Women's Studies

• Department Information
• Program Description
• Career Opportunities
• Features
• Major Requirements (B.A.)
• Other Degree Requirements
• Minor in Women's Studies
• Undergraduate Courses

Department Information

Department of Human Development and Women's Studies
College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences
Office: Meiklejohn Hall 3069
Phone: (510) 885-3076
 
Website: http://class.csueastbay.edu/womensstudies
 
Professors
Rainer Bauer, Ph.D. Stanford University
Patricia Guthrie, Ph.D. University of Rochester
Jiansheng Guo, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley
 
Associate Professors
Christina Chin-Newman Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz
Lynn Comerford, Ph.D. (Director) State University of New York, Albany
Keri K. O'Neal, Ph.D. Texas Tech University
 
Assistant Professors
Steve Borish, Ph.D. Stanford University
Maxwell Davis, Ph.D. University of Southern California
Patricia Drew, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara
D. Xeno Rasmusson, Ph.D. University of Georgia
Rachael Stryker, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley
 
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Program Description

Mission Statement

Women's Studies explores theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of women across a range of contexts. Courses connect academic work with the social and political world outside the University, educate our students about a range of social issues and problems that relate to sexism, racism, classism, heterosexism, and ethnocentrism; and link knowledge, research, teaching, and social activism. We immerse students in the discovery and production of knowledge that emerges from multiple perspectives. We engage students in the study of gender and the intersection of gender with other substantive categories of analysis and identity, including race, sexuality, class, (dis)ability, and nationality. We promote responsible citizenship in a diverse local and global environment. We empower students to think more critically about their own lives and to critique social, cultural, and institutional structures, policies and practices.

Undergraduate courses in Women's Studies ensure that B.A. students receive an interdisciplinary education that bridges theory and practice, and focuses on the intersections of gender, race, class, sexuality, and nationality in all areas of research. Electives in the social sciences, sciences, and humanities increase the interdisciplinary strength of the program.

A two-quarter field-study seminar, taken in the senior year, and a two-quarter senior capstone course bring majors together to think through connections among the diverse theoretical and methodological approaches they have encountered as well as between scholarship and social action.

Goals

• To provide students with the theoretical and methodological tools needed to examine the intersections of gender with other forms of difference and power, such as sexuality, race, class, and nation, in local and transnational contexts
• To provide a forum for intellectual debate and a catalyst for students committed to social action which addresses various forms of social injustice
• To provide fieldwork placements which culminate in a senior thesis
• To build supportive local community environments for women by disseminating fieldwork research findings back to the community

Student Learning Outcomes:

Graduates will be able to:

• understand feminist theoretical and methodological perspectives
• critique social inequalities founded on the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and nation
• critically reflect upon their own lives from a feminist perspective
• comprehend the challenges of dismantling sexism and other oppressive beliefs

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Career Opportunities

The Women's Studies major is excellent preparation for life, and careers and graduate study in a wide range of fields, including government and public policy, non-profit and social justice organizations, law, educational institutions, and many other professional and human-service fields.

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Features

Women's Studies is an interdisciplinary area of scholarship and research and raises questions which have often been ignored or marginalized in traditional academic disciplines. Our Program builds on several decades of feminist work in women's studies and deliberately integrates theory, research methods and service learning.

The courses in Women's Studies emphasize participatory education in which student involvement, critical thinking, and personal insight are encouraged and made relevant in the learning process. In this Program, theory and practice are combined creatively and productively. Research, fieldwork, and service are central to the process of learning and applying knowledge. The Program stresses the importance of social responsibility, political activism, and community outreach. The curriculum explores how institutionalized sexism, racism, classism, and heterosexism limit human achievement and dignity. Local service learning fieldwork provides an opportunity to examine first-hand the changes necessary to eliminate these limitations.

Service learning fieldwork enables majors to create richly detailed accounts of women as social agents whose identities and experiences are shaped by social, political and economic forces. Service learning is incorporated into the major through fieldwork in community agencies focused on advocacy, law and policy, reproductive rights and health, support services for survivors of violence and abuse, and U.S. politics.

As part of its mission to educational access for all students, particularly to students with paid work and care work commitments, the Program incorporates a broad range of educational formats including online classes, hybrid classes that combine an online component with face-to-face interaction, and face-to-face lecture/discussion and seminar classes.

The Program also offers its major through P.A.C.E. (Program for Accelerated College Education). Please contact P.A.C.E. for further information.

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Major Requirements (B.A.)

