Living a Feminist Life

In Part 2, Ahmed focuses on the work feminists do. In her introduction, she argues that feminist theory must break free of academic institutions, and “come home” to the places where women live and work. However, as she is a professor and critical theorist working in academic institutions, her work is often situated in university settings. She hopes, however, that her “discussion of being a feminist at work will be relevant to other working environments” as well (89). She discusses what she calls “diversity work.” She uses this term in two different but related ways: “first, diversity work is the work we do when we are attempting to transform an institution; and second, diversity work is the work we do when we do not quite inhabit the norms of an institution” (91).

In Chapter 4, Ahmed focuses on the first kind of diversity work: the work one does in their efforts to transform institutions, to make them more inclusive and open to those who have historically been excluded and/or oppressed. This work includes relying on praxis: the creation of knowledge/theory while simultaneously enacting practical applications to real-world situations. She argues that it is through the effort of transforming institutions that we can generate more knowledge about those institutions.