1. History

2. Theoretical traditions and research methods
     Feminist theory    Intersectionality    Standpoint theory    Transnational feminist theory    Social justice  

3. Pedagogies

4. See also

5. Notes

6. References

7. Further reading

8. External links

Popular theories within the field of women's studies include feminist theory, standpoint theory, intersectionality, multiculturalism, transnational feminism, social justice, affect studies, agency, biopolitics, materialisms, and embodiment.^[2] Research practices and methodologies associated with women's studies include ethnography, autoethnography, focus groups, surveys, community-based research, discourse analysis, and reading practices associated with critical theory, post-structuralism, and queer theory.^[3] The field researches and critiques societal norms of gender, race, class, sexuality, and other social inequalities.

Women's studies is closely related to the fields of gender studies, feminist studies, and sexuality studies, and more broadly related to the fields of cultural studies, ethnic studies, and African-American studies.^[4] Women's studies courses are offered in over seven hundred institutions in the United States, and globally in more than forty countries.^[5]

History

In 1956 Australian feminist Madge Dawson took up a lectureship in the Department of Adult Education at Sydney University and began researching and teaching on the status of women. Dawson's course, "Women in a Changing World," focused on the socio-economic and political status of women in western Europe, becoming one of the first women's studies courses.^[6] The first accredited women's studies course in the U.S was held in 1969 at Cornell University.^[7] After a year of intense organizing of women's consciousness raising groups, rallies, petition circulating, and operating unofficial or experimental classes and presentations before seven committees and assemblies, the first women's studies program in the United States was established in 1970 at San Diego State College (now San Diego State University).^[8][9] In conjunction with National Women's Liberation Movement, students and community members created the AD HOC Committee for women's studies.^[10]The second women's studies program in the United States was established in 1971 at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas. It was mostly formed though efforts by women in the English department, administration and community.^[11] By 1974 SDSU faculty members began a nationwide campaign for the integration of the department. At the time, these actions and the field were extremely political.^[12] During these early days of women's studies, before formalized departments and programs, many courses were advertised unofficially around campuses and taught by women faculty members—for free—in addition to their established teaching and administrative responsibilities.^[13] Then, as in many cases today, faculty who teach in women's studies often hold faculty appointments in other departments on campus.^[14]

The first scholarly journal in interdisciplinary women's studies, Feminist Studies, began publishing in 1972.^[15] The National Women's Studies Association (of the United States) was established in 1977.^[16]

The 1980s saw the growth and development of women's studies courses and programs across universities in the U.S., while the field continued to grapple with backlash from both conservative groups and concerns from those within the women's movement about the white, essentialist, and heterosexual privilege of those in the academy.^[17] The political aims of the feminist movement that compelled the formation of women's studies found itself at odds with the institutionalized academic feminism of the 1990s.^[18] As "woman" as a concept continued to be expanded, the exploration of social constructions of gender led to the field's expansion into both gender studies and sexuality studies.

The field of women's studies continued to grow during the 1990s and into the 2000s with the expansion of universities offering majors, minors, and certificates in women's studies, gender studies, and feminist studies. The first Ph.D. program in Women's Studies was established at Emory University in 1990.^[19] As of 2012, there were 16 institutions offering a Ph.D. in Women's Studies in the United States.^[20][21] Since then, UC Santa Cruz (2013),^[22] the University of Kentucky-Lexington (2013),^[23] Stony Brook University (2014),^[24] and Oregon State University (2016)^[25] also introduced a Ph.D. in the field. In 2015 at Kabul University the first master's degree course in gender and women's studies in Afghanistan began.^[26] Courses in Women's Studies in the United Kingdom can be found through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.^[27]

Theoretical traditions and research methods

Early women's studies courses and curricula were often driven by the question "where are the women?".^[28] That is, as more women were present in higher education as both students and faculty, questions arose about the male-centric nature of most courses and curricula. Women faculty in traditional departments such as history, English, and philosophy began to offer courses with a focus on women. Drawing from the women's movement's notion that "the personal is political," courses also began to develop around sexual politics, women's roles in society, and the ways in which women's personal lives reflect larger power structures.^[29]