This degree was pending implementation at the time of catalog production for this Catalog. Please check with the department for the status of this degree.

The major in Women's Studies requires a minimum of 17 upper-division courses for a total of 68 units. Students will be required to take 15 courses in the Women's Studies Program and 2 electives from the Women's Studies Program or from the Approved Elective Courses list located on the Women's Studies CSUEB website and in the Human Development/Women's Studies Department office (MI 3069).

The Women's Studies major consists of a total of 80 units: 12 lower-division units and 68 upper-division units. The B.A. degree requires a total of 180 units.

1. Lower Division (12 units)
   Select three 4-unit lower division courses from the following categories, with no more than one course from each category. 
   1. Anthropology
   2. Communication Studies
   3. Economics
   4. English
   5. Ethnic or area studies
   6. History
   7. Philosophy
   8. Political Science
   9. Psychology
   10. Sociology
   11. Additional categories may be approved by the department.
2. Upper Division (68 units)

   Students are required to take 17upper-division courses for a total of 68 units. (Note: Students with a specific interest/emphasis may, with Program approval, substitute courses in other departments.)

   • WOST 3110 Theories of Feminism I (4)
   • WOST 3200 Theories of Feminism II (4)
   • WOST 3300 Women, Law, Policy and Activism in the Contemporary U.S. (4)
   • WOST 3440 Women and Social Constructions of Sexuality (4)
   • WOST 3545 Women's Health and Health Care (4)
   • WOST 3600 Women and Work in the U.S. (4)
   • WOST 3700 Comparative Perspectives on Global Feminisms (4)
   • WOST 3810 Domestic Discontents in the Contemporary U.S. (4)
   • WOST 3850 Research Practices and Methods for Feminist Scholarship (4)
   • WOST 3900 Violence Against Women (4)
   • WOST 4500 Feminist Thought into Action (4)
   • WOST 4600 Action Research Seminar I (4)
   • WOST 4700 Action Fieldwork in Women's Studies I (4)
   • WOST 4800 Action Fieldwork in Women's Studies II (4)
   • WOST 4910 Action Research Seminar II (4)
   Choose two upper-division electives. The specific upper division courses to satisfy the 8 unit requirement are selected with advisor approval from the Program’s subject area course list, which will include appropriate courses from other disciplines.
   Approved Electives for Women's Studies' Majors:
   Women's Studies' majors are encouraged to take up to 8 units (2 classes) from departments across campus. We encourage, but do not require, students to take 8 units listed under one of the themes.
   Additional courses, not found on this list, may be approved on a case-by-case basis.
   • Social Justice and Community Activism
     • CRJA 4124 Sex Crime Investigation
     • CRJA 4125 Women in Criminal Justice
     • PHIL 3503 Philosophy and Law
     • PHIL 3510 Human Rights and Social Justice: Cultural Groups and Women in the U.S.
     • PHIL 3515 Race and Social Justice
     • POSC 3333 Ethnic and Minority Politics
     • POSC 3340 Women and Politics
     • POSC 3360 Culture and Politics in the United States
     • POSC 3170 Public Policy and the Family
     • POSC 3419 Labor Policy and Law
     • POSC 3715 The State and the Family
     • SOC 3710 Social Policy
     • SOC 4450 Urban Sociology
   • Resources, Technology and Globalization
     • BIOL 3800 Achievements of Women in Science
     • COMM 4500 Women in Media
     • NURS 3404 Care of Childbearing Families
     • PHIL 3511 Philosophy of Human Rights and Global Justice
     • POSC 3500 World Problems and Global Response
     • POSC 3521 Politics of the Global Economy
     • POSC 3418 U.S. Immigration Policy and Law
     • SOC 3431 Seminar in World Development
     • SOC 3700 Introduction to Social Services
   • Arts, Humanities and Society
     • ANTH 3750 Women in Cross-Cultural Perspective
     • ART 3227 Women in Art
     • COMM 4850 Gender and Communication
     • ENGL 3050 Language and Gender
     • ENGL 3071 Writing Women's Lives: A Workshop
     • ENGL 3650 Woman and Literature
     • ENGL 3770 Gay and Lesbian Literature
     • ENGL4650 Studies in Ethnic American Women's Literature
     • ES 3030 Immigrant and Refugee Women
     • ES 3730 Women of Color Genders and Sexualities
     • ES 4300 Queer of Color Subjects and Critical Theory
     • ES 3210 Latinas in the United States
     • HIST 3570 The Family and Sexuality in American History
     • HIST 3571 Women in American History
     • HIST 3572 American Women in the Twentieth Century
     • HDEV 3304 Girls and Women Across the Lifespan
     • HDEV 4440 Lesbian and Gay Lifespan Development
     • MLL 3938 Italian American Women Through Literature
     • PHIL 3161 Philosophy and Sex
     • PHIL 3720 Feminist Philosophy
     • PSYC 3410 Psychology of Women
     • REC 3202 Women and Leisure
     • SOC 3410 Sociology of the Family
     • SOC 3411 Sociology of Gender
     • SOC 3412 Marriage and Sex
     • SOC 3413 Sociology of Parenting
     • SOC 3420 Social Inequality
     • SOC 3425 Prejudice and Discrimination
     • SOC 3510 Sociology of Identity
     • SOC 3520 Sociology of Minority Groups
     • SOC 3880 Work and Professions
     • THEA 3310 Interpretation of Women's and Ethnic Literature
     • THEA 3326 Ethnic Women Playwrights and Performers
     • THEA 3300 Sex, Race, and Body Politics in Dance

