, vol. 10, no. 7, 2018, pp. 241–264.,

DOI:10.9737/hist.2018.658.