Eric Langborgh

Mary Daly, a 70-year-old tenured associate professor at Boston College, has been given an ultimatum from the administration: allow men into your classes along with women or stop teaching here. The renowned feminist philosopher and self-described radical has refused to accept two male students into her course entitled "Introduction to Feminist Ethics."

College spokesman Jack Dunn explained, "Boston College’s opinion is that she is violating federal law and is thereby discriminating against male students to whom she is denying access."

That law would be the contentious Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments, which mandates gender equality in all academic situations. In the past, it has been used by feminist crusaders to gain leverage in what they call "equality" for women in college academics and sports. Now, in much the same way that other affirmative action programs have been used to resegregate the races by creating enclaves exclusive to certain minority groups, Daly hopes to do the same with women at BC by excluding all men from enrolling in her class.

"Certainly you could never have a professor say, ‘I’m only going to teach males or I am only going to teach white students,’" Dunn explained. "We don’t see any reason why an exception should be made for Professor Daly."

According to Dunn, exceptions have been made for Daly for over twenty years. Similar controversies erupted in both 1979 and 1989—the latter time resulting in the feminist professor leaving campus for a semester in protest, hoping the matter would blow over. This time it didn’t.

Duane Naquin, one of the two male students Daly turned away at the door with the words "you are not welcome here," took his case up with the Washington, DC-based Center for Individual Rights. The CIR—whose lawsuit ended racial preferences at the University of Texas—then sent a letter to BC’s administration threatening legal action if Daly did not change her policy and admit Naquin.

Naquin has refused to comment on his complaint.

Consequently, the college offered a retirement package to Daly, who promptly rejected it and instead took a leave of absence.

"We’d all be run out of town" if a male professor barred women from his classes, professed Dunn. BC will not let Daly continue "her archaic and stereotypical notion that men shouldn’t have access to her perspective," he continued.

Dunn contends that Daly offers a unique perspective that all students—including men—should be able to experience in the classroom. However, Daly insists that her experience proves the folly of integrating men into her classes.

"Even if there were only one or two men with 20 women, the young women would be constantly on an overt or a subliminal level giving their attention to the men because they’ve been socialized to nurse men," she said.

"BC has wronged me and my students by caving into right-wing pressure and depriving me of my right to teach freely," claimed Daly. "This is not about discrimination…. This is about leveling the rights of women and minorities so that white male power reigns."

She blamed societal indoctrination of women to be subservient to men as the reason women need a safe haven free from male influence. A few of her students agreed. Fourteen of them signed and sent a letter to college administrators in early February expressing their support for Daly and her cause. "I think there comes a point where women need to claim their own space," explained senior Kate Heekin. "If that needs to be a classroom, so be it."

Another student who signed the letter, senior Megan Niziol, took to Daly's defense by claiming that her voice is being silenced by the administration.

When given the probable reverse scenario where a male professor who tried to keep women out of his class would be immediately fired, Niziol responded, "We live in a patriarchal society in which eliminating women’s access to education has been a method to keep them oppressed."

This view being spread by BC feminists seems contradictory to the mainstream feminist movement’s push for equality of access. For example, feminists at Dartmouth College recently had been pushing to abolish fraternities and sororities by making them go co-ed—a move subsequently enacted by Dartmouth’s administration.

One feminist professor in particular, Radcliffe College’s Wendy Kaminer, disagrees with Daly’s logic of having female-only classes at a coed institution. "When I went to law school in 1972, it was common for the men to tell the women that having us there was too much of a distraction," said Kaminer. "It’s hypocritical for women to be making those same arguments."

Fundamental to Daly’s philosophy is the belief that since all established religions are patriarchal, they are morally and intellectually bankrupt. "To me, the root of the mess in society is patriarchy. What I’m trying to do is get at the core of what oppresses women," said Daly.

In her courses she has taught at BC, she has attempted to do just that. In the course that is at the center of the present controversy, "Introduction to Feminist Ethics I," Daly "examines the interconnected atrocities perpetrated against women and nature in patriarchal society and…the prevailing conditions of oppression."

Her five other courses represent more of the same. Part II of the above course considers the "prevailing patriarchal myths and symbols, and the consequent reduction of women and nature to the status of objects." Graduate course "Feminist Ethics I" is an "examination of the unholy trinity: rape, genocide, war," and discusses "overcoming the unholy sacrifice of women" in "hierarchical society."

"Feminist Ethics II" explores "the problem of breaking old habits (‘virtues’ and ‘vices’) instilled through patriarchal teachings and practices." Finally, Daly presents "an analysis of secular incarnations of patriarchal religious myth, especially in the professions and in the manifestations of phallotechnology" in her course, "Mythic Patterns of Patriarchy I." Part II of that course includes "a study of mythic Goddess-murder (e.g., the Babylonian creation myth) and societal reenactments of such myths in the ritual atrocities in modern technocracy as well as in pretechnological societies."

Consistent with her beliefs, Daly—who calls herself a "positively revolting hag"— has written seven major radical feminist books that she says explore worldwide atrocities against women and their efforts at creativity.

Among the books she has written are: Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation, used as a text in theology, philosophy, and women’s studies classes at universities worldwide; Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism; Pure Lust: Elemental Feminist Philosophy; and Outercourse: The Be-Dazzling Voyage.

She has also authored a dictionary for "wicked women... conjured…in cahoots with Jane Caputi" entitled Websters’ First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language. Examples of Daly’s self-made phrases are "stag/nation," "the/rapist" and the title of one of her book’s, "Gyn/Ecology."