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Other Degree Requirements

In addition to major requirements, every student must also complete the University requirements for graduation which are described in the Baccalaureate Degree Requirements chapter in the front of this catalog. These include the General Education-Breadth requirements; the second composition (ENGL 1002) requirement; the cultural groups/women requirement; the performing arts/activities requirement; the U.S. history, U.S. Constitution, and California state and local government requirement; the University Writing Skills Requirement; and the residence, unit, and grade point average requirements.

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Minor in Women's Studies

No more than six units in the major department, nor more than 8 units of lower division courses may be applied to the minor. No more than four units may be taken on a "CR/NC" basis. Altogether, 24 units are required. Students who wish to minor in Women's Studies should see the coordinator as soon as possible.

1. Core Courses (8-12 units)
   • WOST 1001 Perspectives on Women (4)
   • WOST 1002 Women in Contemporary Society (4)
2. Electives in Women's Studies (8-12 units)
   Two or three courses with special reference to the status and problems of women selected from:
   • COMM 4500 Women in Media (4)
   • ENGL 3650 Women and Literature (4)
   • HIST 3124 Women in Classical Antiquity (4)
   • HIST 3571 Women in America to 1890 (4)
   • POSC 3170 Public Policy and the Family (4)
   • POSC 3340 Women and Politics (4)
   • PSYC 3410 Psychology of Women (4)
   • SOC 3411 Sociology of Gender (4)
   • WOST 3050 Feminist Theory (4)
   • WOST 3400 Women and Careers (4)
   • WOST 3420 Minority Women in America (4)
   • WOST 3500 Portrayal of Women in the Movies (4)
   • WOST 3520 Mothers Daughters and Sons (4)
   • WOST 3530 Women and Their Bodies (4)
   • WOST 4900 Independent Study (1-4)
3. Elective in a Related Field
   Four units should be selected with an advisor in Women's Studies from the following:
   • COMM 4500; ENGL 3650; HIST 3124, 3571; POSC 3170; PSYC 3410; SOC 3411; WOST 3400, 3420, 3500, 3520, 3530, or 4900 if not used to complete requirement II above.
   • ANTH 3110 Primate Social Behavior (4), 3400 Social Anthropology (4), 3740 Cross-Cultural Studies in Child-Rearing (4), 3745 Human Sexuality: Anthropological Perspectives (4); BIOL 3060 Human Sexuality (4); E S 3000 Ethnic Writers (4) (when emphasis is on women writers); 3810 History of Minority Education (4); HIST 4710 History and Trends in Nursing (4); KPE 1018 Self Defense--Women (4); MLL 4495 A Single Movement, Country, or Theme: Spanish American Literature (4) (when the theme focuses on women); PHIL 3510 Human Rights and Social Justice: Cultural Groups and Women in the U.S. (4), 3720 Feminist Philosophy (4); PSYC 3520 Interpersonal Processes (4); 3540 Groups and Organizations (4), 4420 Developmental Psychology (4), 4610 Psychology of Personality (4); SOC 3410 Sociology of the Family (4), 3415 Sociology of the African American Family (4), 3416 Sociology of the Mexican American Family (4), 3500 Social Psychology (4)
     
     It is recommended that all students in the minor take at least one course that has a primary focus on minority women in America.

Other Elective Courses

Other elective courses (with appropriate content) may be approved by the Women's Studies Committee as they are developed by departments.

Undergraduate Courses

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