What's gained/ lost in treating 'women's writing' as a separate category of literatur

[AlisonSherwood]

What is gained and/or lost in treating 'women's writing' as a separate category of literature?

Any ideas guys? :)

[sandy14]

Well, to analyse the differences between men and women's literature, there may be a gain.

In addition, it is worthwhile studying of gender to power. How did women writers view a world in which they did not have a vote or say? There are legitimate questions that can be raised whilst studying literature written by one gender. In fact there is an argument for studying "men's" literature separately as well. I'm sure some interesting points could be raised with regard to attitudes towards the opposite sex and power.

However, that does not mean that "women's" literature should be seen as a ghetto, or that they should always be studied separately. One could study Victorian literature and study work by both genders.

I think it depends entirely upon the topic at hand, but it is valid.

[ennison]

Well you can identify genres so why not gendres. Seriously though not much is gained for the average Joe or Joanna other than a few diverting notions. On most adult bookshelves there will be books by both men and women. If it is true that male writers use a bigger brush and female writers a finer one then all that means is you need to read both to get the full picture.