Women's Studies

Women's studies is an interdisciplinary field of academic study that examines gender as a social and cultural construct, the social status and contributions of women, and the relationships between power and gender.

Popular methodologies within the field of women's studies include standpoint theory, intersectionality, multiculturalism, transnational feminism, autoethnography, and reading practices associated with critical theory, post-structuralism, and queer theory. The field researches and critiques societal norms of gender, race, class, sexuality, and other social inequalities. It is closely related to the broader field of gender studies. Women's studies preceded gender studies as an established field: in the United States the first PhD in women's studies was created in 1990 and the first PhD in gender studies was created in 2005.

The first accredited women's studies course was held in 1969 at Cornell 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, the first women's studies program in the United States was established in 1970 at San Diego State College (now San Diego State University). In conjunction with National Women's Liberation Movement, students and community members created the AD HOC Committee for women's studies. By 1974 SDSU faculty members began a nationwide campaign for the integration of the department. At the time, these actions and the field was extremely political. Due to the sensitive political nature of the movement and harsh backlash to the feminist movement, there are still a lot of unknowns about the creation of women's studies.

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