Ritchie, Joy and Kathleen Boardman. “Feminism in Composition: Inclusion, Metonymy, and Disruption.” Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, edited by Victor Villanueva and Kristin L. Arola, National Council of Teachers of English, 2011, pp. 597-619.

In the article “Feminism in Composition: Inclusion, Metonymy, and Disruption,” Joy Ritchie and Kathleen Boardman explore “how feminism has functioned over the past three decades to shape and critique our understandings of the gendered nature of writing, teaching, and institutions” (597). Ritchie and Boardman enact their exploration by surveying articles and notes from different academic journals as well as the writings from feminist scholars. Their purpose is to show the different narratives of feminism and the history of it within composition studies in order to highlight the strengths and possible weaknesses of different feminist strategies within academia. I believe they direct their article to all who study/research/teach English, especially those who are concerned with implementing and establishing feminist knowledge and theory within the discourse. As a student and possible future teacher, I found their survey of feminist literature especially helpful, as I don’t believe I’ve encountered a history of feminist scholarly writing such as this one. Additionally, I found the critiques of each strategy category to be fair and insightful, like how disruption can be empowering but fleeting, and how inclusion can “highlight deficiency” (604).