Women's studies
Categories: Feminism stubs | Women | Interdisciplinary fields | Gender studies
Women's studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to topics concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. It often includes feminist theory, women's history (eg history of women's suffrage) and social history, women's literature, women's health, and the feminist and gender studies-influenced practice of most of the humanities and social sciences.
"Women's studies" was first conceived as an academic rubric apart from other departments in the late 1960s, 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 after a year of intense organizing (women's consciousness raising groups, rallies, petition circulating, and operating unofficial or experimental classes and presentations before seven committees and assemblies. Carol Rowell Council was the student co-founder along with Dr. Joyce Nower, a literature instructor. 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.
Related fields include gender studies, gender and sexuality studies, and queer studies.
Further Reading
- Florence Howe (ed), Mari Jo Buhle (introduction), The Politics of Women's Studies: Testimony from Thirty Founding Mothers, Paperback edition, New York: Feminist Press 2001
- Gabriele Griffin and Rosi Braidotti (eds.), Thinking differently : a reader in European women's studies, London etc. : Zed Books, 2002
- Ellen Messer-Davidow: Disciplining feminism : from social activism to academic discourse, Durham, NC etc. : Duke University Press, 2002
See also
External links
- WSSLinks: women's studies web links from the American Library Association
- Women's Studies web resources
- Feminist Theory and Criticism 1. 1963-1972