Women's Studies

Diane McPherson, Associate Professor and Coordinator

This is one of the individual and interdisciplinary studies programs of the School of Humanities and Sciences.

The central organizing category of analysis in women's studies is the concept of gender, which we understand as a pervasive social construction reflecting and determining differentials of power and opportunity. Women's studies, then, analyzes how this social construction shapes the lives of women. Women's studies is both an innovative approach to traditional subjects and a growing field in its own right. Women's studies courses focus on women in diverse contexts from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. They exist, as a result of a demand that has come primarily from women, to understand more fully the past and present position of their sex.

Minor in Women's Studies

For the minor in women's studies, students must take 18 credits. Each student must take Introduction to Women's Studies. Students are also strongly advised to take 338-41000 (Selected Topics: Women's Studies) in the spring semester of the junior or senior year. The other 12 credits must be from the approved list of courses. At least 6 of the credits for the minor must be level 3 or above, and no more than three courses may be taken from any one of the four categories in the list of approved courses. Note: No more than two courses in the student's major may be counted toward the minor. Additional courses in which women's lives, women's history, or women's issues are the primary subject may be counted toward the minor if approved by the coordinator of women's studies.

Requirements for the minor in women's studies

338-10000

Introduction to Women's Studies

3

Five courses selected from the following list, no more than three courses in any one of the four areas (social sciences, humanities/fine arts, professional schools, upper-level women's studies). At least two courses must be level 3 or above.

Social science courses

310-14100	Power: Race, Sex, and Class (3)
310-34300	Feminist Theory (3)
310-40100/ 310-40200	Seminar (topics that focus on feminist issues or theory) (3)
310-40300/ 310-40400	Tutorial (topics that focus on feminist issues or theory) (3)
330-26100	Psychology of Women (3)
331-20200	Contemporary Social Issues: Women in Britain (3)
331-21000	Women's Lives (3)
331-31600	Women and Health (3)
331-32300	Family Violence (3)
331-32500	Race, Class, and Gender (3)
331-41900	Seminar: Women in the Third World (3)
331-43100	Selected Topics in Gender Studies: Feminist Social Theory (3)
339-33500	Women and Culture (3)

Humanities/fine arts courses

318-37400	Topics of Women in Latin American Literature: (3) Images of Women in Latin American Literature (3)
318-49100	Seminar: Latina Writing in the U.S. (3)
319-34600	Gender and Interpersonal Communication (3)
376-34100	Women Artists and Cultural Change (3)
376-34200	Images of Women in Western Art (3)
307-22000	Black Women Writers (3)
307-35000	Imagining Herself: Women's Autobiography (3)
377-31000	Women and Writing (3)
555-25500	Women and Music (3)
555-25600	Women in Popular Music from Bessie Smith to MTV (3)

Professional schools

885-34500	Women and Men in Management (3)
222-30300	Images of Men and Women in Mass Media (3)
225-36000	Communication in Culturally Diverse Organizations (3)
663-29800	Gender Issues in Sport (3)

Upper-level women's studies courses

338-41000	Selected Topics: Women's Studies (3)
338-42000	Independent Study in Women's Studies (3)
338-43000	Internship in Women's Studies (3)
	Total required for minor	18

Note: No more than two courses in a student's major may be used to meet requirements for the minor.