What is Women's and Gender Studies?
What it is
It is what it sounds like, studying the issues facing women, PoC, LGBTQIA folks, and others that fall outside of the categories of privilege (white, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied, economically advantaged, neurotypical, male) in one or more ways. Women's and Gender Studies places feminist theory and praxis at the center of study while examining the intersections of power, oppression, privilege, gender, race, sexuality, socioeconomic class, ability and more. This centers works by people outside of the realm of ultimate privilege and often outside of the scope of Western thought, giving students a more well rounded, realistic view of the world around us. We live our lives in the bubble of social constructs that can be hard to grasp until we break the veil of ignorance surrounding us. WGS endeavors to show students the relationships between the state and the people moving around in it, policy and real life, oppression and how it manifests in communities, histories that have been left unexamined by popular thought, how oppression moves in interpersonal relationships, the obstacles that people face in real time due to patriarchy, the theory that PoC and WoC in particular have contributed that has built intersectional feminist thought and more. Do you want to understand the realities of the world around you, break out of Western dominated thought, open your mind to the realities of others and grasp how oppression works in all of our realities? Try a Women's and Gender Studies degree.
Why it's important
This type of degree can go by many names such as Gender Studies, Sexuality Studies, Feminist Studies, Women's Studies and more, but the importance is the same. If you google "What is Women's and Gender Studies", you may find a lot of websites that say, "understanding the contributions of women to society", and if the major is just boiled down to this, it's missing the point. This degree opens students up to a world beyond their lived experience, allowing them to analyze the the world outside of that which has been constructed and spoon fed to us as objective reality. Yes, it is about women and feminist theory, but feminist theory encompasses so much more than women and the thought produced by phenomena like "The Feminine Mystique". Focusing on intersectionality and understanding the roots of oppression, WGS aims to not only reveal these realities but teach students how to live life in such a way that defies this oppression. We need more people to take on such a mindset and integrate into society, slowly changing global thought to upend the patriarchy. We need feminists, womanists, political activists and folks who see the world differently to simply live, sharing theory and building praxis within communities that might not have realized that the patriarchy does have a hold on them. A WGS mindset is desperately needed in the corporate world because rethinking leadership, sales, and even products with an intersectional mindset may show leaders how to go about business in a way that uplifts everyone and frees people from oppression caused by the market. A WGS mindset is required in academia so that students have access to all scholarship, not pushing out those who have not been established as sages by the (white) West. A WGS mindset is required in the arts so that communities can connect, share, grow, benefit off of and aid each other without the barriers placed between them by the patriarchy. A WGS mindset is necessary in STEM fields so that communities are included and knowledge is ultimately prized above all, rather than where that knowledge comes from. The world needs Women's and Gender Studies majors, now more than ever, and everybody needs to take at least one WGS centered course to break through the mindset that the Western patriarchy has forced on us all.
Why I love WGS
Women's and Gender Studies is so much more than I thought it was going to be in the beginning. I was ready to learn about the ins and outs of feminism, which shows my ignorance coming in. At UT, we focus on an intersectional point of view and looking at the world through the lens of intersectional feminism. This means we examine the works and lives of a range of different communities, from LGBT studies, to Queer Theory, from Women of Color Feminisms to Diaspora Studies. It was like my eyes were opened to a range of oppressions and levels of beautiful empowerment and community that exist in the world. I learned the toxicity of Western dominated thought and how prevalent it is for Americans, particularly white Americans. I basically feel like I was introduced to a new side of the world, the side that most people experience, and even showed me some of the oppressions that I do face that I hadn't identified before. I know that I still have a lot to learn, and one cannot grasp the scope of global intersectional feminist thought in 30 hours of coursework. I will be an intersectional feminist until the day I die and I hope that I can spend the rest of my life learning and growing as a feminist and as a person with such a wonderful community.
What can you do with a WGS degree?
