The first women’s studies courses were offered in the United States in 1965 at the New Orleans Free School, the University of Chicago, Barnard College, Spelman College, and the Free University of Seattle.
Courses in Women's Studies in the United Kingdom can be found through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. Early women's studies courses and curricula were often driven by the question "why are women not included? where are the women?".
The first scholarly journal in interdisciplinary women's studies, Feminist Studies, began publishing in 1972. The National Women's Studies Association (of the United States) was established in 1977. The 1980s saw the growth and development of women's studies courses and programs across universities in the U.S.,...
The National Women's Studies Association (of the United States) was established in 1977.
The first women ’ s studies courses were offered in the United States in 1965 at the New Orleans Free School, the University of Chicago, Barnard College, Spelman College, and the Free University of Seattle. The earliest women ’ s studies program was established in 1970 at San Diego State University, and the Women ’ s Resource and Research Center was established at Spelman in 1981. Influenced by the civil rights, women ’ s, and New Left movements and the inception of African American, American, and ethnic studies, early women ’ s studies courses were guided by a vision of a world free from sexism, racism, class bias, ageism, and heterosexual bias.
Women's studies is the study of women and gender in every field. Its basic premise is that traditional education is based on a study of men — usually upper-class, Caucasian, educated men — while other groups of men and all different groups of women are erroneously subsumed under the category "mankind." Early on courses drew especially on history, literature, and sociology, but they quickly expanded to the other humanities (philosophy, religious studies, comparative literature, art, music) and the social sciences (anthropology, political science, economics, psychology, geography). Science and technology have been slower to embrace women's studies, but biology, math, technology, computer science, chemistry, physics, and medicine have all begun to examine their assumptions for sexist bias, and courses in "gender and physics," "women geologists," or "sexism and science" are de rigueur in most programs.
Women's studies scholarship is in its most basic form an epistemological endeavor. It asks teachers, students, and researchers to develop a reflective critical consciousness whose goal is not only to inform, but also to transform what one knows and how one knows it. To accomplish this goal, it uses a wide variety of methodological approaches and investigates questions at the center of women's lives, questions that have not been central to formal knowledge systems. This innovativeness raises a series of intellectual debates. For some, these debates are a sign of vigor, for others a quagmire. The central topics for debate include the meaning of interdisciplinarity, the relevance of feminist scholarship, the relationship of scholarship to activism, and the utility of various feminist theories.
Starting from their initial questioning of man as the legitimate grounds of knowing, feminism and women ’ s studies debate the proper subjects and objects of the field. In this sense feminist and women ’ s studies debates are both reflective of and a challenge to broader debates within the social sciences about conventional criteria of knowledge production, disciplinary configurations of relevance, verifiability and falsifiability, the separation of subject from object, and the criteria of objectivity and universality as necessary features of legitimate knowledge production. With the “ crisis of reason ” comes the instability of feminist claims to know, and feminism is both oppositional to and implicated in conventional epistemological discourses. In fact, the very immersion of feminism in patriarchal practices is seen a factor in the critical effectiveness of feminism and thus the transformative potential of the field of women ’ s studies.
The National Women's Studies Association was formed in 1977 to further the social, political, and professional development of Women's Studies throughout the country and the world, at every educational level and in every educational setting. To this end, this organization is committed to being a forum conducive to dialogue and collective action among women dedicated to feminist education and change.
The primary methodological approach of women ’ s studies is derived from feminist analysis, a complex field of study that questions the foundations of traditional male-centered knowledge. Feminists have interrogated the masculine — also known as the patriarchal, androcentric, and phallocentric — biases and exclusions of prevailing social relations, institutions, and political structures to understand why women consistently experience gender-based oppressions that are manifested differently in accordance with the context. From home, to schools, to the workplace, to neighborhood streets, to war zones feminists have demonstrated the ways in which women, by virtue of being female, are barred disproportionately and systemically from the privileges enjoyed by men. At the same time feminist analysis documents women ’ s political agency and resistance to oppressive circumstances. This has been particularly true of black feminist traditions.
Most notably, women’s studies has historically been accused of focusing on the experiences of white women, and not adequately addressing issues of race, ethnicity, class, religion and sexuality. The idea of women’s studies suggests that there is something that unites all women, but the differences among women are as salient as the similarities.
A: There is no question that women’s studies has been and is a very successful venture. There are over 800 women’s studies programs nationwide, including the opportunity to get a Ph.D. in women’s studies, and to take courses online. Also, as previously mentioned, the creation of the National Women’s Studies Association was instrumental in ...
The other great success of women’s studies is that in the early 1990’s several significant studies came out about how girls were being “short-changed” or “cheated.”. The issue of gender bias and gender socialization in primary and secondary schools became big news.
A: The similarities between women’s studies and, for example, black studies (also referred to as African American studies) are clear in that they both promote the idea of learning for social change and action, as well as restoring lost histories, and allowing silenced voices to be heard. Indeed, many of the same people who were active in ...
It was, in fact, referred to as the “academic arm” of the women’s movement.
Also, as previously mentioned, the creation of the National Women’s Studies Association was instrumental in that it provided a forum for women’s studies scholars to share resources and network. The success of women’s studies is also found in the huge proliferation of books, journals, networks, blogs, and conferences about ...
