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Women's Studies

(Undergraduate)

The Women's Studies Program offers an interdisciplinary course of study in the historical, economic, political, social and cultural experience of women. The program's central foci are the socio-cultural processes associated with the production and maintenance of gender, its intersections with race, class, sexuality, and generation, and the allocation of rights, obligations, and rewards that are based on these.
Faculty members from a variety of disciplines offer regular courses in women's studies. Each semester women's studies publishes a list of courses relevant to the program. Internships and special projects in local agencies are also possible under the supervision of the program's director. For additional women's studies courses, students should consult the Schedule of Classes.

Women's Studies
Concentration and Minor

Minors must complete:
1. Minimum of six courses (24 credit hours).
2. At least four of these courses must be in addition to those counted toward the student's major.
3. No more than two courses may be taken at the 100 level. One should be WOMN 100, Introduction to Women's Studies.
4. At least two courses must be at the 300/400 level. One should be a seminar, an independent study or an internship.
5. Courses must be divided among at least three different departments.
6. At least two different divisions or schools must be represented (as indicated by their cross-listing).
7. At least one of the courses must be classified as a diversity course.
8. Courses passed with a grade of D do not fulfill requirements for the minor.
9. Only one course taken under the pass/fail option will be credited toward the minor.

Requirements for Women's Studies concentration

1. Minimum of eight courses (32 credit hours).
2. At least five of these courses must be in addition to those counted toward the student's major.
3. No more than two courses may be taken at the 100 level. One should be WOMN 100, Introduction to Women's Studies.
4. At least four courses must be taken at the 300/400 level. One should be a seminar, an independent study or an internship.
5. Courses must be divided among at least three different departments.
6. At least two different divisions or schools must be represented (as indicated by their cross-listing).
7. At least two of the courses must be classified as diversity courses.
8. Courses passed with a grade of D do not fulfill requirements for the minor.
9. Only one course taken under the pass/fail option will be credited toward the concentration.

Course Offerings


NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, all undergraduate courses carry 4 credits and are offered every year.

WOMN 100. INTRODUCTION TO WOMEN'S STUDIES
Explores history of women's involvement in higher education in West, beginning with debates over women's education during Renaissance, tracing efforts by 19th-century feminists to open institutions of higher learning to women. But co-education did not offer equal opportunity to both sexes. Course examines newest field of women's studies-recent feminist critiques of traditional liberal arts curriculum.

WOMN 126 (also ANTH 126). WOMEN AND CULTURE/variable credit
Cross-cultural examination of societal factors related to the role of women. Ways in which cultural definitions of "femaleness" affect attitudes toward women and their activities in society. Economic, social, political, and religious factors related to position of women. Nonwestern societies, representing a range of cultural experience, analyzed to illustrate working of these factors.

WOMN 135 (also PHIL 135). PHILOSOPHY AND PUBLIC POLICY
Philosophical analysis of current issues in public policy: e.g. women's rights, abortion, racial and sexual discrimination and reverse discrimination, preferential hiring, pornography and censorship, economic injustice, environmental and population control, euthanasia.

WOMN 229 (also ANTH 229). WOMEN, CRIME, AND CULTURE
Cross-cultural review of women's involvement in crime and violence. Issues of cultural change, community values, economic and social realities as may relate to nature of women's crimes. Cultural perceptions of role of women, how these affect attitudes both of public and of law enforcement agencies toward female offender/victim.

WOMN 235 (also SOC 263). HISTORY OF HUMAN SERVICES
Historical and recent definitions of "needy" persons; methods of providing relief. Contrasting societies and cultural traditions compared in relation to their ways of dealing with those unable to earn a living, orphans, the physically or mentally impaired, the sick, war-wounded, elderly, and others.

WOMN 252 (also SOC 252). SOCIAL CHANGE IN PUERTO RICO
Development of capitalism in Puerto Rico since 1898. Interrelationship of economic, political, and class structures. Process of industrialization, changes in form of local state after 1945.