I'm not going to sugar coat things, I feel like most liberal arts degrees are ones that need to be marketed to prospective employers with a targeted resume, extra curricular activities and interests. You can do anything with any degree, as long as you show the world what it is you are good at and interested in. When people looked at my resume purely as a WGS major, I was passed over more than I am now with my WGS and RHE degrees. I love both of my degrees and think that they have made me a better person and fit me very well, but marketing yourself and your skills as a WGS major is not for the faint of heart. WGS majors are typically found in careers like law, the nonprofit world, politics, social work, historian positions, the arts and more. You can do anything with a WGS degree, and you should. Employers might be scared of hiring someone who identifies as a feminist and majored in a feminist centered degree, but this shows the oppression built in to industries. WGS majors are needed in every field, and with the right resume, you can get any job or even create your own job from scratch.
What is Feminism?
As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie famously was quoted in Beyonce's Flawless, "Feminism is the social, political and economic equality of the sexes". There are many different waves of feminism and branches like Womanism, Intersectional Feminism, Radical Feminism, and many, many more. Feminism believes that the root of oppression, especially women's oppression, lies in the structures built by and reinforced by patriarchy since the dawn of time, such as capitalism, social norms, religion, music, industries, and much, much more.
What is intersectionality?
Coined by Kimberle Crenshaw, intersectionality is the theory that understands how a person's identities and lived experiences intersect with unique forms of oppression. Intersectional feminism goes farther than the feminism of yesteryear in that it considers race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and more as pivotal aspects of life, theory, oppression and praxis. It trumps other forms of feminism by inherently accepting and building community with all types of bodies, allowing scholars and feminists to gain the real scope of oppressions around the world.
Am I a Feminist?
A lot of folks believe that feminism is a dirty word. If you simply believe that everyone deserves an equal playing field, that we all face oppressions and that we should learn together and work to make the world a better place for everyone, then you might be a feminist. If you are tired of people telling you that you are equal when you are actively being pushed out of spaces, you might be a feminist. If you disrupt spaces with your "feminist killjoy" attitude by just expressing your truth, you probably are a feminist. Feminism can be a struggle, it can be hard to stand with when the world seems to want to pull you apart at the seams, but standing in community with other global feminists may fortify you and us against sexist oppression. If you are a feminist, keep on keeping on, and I'm here with you in the fight against the patriarchy.
Some Helpful Links
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED talk, We Should All be Feminists:
https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_be_feminists?language=en
Stanford on Feminist Philosophy:
Waves of Feminism:
https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth
Socialist Feminism:
Unlearning Internalized Patriarchy:
https://www.ted.com/talks/deepa_narayan_7_beliefs_that_can_silence_women_and_how_to_unlearn_them
Women of Color Feminisms:
https://rewire.news/article/2013/07/28/women-of-color-and-feminism-a-history-lesson-and-way-forward/
The Toxicity of White Feminism:
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a22717725/what-is-toxic-white-feminism/
Feminist Book Suggestions and Reading
Living a Feminist Life, Sarah Ahmed
Queer Rock Love, Paige Schilt
Discipline and Punish, Foucault
Feminism is for Everybody, bell hooks
Hunger, Roxane Gay
Sister Outsider, Audre Lorde
This Bridge Called My Back, Gloria Anzaldua and Cherrie Moraga
Making Face, Making Soul, Gloria Anzaldua
Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins
The Angela Davis Reader, Angela Davis
In Search of Our Mother's Gardens, Alice Walker
Ain't I a Woman, bell hooks
The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
We Should All Be Feminists, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Women, Race, and Class, Angela Davis
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions, Susan M. Shaw and Janet Lee
Freedom is a Constant Struggle, Angela Davis
Women, Culture, and Politics, Angela Davis
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay
Gender Trouble, Judith Butler
The Dialectic of Sex, Shulamith Firestone
Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, Mark Bray
A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf
Men Explain Things To Me, Rebecca Solnit
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
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