Women's studies

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Women's studies (also known as Feminist studies) is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to topics concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. It often includes feminist theory, women's history (e.g. a history of women's suffrage) and social history, women's fiction, women's health, feminist psychoanalysis and the feminist and gender studies-influenced practice of most of the humanities and social sciences.

1 History
2 Curriculum and methodology
3 See also
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links

[edit] History

Women's studies was first conceived as an academic rubric apart from other departments in the late 1970s, as the second wave of feminism gained political influence in the academy through student and faculty activism. As an academic discipline, it was modeled on the American studies and ethnic studies (such as Afro-American studies) and Chicano Studies programs that had arisen shortly before it. The first Women's Studies Program in the United States was established on May 21, 1970 at San Diego State College (now San Diego State University) 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.^[1] Carol Rowell Council was the student co-founder along with Dr. Joyce Nower, a literature instructor. A second program followed within weeks at Richmond College of the City University of New York (now the College of Staten Island). In the 1970s many universities and colleges created departments and programs in women's studies, and professorships became available in the field which did not require the sponsorship of other departments.

By the late twentieth century, women's studies courses were available at many universities and colleges around the world. One source identified 395 separate programs in the United States.^[2] Courses in the United Kingdom can be found through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.^[3]

Critics of the modern-day women's movement have extended their criticisms to the discipline of women's studies. Writers including Camille Paglia, Christina Hoff-Sommers, Phyllis Chesler, and Karen Lerhman have critiqued scholarship standards within women's studies programs.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Curriculum and methodology

Many universities that offer degrees in Women’s Studies also offer related classes in topics such as gender studies, women and religion, female sexuality, sex crimes, and gay/lesbian studies.^{[citation needed]}

Daphne Patai, a professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst, criticizes Women's studies programs saying that:

many women's-studies programs have allowed the political mission of training feminist cadres to override educational concerns. 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.^[4]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ SDSU Women's Studies Department
^ Artemis Guide to Women's Studies in the U.S.
^ Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, United Kingdom
^ Patai, Daphne (1998-01-23). Why Not A Feminist Overhaul of Higher Education? (html) (English). Why Not A Feminist Overhaul of Higher Education?. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved on 2007-05-04.

[edit] Further reading

Carol R. Berkin, Judith L. Pinch, and Carole S. Appel, Exploring Women's Studies: Looking Forward, Looking Back, 2005, ISBN 0-13-185088-1
Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan, An Introduction to Women's Studies: Gender in a Transnational World, ISBN 0-07-109380-X
Gabriele Griffin and Rosi Braidotti (eds.), Thinking Differently : A Reader in European Women's Studies, London etc. : Zed Books, 2002
Florence Howe (ed.), The Politics of Women's Studies: Testimony from Thirty Founding Mothers, Paperback edition, New York: Feminist Press 2001, ISBN 1-55861-241-6
Ellen Messer-Davidow, Disciplining Feminism : From Social Activism to Academic Discourse, Durham, NC etc. : Duke University Press, 2002
Sheila Ruth, Issues In Feminism: An Introduction to Women's Studies, 2000, ISBN 0-7674-1644-9
R. Wiegman and Donald E. Pease (eds.), Women's Studies on Its Own: A Next Wave Reader in Institutional Change, Duke University Press, 2002.