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Women's studies Wikipedia

Image:Pompeii-woman.jpg|thumb|right|220px|With stylus and tablet, an upper-class Pompeiian, Sappho, demonstrates her privilege: literacy
Women's studies is an interdisciplinary List of academic disciplines|academic field devoted to topics concerning women, feminism, gender identity|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 feminism|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, men's studies, and queer studies.

Last Modified:   2005-12-19