Women at the Boundaries

This paper presents the narratives of women who work in the university and their experiences of silencing and institutional containment. Through these narratives, I describe the ways in which the narrators deal with being silenced, and their attempts to establish their voice in personal, public and institutional realms. Many of the narratives are studies in how women challenge marginalization through their actions and by speaking out. The paper suggests that the stories are shaped by individual diversity and how these women experienced the politicization of difference. Individual voice and agency are mediated by personal, social, and spiritual connections within the past and present. For all of these women, their developing voice and agency were factors in their being able to challenge dominant institutional discourses. Feminist and critical race literature discuss the intersections between race and gender, the connections between race, gender and power, and how the relations of power affect knowledge. These considerations also raise the issues of patriarchy within the institution, and how this affects possibilities of change and empowerment. Race and gender stand out as primary categories and lenses from which these women tell their stories. (Contains 55 footnotes.)