The Possibilities and Perils of Social Justice Feminism: What We Can Learn From the Single-Sex Public Education Debates

T HE P OSSIBILITIES AND P ERILS OF S OCIAL J USTICE F EMINISM : W HAT W E C AN L EARN FROM THE S INGLE - S EX P UBLIC E DUCATION D EBATES Juliet A. Williams † In “Social Justice Feminism,” Kristen Kalsem and Verna Williams invite readers to re-imagine feminist activism for the twenty-first century. 1 Describing a pervasive sense of exhaustion among women’s movement activists, Kalsem and Williams outline the contours of a “newly articulated” feminist ideal capable of revitalizing activism. 2 Arising from “a concern about recognizing and addressing multiple oppressions,” social justice feminism begins with a recognition of differences in social location to build “coalitions across the intersections of race, class, sexuality, ethnicity, among other forms of identity.” 3 In a development parallel to the widespread embrace of intersectionality as a guiding analytic among feminist scholars, social justice feminism seeks to connect the struggle against gender injustice to a “broadly based movement for egalitarianism.” 4 In this feminist project of renewal, the term “social justice” is invoked by way of foregrounding the commitment to a social vision shared across a wide range of progressive causes. As Kalsem and Williams observe, the term “‘social justice’ enjoys great purchase” in contexts as varied as human rights, hip hop, and Associate Professor of Gender Studies, University of California-Los Angeles. I would like to thank Verna Williams, whose pioneering analysis of single-sex public schooling initiatives in the United States has been invaluable in advancing my own understanding of the subject. I would also like to thank the participants in the Social Justice Feminism conference, hosted by the University of Cincinnati Law School in 2012, for their insightful comments and encouragement. Kristen Kalsem & Verna Williams, Social Justice Feminism, 18 UCLA W OMEN ’ S L.J. 131 (2010). Id. at 138. Id. at 158. Id. at 138, citing, N ATIONAL C OMMISSION ON THE O BSERVANCE OF I NTERNATIONAL W OMEN ’ S Y EAR , T HE S PIRT OF H OUSTON : T HE F IRST N ATIONAL W OMEN ’ S C ONFERENCE 205-06 (Mim Kelber ed., 1978)