Joyce Ladenson

Biographical/Background Information

  • Born in Brooklyn, New York
  • Third generation Jewish American
  • Grew up in the Bronx
  • Cultural, communal connection to Judaism

Education

  • Undergraduate work: Brooklyn College
  • PhD in English/American Literature: University of Madison, Wisconsin

Career

  • Currently: Professor Emerita Women’s Studies, Jewish Studies, and WRAC. Previously: Director of the Women’s Studies Program at Michigan State University from 1988 to 2001.

Issues/Activism

  • Participated in informal consciousness raising groups as an undergraduate at Brooklyn College
  • Involved in pro-Israel groups as an undergraduate and graduate student
  • Participated in the civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, marched to the capitol where she listened to a speech by Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Experienced misogyny and sexism in her personal life while at U-Madison
  • Keeping women’s studies in the curriculum, and teaching younger women about feminism, sees this work as especially important due to the backlash against feminism in the 80s and 90s and the lack of women’s studies curriculum in K-12 education

Quotes

  • “Betty Freidan really kind of lit a prairie fire under a lot of us.”
  • Wasn’t looking to do the domestic thing and Freidan “ignited and helped me to develop those ideas and to see what the social patterns were in Brooklyn and on Long Island and other places in New York where the pattern she describes was alive and well.”
  • “It gave me the social and political permission that you get from the culture at large, that I wouldn’t ordinarily have gotten because the rest of the culture said ‘No, this is not something a woman is supposed to do.'”
  • “[Participating in a civil rights march was] one of the most profound experiences of my life…I was the only white person in my line and I was trembling.”
  • “It took a while for Second-Wave Feminists to be able to see and really practice the diversity and multi-cultural within oneself.”
  • Sees the third wave as “not being confined by political correctness, not going along with the politics of only one group.”
  • “There was a battle on and it was very clear that those battle lines were drawn.”
  • “One of the reasons I continue doing women’s studies is because of the backlash.”
  • “You can’t stop the tide of feminist consciousness, of the belief that women deserve equal rights, because even George W. Bush has put right up front and center women, very talented women, whether you agree with them or not.”

Joyce Ladenson – Interview Summary
Interview conducted on 4 December 2007

  • Born in Brooklyn, New York.
  • Third generation American.
  • Grew up in the Bronx, surrounded by other Jewish families in an “unofficial ghetto.”
  • Mother was not an observant Jew.
  • Grew up around the corner from a synagogue and remembers fondly its music wafting through the alley and into their kitchen window.
  • Mother was an atheist and a strong believer in social justice but was never active in politics or protests.
  • Her mother’s father had been part of a socialist circle in Russia before immigrating to the United States where he had to start life over as a tailor. Mother had inherited this belief in social justice and expressed radical social views.
  • Describes her relationship to Judaism as “cultural, moral, communal—profound.”
  • Introduced to feminism through Simone de Beauvoir’ s The Second Sex, which she read and discussed with a group of women as an undergrad at Brooklyn College. It “struck me as an extraordinary work” and introduced groundbreaking concepts such as the personal is political.
  • “Betty Freidan really kind of lit a prairie fire under a lot of us.”
  • Wasn’t looking to do the domestic thing. “[Freidan] ignited and helped me to develop those ideas and to see what the social patterns were in Brooklyn and on Long Island and other places in New York where the pattern she describes was alive and well.”
  • Mid-’60s began meeting other women for informal consciousness raising groups. “It gave me the social and political permission that you get from the culture at large, that I wouldn’t ordinarily have gotten because the rest of the culture said ‘No, this is not something a woman is supposed to do.'”
  • Always felt comfortable as a Jewish student at Brooklyn College due to the high percentage of Jewish Students there.
  • Was active in Israeli groups on campus while attending Brooklyn College.
  • She took her pro-Israel consciousness with her to University of Wisconsin, Madison, (where she earned her PhD in English-American Literature) where she encountered anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiments.
  • Misogyny and sexism began to affect her more profoundly when she was single and dating as a grad student at U-Madison.
  • Attended the Selma to Montgomery marches with Martin Luther King Jr., described the march to the capitol where King spoke as “one of the most profound experiences of my life…I was the only white person in my line and I was trembling.”
  • Currently: Professor Emerita Women’s Studies, Jewish Studies, and WRAC.
  • Director of the Women’s Studies Program at Michigan State University from 1988 to 2001.
  • Played a large role in developing the undergraduate women’s studies major at MSU.
  • Thinks Third-Wave Feminism is exciting, sees it as less about equality and more about who’s in charge (Susannah Heschel, “It’s not About Equality–It’s About who’s in Charge”).
  • Sees Third-Wave Feminists as trying to distinguish themselves from their mother’s generation and says they seem more willing to embrace overlapping identities. They have an ability to be all of their cultural and racialized identities at once.
  • “It took a while for Second-Wave Feminists to be able to see and really practice the diversity and multi-cultural within oneself.”
  • Sees the Third Wave as “not being confined by political correctness, not going along with the politics of only one group.” Sees this as the major contribution of new feminism.
  • Notes seeing reluctance in her students to identify themselves as feminists (part of backlash). The backlash “really started in the 80s and has had a major effect on women’s studies education in K-12.”
  • “There was a battle on and it was very clear that those battle lines were drawn.”
  • “One of the reasons I continue doing women’s studies is because of the backlash.”
  • “You can’t stop the tide of feminist consciousness, of the belief that women deserve equal rights, because even George W. Bush has put right up front and center women, very talented women, whether you agree with them or not.”

Audio 1 (mp3)
Audio 2 (mp3)


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