Since the 1970s, scholars of women's studies have taken post-modern approaches to understanding gender as it intersects with race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, age, and (dis)ability to produce and maintain power structures within society. With this turn, there has been a focus on language, subjectivity, and social hegemony, and how the lives of subjects, however they identify, are constituted. At the core of these theories is the notion that however one identifies, gender, sex, and sexuality are not intrinsic, but are socially constructed.^[30]

Major theories employed in women's studies courses include feminist theory, intersectionality, standpoint theory, transnational feminism, and social justice. Research practices associated with women's studies place women and the experiences of women at the center of inquiry through the use of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Feminist researchers acknowledge their role in the production of knowledge and make explicit the relationship between the researcher and the research subject.^[3]

Feminist theory

Intersectionality

Associated with the third wave of feminism, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality is an approach to understanding how institutional structures mutually shape an individual's gendered, racial, and social status. Intersectional theory posits that these relationships must be considered in conversation with each other in order to understand hierarchies of power and privilege and they ways in which they manifest in an individual's life.^[34]

Standpoint theory

Transnational feminist theory

Social justice

Since its inception and connection with the women's movement, activism has been a foundation of women's studies. Increasingly social justice has become a key component of women's studies courses, programs, and departments. Social justice theory is concerned with the fight for just communities, not on the individual level, but for the whole of society.^[39] Women's studies students engage in social justice projects, although some scholars and critics are concerned about requiring students to engage in mandated activism or social justice work.^[40]

Pedagogies

In most institutions, women's studies courses employ feminist pedagogy in a triad model of equal parts research, theory, and praxis. The decentralization of the professor as the source of knowledge is often fundamental to women's studies classroom culture.^[41] Students are encouraged to take an active role in "claiming" their education, taking responsibility for themselves and the learning process.^[42] Women's studies programs and courses are designed to explore the intersectionality of gender, race, sexuality, class and other topics that are involved in identity politics and societal norms through a feminist lens. Women's studies courses focus on a variety of topics such as media literacy, sexuality, race and ethnicity, history involving women, queer theory, multiculturalism and other courses closely related. Faculty incorporate these components into classes across a variety of topics, including popular culture, women in the economy, reproductive and environmental justice, and women's health across the lifespan.^[43]

Women's studies programs are involved in social justice work and often design curricula that are embedded with theory and activism outside of the classroom setting. Some women's studies programs offer internships that are community-based allowing students the opportunity to experience how institutional structures of privilege and oppression directly affects women's lives. Women's studies curricula often encourage students to participate in service-learning activities in addition to discussion and reflection upon course materials. However, Daphne Patai, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has criticized this aspect of women's studies programs, arguing that they place politics over education, stating that "the strategies of faculty members in these programs have included policing insensitive language, championing research methods deemed congenial to women (such as qualitative over quantitative methods), and conducting classes as if they were therapy sessions."^[44]

Since women's studies students analyze identity markers such as gender, race, class, and sexuality, this often results in dissecting institutionalized structures of power. As a result of these pedagogies, women's studies students leave university with a toolset to make social change and do something about power inequalities in society.^[45]

Notable women's studies scholars include Charlotte Bunch, Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks, Angela Davis, Cherríe Moraga, Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, and Barbara Ransby.

See also

• Separatist feminism
• List of women's studies journals
• Feminist Formations
• Signs (journal)
• Feminist Review
• Feminist Studies
• Feminist economics
• Feminist theory
• French feminism
• Gender studies
• Girl studies
• Men's studies
• Misandry
• Social criticism
• Social Justice Warrior
• Women artists
• Women's history