WOMN 255 (also SOC 255). FAMILY AND KINSHIP
Perspectives on family structure and functioning; consequences of social class and other variables on stability and effectiveness of family; effects of family on personality.

WOMN 270 (also SOC 270). GROWING UP FEMALE IN 19TH CENTURY ENGLAND
Childhood and adolescence in 19th century England in relation to work, family, education, and sex roles of period. Changes in nature of childhood and family life with special regard to experiences of work and working-class girls and women. Variety of research materials used.

WOMN 281 (also CINE 280). WOMEN IN FILM
Study of how women are presented in film. How to analyze films from socio-historical perspective. Roles women are given in film narratives (wives, mothers, sisters, seductresses, objects of spectacle and male desire, career women); how such representations shape notions about function of family, fashion, race, class, insanity. How women have participated in or been excluded from creating the images that represent them. Women's relationship to men and the definition of males in film.

WOMN 300 (also HD 350). PEACE AND WAR
Introduction to peace studies, a relatively new, transdisciplinary field that analyzes the causes of war, violence, and systemic oppression. Explores processes by which conflict and change can be managed so as to maximize justice while minimizing violence. Emphasis on the establishment of positive life-affirming and life-enhancing values and structures. Lecture/discussion format with invited guest speakers. Not open to students who have taken PSJ 300 or PS 300.

WOMN 307 (also HD 307). ADULT DEVELOPMENT
Theories of adult development reviewed in light of varieties of evidence garnered from clinical reports, interviews, experiments, critical reflections, ethnographies. Special attention to concepts of gender, class, ethnicity, race, as well as age and stage in adult cognitive, emotional, behavioral, social, and civic development.

WOMN 313 (also SOC 313/LA&C 313/AFST 313). SLAVERY, RACE, AND CULTURE
Sociological analysis of slavery as process of social and cultural change and of redefinition of social groups within the world economy. Draws on materials from United States, the Caribbean, and Brazil. Different experiences of slavery, impact on populations of African origin, response of these populations to slavery. Methodological and theoretical problems entailed in analyzing slavery.

WOMN 320 (also SOC 321). RACE AND CULTURAL RELATIONS IN THE WORLD COMMUNITY
Historic identity as important factor in social development in multi-ethnic and multi-racial world community. Selected communities from Africa, Asia, and Europe.

WOMN 322 (also HD 322). WOMEN AND WORK IN AMERICA
Interdisciplinary course on the female labor force today.
Changing conditions of women's work in service, production, clerical, craft, and professional employment. Mutual influences of social policy, family life, and economic institutions on women's work experience. Possible future for women workers; strategies for their realization in light of current theories. Not open to students who have taken AMST 325.

WOMN 323 (also HD 323). MEN'S LIVES
An exploration of the changing definition of what it means to "be a man" in contemporary US society. Patriarchy and conceptions of masculinity; shaping of male consciousness and behavior. Competition and achievement, aggression and power, control, commitment, and intimacy. Topics include sports, war, media, images of men, love, friendships and family relationships, work and success, sexuality, social change and men's roles, homophobia, masculinity and social class, cross-cultural perspectives.

WOMN 324 (also SOC 324). WOMEN'S WORK
Social and historical processes through which work is organized and allocated on basis of gender; relationship of these processes to changes in world economy. Growth in women's poverty and struggles of women in paid and unpaid labor force.

WOMN 333 (also ENG 333). WOMEN AND SOCIETY IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE
The various roles assigned to women in a broad range of"courtly," religious, and realistic texts, including those written by women (such as Marie de France, Christine de Pisan, Julian of Norwich, Margery of Kempe) as well as those written by the "standard" authors of the period (such as Dante, Chretien, Chaucer, the Gawain-Poet).

WOMN 334 (also PLSC 333). CIVIL RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES
Supreme Court opinions dealing with environmental law, consumer rights, communications, elections, citizenship, immigration, nationality; strategies and tactics used to change judicial policies in these and other areas of civil rights and liberties. Prerequisite: PLSC 331.

