Dating back to the stereotypes of the 1960s, many people today still have many misconceptions about the women’s studies department. Additionally, some say there aren’t any careers available from women’s studies degrees. The women’s studies department claims such perceptions are wrong.
Some women’s studies majors are finding that they often feel obligated to defend their major, but the greater controversy on campus is whether women’s studies should be offered as a major at all.
The women’s studies department Web site states that the main goal of the department is to “provide for students, the university and the community an intellectual context from which it is possible to study the experience of women.”
Aunnie Ganier is a women’s studies major who has just transferred to CSULB from California State University, Northridge. Ganier said that the toughest part of her education in women’s studies is that it can sometimes be hard to defend her major and her goals because people know so little about the department.
Ganier plans to teach at a university or go into foster care with her degree. She said women’s studies has been good for her because she has been able to explore different aspects of women’s studies, from pop culture to politics, and she has also been able to get a lot of guidance and assistance.
With the recent sexual assaults on campus, many people feel women’s studies is a good way to explore women’s issues as a whole.
Senior psychology major David Citizen said that the department would promote empowerment, but that it is not focused on education. Citizen posed the question of what careers a student can pursue through obtaining a women’s studies degree.
Citizen suggested the possibility of a “career in activism” or a sociology teacher, but did not see any other relevance to the department. Although he was aware of the department and sees some validity in it, he does not think that many other students know about women’s studies.
Women’s studies department Chairwoman Elyse Blankley said students should know that the department is progressive as well as interesting and different. Blankley said that it is important for people to steer away from the ideas of what they imagine feminists to be, and she stresses the importance of activism.
Blankley also said that the future of women’s studies will see responsiveness to the transformation of the world. She also mentions that the department deals with topics such as class, sex and identity, as well as economic, social, political and environmental issues. Blankley said there are quite a few men in the department and that feminism is not just for women.
According to the women’s studies department Web site, the first classes with women’s studies content were taught at CSULB in the late 1960s. Those classes were “Sociology of Women” and “Psychology of Women.”
Today, the department offers such classes as “Women and Their Bodies,” “Women in Contemporary Society,” “Principles of Feminism” and “Mothers and Daughters.”
The full list of classes available through the women’s studies department can be found on the department’s Web site.