Notes

References

• Borland, K. (1991). That's not what I said: Interpretive conflict in oral narrative research. In Giuck, S. & Patai, D. (Eds.), Women's Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History (pp. 63–76). NY: Routledge
• Brooks, A. (2007). Feminist standpoint epistemology: Building knowledge and empowerment through women's lived experiences. In Hesse-Biber, S.N. & Leavy, P.L. (Eds.), Feminist Research Practice (pp. 53–82). CA: Sage Publications.
• Brooks, A. & Hesse-Biber, S.N. (2007). An invitation to feminist research. In Hesse-Biber, S.N. & Leavy, P.L. (Eds.), Feminist Research Practice (pp. 1–24). CA: Sage Publications.
• Buch, E.D. & Staller, K.M. (2007). The feminist practice of ethnography. In Hesse-Biber, S.N. & Leavy, P.L. (Eds.), Feminist Research Practice (pp. 187–221). CA: Sage Publications.
• Dill, T.B & Zambrana, R. (2009) Emerging Intersections: Race, Class and Gender in Theory, Policy and Practice. NJ: Rutgers University Press.
• Fausto-Sterling, Anne (2000). Sexing the body: gender politics and the construction of sexuality. New York: Basic Books. {{ISBN|0-465-07714-5}}.
• Halse, C. & Honey, A. (2005). Unraveling ethics: Illuminating the moral dilemmas of research ethics. Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 30 (4), 2141–2162.
• Harding, S. (1987). Introduction: Is there a feminist method? In Harding, S. (ed.), Feminism & Methodology. (pp. 1–14). IN: Indiana University Press.
• Hesse-Biber, S.N. (2007). The practice of feminist in-depth interviewing. In Hesse-Biber, S.N. & Leavy, P.L. (Eds.), Feminist Research Practice (pp. 111–148). CA: Sage Publications.
• Hyam, M. (2004). Hearing girls' silences: Thoughts on the politics and practices of a feminist method of group discussion. Gender, Place, and Culture, 11 (1), 105–119.
• Leavy, P.L. (2007a). Feminist postmodernism and poststructuralism. In Hesse-Biber, S.N. & Leavy, P.L. (Eds.), Feminist Research Practice (pp. 83–108). CA: Sage Publications.
• Leavy, P.L. (2007b). The practice of feminist oral history and focus group interviews. In Hesse-Biber, S.N. & Leavy, P.L. (Eds.), Feminist Research Practice (pp. 149–186). CA: Sage Publications.
• Leavy, P.L. (2007c). The feminist practice of content analysis. In Hesse-Biber, S.N. & Leavy, P.L. (Eds.), Feminist Research Practice (pp. 223–248). CA: Sage Publications.
• Leckenby, D. (2007). Feminist empiricism: Challenging gender bias and “setting the record straight.” In Hesse-Biber, S.N. & Leavy, P.L. (Eds.), Feminist Research Practice (pp. 27–52). CA: Sage Publications.
• Lykes, M.B. & Coquillon, E. (2006). Participatory and Action Research and feminisms: Towards Transformative Praxis. In Sharlene Hesse-Biber (Ed.). Handbook of Feminist Research: Theory and Praxis. CA: Sage Publications.
• Miner-Rubino, K. & Jayaratne, T.E. (2007). Feminist survey research. In Hesse-Biber, S.N. & Leavy, P.L. (Eds.), Feminist Research Practice (pp. 293–325). CA: Sage Publications.

Further reading

• Berkin, Carol R., Judith L. Pinch, and Carole S. Appel, Exploring Women's Studies: Looking Forward, Looking Back, 2005, {{ISBN|0-13-185088-1}} {{oclc|57391427}}
• {{cite book

|last=Boxer |first=Marilyn J.

|title=When Women ask the Questions: Creating Women's Studies in America

|year=1998

|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press

|location=Baltimore, MD

|isbn=978-0-8018-5834-5

|oclc=37981599}}

• {{cite book

|last=Carter

|first=Sarah

|first2=Maureen

|last2=Ritchie

|title=Women's Studies: A Guide to Information Sources

|year=1990

|publisher=Mansell and McFarland

|location=London, England and Jefferson, NC

|isbn=978-0-7201-2058-5

|oclc=20392079}}

• {{cite book

|last=Committee on Women's Studies in Asia |first=

|title=Changing Lives: Life Stories of Asian Pioneers in Women's Studies

|year=1995

|publisher=Feminist Press at the City University of New York

|location=New York, NY

|isbn=978-1-55861-108-5

|oclc=31867161}}

• Davis, Angela Y. (2003). Are Prisons Obsolete?, Open Media (April 2003), {{ISBN|1-58322-581-1}}
• {{cite book

