Denying the Penis: Bringing Women to Writing [With/in and] Through Doctoral Supervision

“To bring to writing” suggests a companionship or accompaniment that “to take to writing” or “to lead to writing” does not. It also infers a bringing forth-ness where a supervisor might (doula-like) induce experience or ideas from deep inside the doctoral student’s stomach or womb (Cixous, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 1:875–893, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 1:875–893, 1976). This chapter explores a reflection on responding to Cixous’ invitation to “bring women to writing” (Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 1:875, 1976) with/in and through doctoral supervision. The process is intimate, collaborate and intensely affective. It eschews traditional hierarchical doctoral student/supervisor relationships and supports a generative process that destabilises the gatekeeping role of education as a form of social control and reproduction. We employ autoethnographic accounts to illustrate how Cixous’ écriture féminine can bring the woman/Other writer’s own fully embodied self into writing, and bring other “women”/Others in/to writing, through writing them into the narratives that emerge within écriture féminine. We further reflect on how “bringing women to writing” can support epistemic justice and the creation of spaces where “others” and other ways of knowing are considered valuable with/in the academy.