What a gender studies?
Someone Thinking, Gender means Sex. But It is not correct everywhere. Gender studies Focus on the ways gender identity and sexual orientation shape behavior and feelings, and it investigates power dynamics that relate to sex. This field includes men’s studies, women’s studies, and queer studies, and occasionally addresses widespread social concerns such as domestic violence. The academic discipline also investigates the causes of sex-based discrimination and harassment and solutions to the problem.
Topics in Gender Studies Courses
Gender studies often focus on expanding the scope of other liberal arts disciplines by examining materials that were previously overlooked because of their association with marginalized groups, according to some experts.
"It's filling in the gaps for all the things that were left out when history and all of the fields were focusing more on men," says Emily Meghan Morrow Howe, founder of the American Association of Corporate Gender Strategists, an organization that focuses on reducing workplace gender bias.
For example, a gender studies literature class may concentrate on the works of underappreciated women authors, says Howe, who frequently uses the nickname "Femily," an allusion to her queer identity.
Howe notes that gender studies are similar to ethnic studies in its focus on the distribution of power in society and its examination of "the systems of privilege and oppression."
Taryn A. Myers, an associate professor of psychology at Virginia Wesleyan University who teaches women's and gender studies courses, says the field of gender studies provides relevant information for everyone, regardless of gender.
"For example, the same patriarchal factors that say women are weak and disregard women's strengths also say that men cannot express emotion, which is linked to men's mental health issues and the higher rates of death by suicide for men," Myers wrote in an email.
Gender studies is an interdisciplinary field of study that incorporates insights from the traditional humanities subjects, social sciences, and physical sciences.
"The topics really range," Myers says. "For example, they might study a mental illness that disproportionately affects women, such as eating disorders or depression. They may study the role gender plays in the electability of political candidates. They may study interpersonal gender violence and its repercussions."
Misconceptions About Gender Studies
Some gender studies scholars and degree recipients say a frustrating myth about the academic discipline is that its mission is to denigrate masculinity. The field is not intrinsically antagonistic toward men, Howe says, because "everyone benefits without social norms forcing them into a box."
Mark Justad, a member of the religious studies faculty at Guilford College in North Carolina and director of its Center for Principled Problem Solving, says gender studies offers many lessons about cultural ideals surrounding masculinity.