What can experiences of misogyny and classism teach us about the forces of patriarchy and inequality within the university?

Drawing from her own experience as a white, working-class woman in a US university, author Kaelie Giffel contributes a critique of the university’s role in producing inequality. Exploring the intersections of gender, labor, and class, University for a Good Woman follows Kaelie through experiences of harassment, overwork, struggles against voicelessness, union organizing, and navigating silent, classed expectations about professionalism and research. Kaelie argues that feminists can and should engage in remaking the university, analyzing places for intervention and transformation.

Providing an important critique of the university and its “post-feminist” narrative, this book is ideal reading for students of Feminism, Gender Studies, Critical University Studies, Education Studies, and Sociology, as well as graduate mentors, university administrators, and DEIB offices.

Kaelie Giffel PhD is a sexual violence prevention educator and writer currently working at North Carolina State University.