Florida legislation threatens gender studies and intersectionality: What does it mean?

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Leandra Preston thinks the value of higher education and bestowed degrees could be damaged if Florida lawmakers' so-called "war on woke" leads to eliminating programs in the fields of gender studies and critical ethnic studies, as well as what's known as intersectionality.

Preston, a senior lecturer at the University of Central Florida’s Department of Women's and Gender Studies, explains that intersectionality is the framework for understanding different social experiences and interactions pertaining to race, gender or sexuality. Those fields of study, moreover, are integrated into multiple different disciplines, from medicine to law to business.

The goal is to produce more well-rounded graduates and professionals, and that's no different than why people pursuing chemistry or marketing degrees were traditionally required to enroll in history and literature courses.

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“As far as I’m concerned, if you’re not teaching critical thinking, you’re not teaching higher education,” Preston said.

Preston said the legislation being debated in Tallahassee and backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis would so limit the curriculum she teaches that it would be nearly impossible to function.

She's not alone in expressing that concern.

The National Women's Studies Association called the Florida legislation an effort to limit professors' and students' "academic freedom." The organization, whose mission is to show how women's studies are essential in education, said the curricula are vital to critical studies in arts, humanities, history and science by examining categories of identity — which includes sexuality, race and gender — and its relationship to long-term inequity.

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There's the rub — inequity. The governor and the GOP supermajority Legislature have pushed back hard on programs, courses and books they say pursue what they deem a "woke" agenda based on trendy ideologies and indoctrination.

The bills filed in the Florida House and Senate that concern Preston and many others differ in some ways but they include provisions to change tenure review and limit curriculum.

The House version, for example, would eliminate majors and minors in programs associated with theories like "queer theory," "critical ethnic studies" or "radical feminist theory."

Overall, that bill filed by state Rep. Alex Andrade, a Pensacola Republican, and another similar one offered by state Sen. Erin Grall, a Vero Beach Republican, have successfully passed through their first committee meetings in the Florida Legislature.

That puts Florida on the path to making an "irresponsible" mistake, and higher education will pay the price, Preston said.

“The implications are so broad that it's just absolutely so irresponsible that they're even considering doing this, and we have really great ratings as universities in Florida and it's going to undermine the quality of education,” Preston said.

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DeSantis, lawmakers targeting 'woke ideologies' in state universities

DeSantis said prior to this year's legislative session that his administration would focus on eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs statewide as part of his administration's goal to combat "woke ideologies." His office asked state universities to provide a list of and reported costs from programs, activities and job titles related to campus diversity, equity and inclusion.

DeSantis' request did not specifically ask for ending any specific major or field of study. But when Grall introduced her version in the state Senate, it called for the removal of majors in gender studies and intersectionality.

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The legislation now includes a provision that, for example, would not allow for history instructors to "distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics." The language, however, does not define what a distorted instruction or what identity politics curriculum entails, which critics say may unnecessarily constrain what is taught in classrooms.

The House version introduced by Andrade lists areas of study like “critical ethnic studies,” “queer theory” and “radical feminist theory.” The original bill specifically included provisions to remove major or minor programs in “Critical Race Theory, Gender Studies, or Intersectionality, or any derivative major or minor of these belief systems.” 

The pushback was almost immediate. Democrats, including state Rep. Anna Eskamani of Orlando and state Sen. Lauren Book of Hollywood, pushed forward amendments to clarify what they said were vague portions of the bill to ensure it wouldn't violate First Amendment rights, but these amendments failed.

Andrade said in committee meetings last month that he wanted the language to be vague in order to provide the state board Board of Governors the flexibility to decide how to implement the legislation. But that leaves faculty and students uncertain about their university's curriculum, and how it may change.

Most sociology and psychology programs in public universities include curricula related to gender studies, LGBTQ+ studies and ethnic studies. But the universities offering these programs also have entire departments related to gender and sexuality studies. The programs usually encompass interdisciplinary curricula, such as within science and history, relating to either gender identity, sexual orientation or ethnic identity.

Legislation would leave much to be decided by the Board of Governors

Andrade said that teaching subjects like "queer theory" and "radical gender theory" are addressed in his bill because they are "more like political ideologies than proven scientific fact."

He said that he would assume students with either a major or a minor in one of these areas ultimately deemed to be noncompliant with Florida law would be able to have credits transferred to another major in the same department, but that it would be up to the Board of Governors to work that out once the legislation is passed.

In addition, it would be up to the Board of Governors to decide if students far along in a no-longer-to-be-granted degree would be able to get a diploma in that field.

Cecilia Luna, a graduate student in a gender, sexuality and women’s studies program at the University of Florida, said she is concerned about the legislation.

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She said intersectionality and ethnic studies are foundational to her curriculum. Luna is taking a class called “Advanced Feminist Theory.” The course description says the class focuses on understanding feminist theory in different academic aspects, such as sociology, philosophy or art history.

“Women's studies and gender studies, it's not only about looking at women, it's not only about looking at gender,” Luna said. ”We look at a lot of different real-world issues, like issues pertaining to power, pertaining to how we relate to one another on a human level — equity, justice.“

Luna said that gender studies encompasses different topics such as health care, communications, child care, science, technology and violence prevention and includes a focus on how people interact and relate with one another.

Under the proposed Florida law, Luna's class curriculum would have some changes and would go under review by the Board of Governors.

“The fear that I have for me and for others, is that it's going to be a watered-down version of things that we're learning right now,” Luna said. ”People are going to miss out so much on that critical thinking portion and thinking critically about the world and how we move in the world.”

Concerns about curriculum changes and 'attacks on freedom of speech'

The United Faculty of Florida, the statewide union of college and university professors, has also pointed out concerns with the bill's faculty tenure changes and for targeting programs such as "radical feminist theory" and "critical race studies."

Limiting curriculum, as the legislation might, would affect a wide array of majors and minors that use those areas of study, including criminal justice, law and medicine, said Andrew Gothard, the statewide union's president.

"It's not the constituents of this system who are asking for all these extreme changes and attacks on freedom of speech," Gothard said. "These are coming from a warped reality coming from Gov. DeSantis' head."

The legislative measures and vague language have also sparked confusion among gender studies and multicultural studies departments statewide.

Gender studies scholars are prepared for the potential challenges coming from the legislation because in the past minority groups have battled limitations to personal freedom similar to this, said Jillian Hernandez, an associate professor for the University of Florida's Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women's Studies Research.

Still, she believes the way the legislation presents and describes gender studies and theories is inaccurate. She noted that these fields give law and medical students and others a stronger background and skills to understand inequalities and how to respond to social inequities and that the impact of interfering with programs like gender studies would position students to be "less competitive."

"They're mischaracterizing what we do and use language of indoctrination, and that language is very belittling of Florida students," Hernandez said. "You do not get into the University of Florida by being a passive consumer of knowledge.”

Stephany Matat is a politics reporter for The Palm Beach Post, part of the Paste BN-Florida network. Reach her at smatat@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.