|editor1-last=Davis

|editor1-first=Kathy

|editor2-first=Mary

|editor2-last=Evans

|editor3-first=Judith

|editor3-last=Lorber

|title=Handbook of Gender and Women's Studies

|year=2006

|publisher=Sage

|location=London, England; Thousand Oaks, CA

|isbn=978-0-7619-4390-7

|oclc=69392297}}

• Fausto-Sterling, Anne (1992). Myths of gender: biological theories about women and men. New York: BasicBooks. {{ISBN|0-465-04792-0}}.
• Fausto-Sterling, Anne (2000). Sexing the body: gender politics and the construction of sexuality. New York: Basic Books. {{ISBN|0-465-07714-5}}.
• Fausto-Sterling, Anne (2012). Sex/Gender: Biology in a Social World. New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|9780415881456}}.
• {{Cite journal | last = Gardey | first = Delphine | title = 'Territory Trouble': Feminist Studies and (the Question of) Hospitality | journal = differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies | volume = 27 | issue = 2 | pages = 125–152 | doi = 10.1215/10407391-3621745 | date = September 2016 | ref = harv| url = https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:86893 }}
• Grewal, Inderpal and Caren Kaplan, An Introduction to Women's Studies: Gender in a Transnational World, {{ISBN|0-07-109380-X}} {{oclc|47161269}}
• {{cite book

|last=Griffin |first=Gabriele

|title=Doing Women's Studies: Employment Opportunities, Personal Impacts and Social Consequences

|year=2005

|publisher=Zed Books in association with the University of Hull and the European Union

|location=London, England

|isbn=978-1-84277-501-1

|oclc=56641855}}

• Ginsberg, Alice E. The Evolution of American Women's Studies: Reflections on Triumphs, Controversies and Change (Palgrave Macmillan: 2009). Online interview with Ginsberg
• Griffin, Gabriele and Rosi Braidotti (eds.), Thinking Differently : A Reader in European Women's Studies, London etc. : Zed Books, 2002 {{ISBN|1-84277-002-0}} {{oclc|49375751}}
• Howe, Florence (ed.), The Politics of Women's Studies: Testimony from Thirty Founding Mothers, Paperback edition, New York: Feminist Press 2001, {{ISBN|1-55861-241-6}} {{oclc|44313456}}
• {{cite book

|author=Hunter College Women's Studies Collective

|title=Women's Realities, Women's Choices: An Introduction to Women's Studies

|year=2005 |edition=3rd

|publisher=Oxford University Press

|location=New York, NY

|isbn=978-0-19-515035-3

|oclc=55870949}}

• {{cite book

|last=Jacobs |first=Sue-Ellen

|title=Women in Perspective: A Guide for Cross-Cultural Studies

|year=1974

|publisher=University of Illinois Press

|location=Urbana, IL

|isbn=978-0-252-00299-1

|oclc=1050797}}

• {{cite book

|last=Kennedy

|first=Elizabeth Lapovsky

|authorlink=Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy

|first2=Agatha

|last2=Beins

|title= Women's Studies for the Future: Foundations, Interrogations, Politics

|year=2005

|publisher=Rutgers University Press

|location=New Brunswick, NJ

|isbn=978-0-8135-3618-7

|oclc=56951279}}

• {{cite book

|last=Krikos

|first=Linda A.

|first2=Cindy

|last2=Ingold

|title=Women's Studies: A Recommended Bibliography

|year=2004 |edition=3rd

|publisher=Libraries Unlimited

|location=Westport, CN

|isbn=978-1-56308-566-6

|oclc=54079621}}

• {{cite book

|last=Larson |first=Andrea and R. Edward Freeman

|title=Women's Studies and Business Ethics: Toward a New Conversation

|year=1997

|publisher=Oxford University Press

|location=New York, NY

|isbn=978-0-19-510758-6

|oclc=35762696}}

• Lederman, Muriel, and Ingrid Bartsch, eds. The Gender and Science Reader. New York: Routledge, 2001. Print.
• {{cite book

|last=Loeb

|first=Catherine

|first2=Susan E.

|last2=Searing

|first3=Esther F.

|last3=Lanigan

|title=Women's Studies: A Recommended Core Bibliography, 1980–1985

|year=1987

|publisher=Libraries Unlimited

|location=Littleton, CO

|isbn=978-0-87287-472-5

|oclc=14716751}}

• {{cite book

|last=Luebke

|first=Barbara F.

|first2=Mary Ellen

|last2=Reilly

|title=Women's Studies Graduates: The First Generation

|year=1995

|publisher=Teachers College Press, Teachers College, Columbia University

|location=New York, NY

|isbn=978-0-8077-6274-5

|oclc=31076831}}

• {{cite book

|last=MacNabb |first=Elizabeth L.