But in many ways the very nature of women’s studies, which grew out of and alongside the women’s liberation movement , is attractive because it is already active. Women’s studies grew out of the political realities of women’s lives…. I learned that theory and practice should go hand in hand. I learned that education should be about change ...
The first accredited Women's Studies course was held in 1969 at Cornell University. The first two Women's & Gender Studiess in the United States were established in 1970 at San Diego State College (now San Diego State University) and SUNY-Buffalo.
In 1981, the Women's Studies Program was approved by ASCAP as an interdisciplinary program. Two students decided to pursue the minor that year. As of today, the program has grown to include curriculum for credit toward the Core Curriculum in the area of the Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences. Additionally, since 2006 the Women's ...
The Women's & Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary academic program that examines the cultural and social construction of gender, explores the history, experiences and contributions of women to society, and studies the influences of gender on the lives of women and men.
The purpose of the Women's and Gender Studies Council is to advise the Director of the program and enable all members of the University community to participate in and be informed about the Women's and Gender Studies Program. The Director also serves, ad hoc, with the Gender Equity Council (Office of the President)
Additionally, since 2006 the Women's Studies Program participates in the Graduate Certificate Program (GCP), offering a specialist inter-disciplinary sub-field in women's, gender, and identity studies for doctoral and master's degree candidates. The GCP also functions as a stand-alone credential useful for professionals.
The Beginning After the Civil War (1861-1865) × Close. Civil War (1861-1865) The Civil War in the United States began in 1861, after decades of simmering tensions between Northern and Southern states over slavery, states’ rights and westward expansion.
Before higher education was desegregated in the 1950s and 60s, almost all Black college students enrolled at HBCUs. Legal segregation had prevented Black Americans from attending college in the South, and quotas limited the number of Black students that could attend college in the North.
By and large, the first HBCUs were established to educate the children of formerly enslaved people and train them to teach other Black Americans. Because HBCUs were the only schools available to most Black Americans, they often provided primary, secondary, and postsecondary education. African American Higher Education.
After the television, the personal computer and the personal web were the next major inventions to revolutionize distance education. In 1989 the University of Phoenix became the first institution to launch a fully online collegiate institution that offered both bachelors and masters degrees.
The History of Online Schooling. Though it may seem that online education had its beginnings in the late 1900s, the concept of distance learning first came into practice in the mid 19th century when the U.S. Postal Service was developed. The notion of reliable, long-distance correspondence led to the development and implementation ...
In 1996, entrepreneurs Glen Jones and Bernand Luskin launched Jones International University, which became the first accredited and fully web-based university. Since the creation of these fully online programs and schools, distance learning has continued to grow in many different directions. In 2003 the Blackboard Learning System staff announced ...
An increasing number of universities, like the University of California Berkeley, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offer free online classes called open courseware that feature video lectures and quizzes taken directly from class discussion.
The University of South Africa, today known as one of the world's open distance learning mega colleges, became a champion and innovator of distance learning when it reshaped its mission ...
Some leaders in the realm predict that the number of online students will grown to almost 19 million by 2014.
Where it all Began. Norman Triplett conducted a study in 1898, now considered the first research study in sport psychology. He found that cyclists competing against others in races were faster than those who competed alone for a time-trial, even when the distance was the same.
This shift led to the formation of the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (AAASP) in 1985 , which heavily focused on applying psychological knowledge to help athletes in their sport environment. The word “Advancement” in this title was later dropped, and the association is now known simply as AASP.
Norman Triplett conducted a study in 1898, now considered the first research study in sport psychology.
This addition of exercise psychology was an important marker, as the Journal of Sport Psychology became the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychoogy in 1988. Soon after, the United States Olympic Committee also established a sport psychology committee and registry and hired their first full-time sport psychologist.
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", which focused on the socio-economic and political status of women in western Europe, becoming one of the first women's studies courses.
The first accredited women's studies course in the U.S was held in 1969 at Cornell University. Aft…
Early women's studies courses and curricula were often driven by the question "why are women not included? where are the women?". That is, as more women became more 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 philoso…
In the book "Professing Feminism: Education and Indoctrination in Women's Studies" thirty Women's Studies academics came together to criticise the "unhealthy conditions and self-destructive tendencies that appear to be intrinsic to many Women's Studies programs". Professors spoke of being unable to "discuss their concerns about this belligerent anti-intellectualism with other faculty members in Women's Studies", with claims of a "constant emp…
• Feminist economics
• Feminist Formations
• Feminist Review
• Feminist Studies
• Feminist theory
1. ^ Shaw, Susan M.; Lee, Janet (23 April 2014). Women's voices, feminist visions: classic and contemporary readings (Sixth ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0078027000. OCLC 862041473.
2. ^ Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory. Oxford University Press. 2018. ISBN 978-0190872823. OCLC 1002116432.
• 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
• Boxer, Marilyn J. (1998). When Women ask the Questions: Creating Women's Studies in America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-5834-5. OCLC 37981599.
Learning materials related to Women's Studies at Wikiversity
• Smith College List of Graduate Programs in Women's Studies and Gender Studies
• WSSLinks: women's studies web links from the University of Toronto
• Women's Studies web resources