Gender is a topic that was very prominent in the news in 2017. Publications such as the New York Times, National Geographic and Time dedicated articles and whole issues to informing the public about this topic and the issues surrounding the struggle for gender equality. 

Iowa State has been informing students about gender inequality and how it affects every aspect of life since 1977, when the women’s and gender studies program was founded. 

What:

The women’s and gender studies program is a part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. 

The program focuses on studying the issues relevant to women and gender taking into account how race, socioeconomic status and sexual orientation play a role in gender issues. 

“Women’s and gender studies seeks to improve critical thinking and to provide students with the intellectual means to question prevailing assumptions,” the women’s and gender studies website states. 

It also states that the program fosters an awareness of the different approaches to the study of women, feminism and gender while recognizing there is great diversity among women, worldwide. 

The program offers an undergraduate major and minor as well as an interdisciplinary graduate minor for master’s and doctoral students.

There are over 50 courses offered in this program. Forty-six of these courses are open to undergraduate students.

Some of these courses include gender justice, a half semester course that examines the socialization process in the United States and how people’s perspectives are formed. 

Write like a woman is another course offered. This course examines fiction written by women and emphasizes stories that embody a female literary life and gender-specific ways of creating characters. 

Many of the courses offered count as U.S. diversity and international perspective credits.

When:

The women’s studies program was established in 1977. The program just held their 40th anniversary on Sept. 19 of this year.  

In 2015 the program submitted a proposal to change the title of the program from women’s studies to women’s and gender studies. 

The proposal stated it “represents a more accurate description of the teaching, research and outreach goal of [the] program, is in keeping with national trends in the field and will better serve ISU students.” 

Prior to this proposal, in 2011 the Faculty Senate approved a request from the program to change its administrative unit name from women’s studies to women’s and gender studies.  

Where:

There are many colleges across the United States that offer a women’s and gender studies program. In Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa, the University of Iowa, Grinnell College and Drake University all offer this program.  

On a more national level, University of Arizona, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Michigan State University are a few that offer it as well. 

Who:

There are many faculty members in the women’s and gender studies program.

Dr. Ann M. Oberhauser is the director of the women’s and gender studies program.

Oberhauser received her bachelor’s degree from Carleton College. Her fields of concentration were political science, international relations and French. She then obtained her master’s degree and Ph.D. from the Graduate School Of Geography at Clark University.

She came to Iowa State from West Virginia University where she was a professor of geography. 

There are two academic advisors for this program, Christiana Langenberg and Sabrina Shields-Cook. 

Langenberg was born in the Netherlands and immigrated to the United States.

She received her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Nebraska and her master’s degree in English and creative writing from the University of Minnesota.

“I enjoy helping students succeed by working with them to build their degree programs, creating new courses, coordinating learning communities and setting high standards for creative, well-articulated written texts,” Langenberg said. “ In particular, it’s great fun to witness the endless creativity that manifests itself in multi-modal projects.”

Sabrina Shields-Cook received her bachelor’s degree at the University of Iowa in physical and biological anthropology. She received both her Master of Arts in rhetoric, composition and professional communication and her Master of Education degrees from Iowa State. 

Prior to being an advisor for the women’s and gender studies program, she was an adviser for the College of Business and an adviser for the department of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering at Iowa State. 

Along with the director and advisers, there are 58 faculty affiliates and six teaching assistants. 

In the fall of 2017, six undergraduate students were enrolled in the program.

 

Why:

Many universities have incorporated women’s and gender studies programs. 

“The interdisciplinary nature of women’s and gender studies is a definite strength and provides great opportunities for students to experience the breadth of this field,” Oberhauser said in a women’s and gender studies newsletter from 2015.

Texas Tech University stated programs like this offer a variety of diverse perspectives on a broad array of topics such as intersectionality of race, class and gender.

They also stated “many women’s studies students report that their courses have had a profound impact on their lives by providing them with the means of understanding their experiences as women and men in society.”

More information can be found on their website https://womensstudies.las.iastate.edu/