|title=Transforming the Disciplines: A Women's Studies Primer

|year=2001

|publisher=Haworth Press

|location=New York, NY

|isbn=978-1-56023-959-8

|oclc=44118091}}

• Messer-Davidow, Ellen, Disciplining Feminism : From Social Activism to Academic Discourse, Durham, NC etc. : Duke University Press, 2002 {{ISBN|0-8223-2829-1}} {{oclc|47705543}}
• {{cite book

|last=Patai

|first=Daphne

|first2=Noretta

|last2=Koertge

|title=Professing Feminism: Education and Indoctrination in Women's Studies

|year=2003 |edition=New and Expanded

|publisher=Lexington Books

|location=Lanham, MD

|isbn=978-0-7391-0454-5

|oclc=50228164}}

• {{cite book

|last=Rao |first=Aruna

|title=Women's Studies International: Nairobi and Beyond

|year=1991

|publisher=Feminist Press at the City University of New York

|location=New York, NY

|isbn=978-1-55861-031-6

|oclc=22490140}}

• {{cite book

|last=Rogers

|first=Mary F.

|first2=C. D.

|last2=Garrett

|title=Who's Afraid of Women's Studies?: Feminisms in Everyday Life

|year=2002

|publisher=AltaMira Press

|location=Walnut Creek, CA

|oclc=50530054

|isbn=978-0-7591-0173-9}}

• {{cite book

|last=Rosenberg |first=Roberta

|title=Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Anthology

|year=2001

|publisher=Peter Lang

|location=New York, NY

|isbn=978-0-8204-4443-7

|oclc=45115816}}

• Schiebinger, Londa. Has Feminism Changed Science?. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999. Print.
• Ruth, Sheila, Issues In Feminism: An Introduction to Women's Studies, 2000, {{ISBN|0-7674-1644-9}} {{oclc|43978372}}
• {{cite book

|last=Simien |first=Evelyn M.

|editor1-first=Kristin

|editor1-last=Waters

|editor2-first=Carol B.

|editor2-last=Conaway

|title=Black Women's Intellectual Traditions: Speaking their Minds

|year=2007

|publisher=University of Vermont Press and the University Press of New England

|location=Burlington, VT and Hanover, NH

|isbn=978-1-58465-633-3

|chapter=Black Feminist Theory: Charting a Course for Black Women's Studies in Political Science

|oclc=76140356}}

• {{cite book

|last=Tierney |first=Helen

|title=Women's Studies Encyclopedia

|year=1989–1991

|publisher=Greenwood Press

|location=New York, NY

|isbn=978-0-313-24646-3

|oclc=18779445}}

• Wiegman, Robyn (editor), Women's Studies on Its Own: A Next Wave Reader in Institutional Change, Duke University Press, 2002. {{ISBN|0-8223-2950-6}} {{oclc|49421587}}
• Orr, Catherine; Braithwaite, Ann; Lichtenstein, Diane (2012). Rethinking Women's and Gender Studies. New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|9780415808309}}

External links

• Smith College List of Graduate Programs in Women's Studies and Gender Studies
• WSSLinks: women's studies web links from the American Library Association
• Women's Studies web resources
• Feminist Theory and Criticism 1. 1963–1972
• Center for Women's Studies of Tehran University, Iran
• The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society
• Karen Lerhman, [https://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1993/09/lehrman.html Off Course], Mother Jones, September 1993
• Main focus "Frauen- und Geschlechtergeschichte in Westfalen"
• List of Women's Studies Programs around the World
• List of Women's Studies Programs in the United States
• Women's Studies Resources from WIDNET: Women in Development Network
• Kay Armatage's Archival papers are held at the University of Toronto Archives and Record Management Services

• Gator Bowl Association
• Gator Bowl broadcasters
• Gator Bowl (stadium)
• Gator (disambiguation)
• Gator Engineering
• Gatorettes
• Gator Falls
• Gator Flop
• Gatorgum
• Gatorhythms
• Gatornationals
• Gator Panic
• Gator (pool game)
• Gator Run Elementary School
• Gators Football
• Gator (swimming pool game)
• Gatow Airfield
• Gatow Airport
• Gat Perich
• Gatrie
• Gat Rimon
• GATR-L
• Gats
• Gatsby (disambiguation)
• Gatsby Foundation