WOMN 337 (also HIST 337). EUROPEAN WOMEN'S HISTORY
Survey of entry of European women into public life between 1750 and 1945. Topics include women's role in political parties, professional careers, waged and unwaged labor. History of private women in the family through study of love, sex, birth control, and fertility in modern European past.

WOMN 350 (also HIST 350). 19th CENTURY U.S. HISTORY THROUGH LITERATURE
19th century U.S. history through novels and autobiographies. Works of Cooper, Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, Alcott, James, Twain, Howells, and Garland illuminate problem of slavery, antebellum reform period, development of industrial capitalism, ideology of liberal individualism. Romantic literature and populist realism provide cultural emblems for historical consciousness.

WOMN 367 (also HIST 367). AMERICAN WOMEN, 1600-1880
Focuses on history of American women in social movements and public policy during the 17th, 18th, and much of 19th centuries. Examines women's lives through their participation in social movement and their influence on public policy. Compares different groups of women, such as African-American and white women in anti-slavery movement. Particular emphasis given to changes in family and public life that promote power of women in those arenas.

WOMN 368 (also HIST 368). AMERICAN WOMEN, 1880-PRESENT
Focuses on history of United States women in social movements and public policy for past hundred years. Examines women's lives through their participation in social movements and their influence on public policy. Compares different groups of women, such as African-American and white women in recent feminist movements. Particular emphasis given to women and creation of welfare state, and to legal changes affecting women's lives, such as affirmative action and abortion law.

WOMN 371 (also SOC 371). THEORIES OF SOCIAL CHANGE
How social theorists analyze large-scale social change,conceptions of origins, structure, development of modern social systems, classes and social groups, the state and bureaucracy, problems of rationalization and technology, problems of theory and method.

WOMN 383 (also ENG 383). MODERN WOMEN WRITERS
Selected works by 20th-century women writers, including Simone deBeauvoir, Virginia Woolf, Doris Lessing, Anais Nin, Colette, Maxine Hong Kingston, Alice Walker, Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich. Fiction, poetry, and some theoretical discussion.

WOMN 394 (also ENG 394). BLACK WOMEN WRITERS
Examines the specifics of black women's writing cross-culturally Afro-American, Caribbean, African, Brazilian, black British, etc. Attention to the multiple meanings of black womanhood as represented in literature and in theoretical works. Feminist theory by women of color forms an important counterpoint and ideological backdrop to literary explorations. Examines the social construction of gender and social hierarchies as confronted by black women writers.

WOMN 410 (also ANTH 410, AFST 410). WOMEN OF THE THIRD WORLD
Lives of women in selected cultures in Africa: how these women view their lives in traditional and modern settings. How do women react to increasing modernization and social change? What strategies have women developed for coping with unpredictable changes? What alterations are occurring in women's roles vis-a-vis men? Are women active agents of social change or passive recipients molded by and to changing social order? Prerequisites: one sociocultural anthropology course and junior standing.

WOMN 432 (also NURS 432). HOLISTIC HEALTH PRACTICES
This course deals with the concepts of holistic health, holistic health nursing, and holistic health practices. The main focus will be on the investigation of non-traditional, alternative health practices. Several areas will be explored starting with the overall ideas and historical background of holism and health and moving into various modalities including nutrition, therapeutic touch, relaxation techniques, herbology, meditation, environment, imagery, play and laughter, and music.

WOMN 451 (also RHET 451). MASS COMMUNICATIONS
This course will analyze mass media from a cultural studies perspective. We will attempt to understand how the structure and content of mass media are shaped by social and ideological forces and how the mass media in turn contribute to the formation of social identities. We will discuss all forms of mass media with a special emphasis on television.

WOMN 480. SPECIAL TOPICS

WOMN 495. INTERNSHIP IN WOMEN'S STUDIES/variable credit
Internships in women's studies are with agencies and organizations that provide services relevant to women. Interns negotiate with the agency they wish to work with and are supervised by faculty working in the area of women's studies with whom they negotiate an internship learning contract. Open to juniors and seniors only.

WOMN 497. INDEPENDENT WORK
Special project to integrate student's previous work in women's studies. Prerequisite: program director's approval.

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