Gender Studies
Lecture 2
Gender Studies:
“Gender Studies investigates the actual (physical & biological) gender differences
between men & women and critically analyze how these differences translate in
a socio-cultural context.”
Catherine Orr in her book “Rethinking Women’s & Gender Studies”:
“Another feature of Gender Studies is that it examines how the world is
gendered.”
Women Studies:
“An interdisciplinary academic field devoted to topics concerning
women, feminism, gender & politics.”
Feminist Theories
Social History
History of Women
Women Women Fiction
Suffragist
Studies
Women Health
Feminist
psychoanalysis
Bonnie Zimmerman:
“Women’s Study is
and always will be a
field of motion.”
History of Women Studies:
First WS course by US historian Marry Ritter Beard (1934) who constructed
a 54 page syllabus for course titled “A changing political economy as it
affects women.”
This course was never taught. But it became a foundational stone.
WS developed as an academic discipline during feminism’s second wave.
1st course was developed in late 1960s in USA.
1980: 1st Master’s Degree in WS at University of Kent UK.
1970: San Diego State University’s program.
Difference between Women & Gender Studies:
Women Studies Gender Studies
Interdisciplinary field. Study of Interdisciplinary. It studies
Women & Gender in every field. difference between women & men.
Make women visible. It shifts focus from man as dominant
to woman as legitimate.
Work in support of women with Another form of 3rd wave of
regard to 1st & 2nd wave of feminism. feminism.
Educational strategy of a Studies differences among men &
breakthrough in consciousness & women on basis of their socially
knowledge. constructed role.
It is exclusive. Study about women It is inclusive. Study about male,
only. female, intersex, GBTQ
It owes to movement for liberation of It views the manners in which norms
women. & patterns of behaviors associated
with masculinity & femininity came
into being.
Focus is only on women, feminist Focus on psychosocial,
theory, women history, social history, psychoanalytical theories, post
women fiction. structuralisms, Queer Studies,
LGBTQ, materialist feminism.
Conscious raising is an aspect of WS. CR is not an aspect of GS.
Intertwined with feminist activism. No feminist activism as it is based on
study of gender.
Evolution of Gender Studies as an Academic Discipline:
1st course in late 1960s in USA.
1980: 1st Master’s Degree in WS at University of Kent UK.
1970: San Diego State University’s program was formally approved.
Triggered by 2nd wave of feminism.
Prior to 1970s, social science (sociology) ignored gender. Topics related to
men were included.
Pre-1970: Gender blind sociology.
After 1970: Attention goes to paid labor, housework, motherhood & male
violence.
1970s: Men’s studies
1972: Women Studies Quarterly & Feminist Studies Journals on women,
gender & sexuality.
1974: Women Educational Equity Act (WEEA) established to fund,
research, professional development to bring attention to gender equity
issues.
1977: National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) was created.
1978: Congress included educational services in Civil Right Act to eliminate
sex bias society.
1979: 1st meeting of NWSA to discuss whether women studies were a
discipline in own right.
1980s: self-reflective period, how to identify concept of “women”. I.e. white,
middle class, heterosexual.
1980: National Institute Education Commissions (NIEC) started.
1983: Tsk Group of Men Studies formed.
1984: National Organization for Changing Men (NOCM) institutes the
“Men’s Studies Newsletter.”
1990s: Development of Queer Theory.
1990: 1st PhD program in Women Studies at Emory University USA.
1990: Rise of 3rd wave of feminism.
1991: American Men’s Studies Association (AMSA) formed.
1992: “The Courage to Question: Women’s Studies and & Student
Learning” was published.
2000s: Debate over Women Studies vs. Gender Studies.
Betty Friedan:
“Women Studies will
one day fill libraries &
create a whole new
course in psychology,
sociology & history.”
Women Studies in Other Parts of World:
South Korea: 1st Women Studies program in 1977.
Western Europe: By the 1980s.
International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women in Israel in 1981.
UN sponsored 4 international conferences as “Decade for Women 1975-
85”.
Kabul University 1st Master’s degree course in Gender & Women Studies
2015.
Men Studies as a Discipline:
Formed in response to Men’s Rights Movement of 1970s.
Michael S Kimmel’s book “Handbook of Studies on Men & Masculinities”:
Men’s studies are concerned with man, masculinity, gender & politics.
Men’s history &
social history
Feminist Theory
Men’s fiction
Feminist
psychoanalysis
Men Male health
Studies
Influence on Social
Influence on Sciences
humanities
