The approval of a women’s studies major at the College is the result of longstanding interest in the discipline and an acknowledgement of its value within the academic curriculum, according to faculty and administrators.

After being offered as a minor for 14 years, women’s studies was approved as a major by College President Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P. in December. It becomes the 49th major offered at the College.

“The Women’s Studies Program has long attracted talented faculty and students and has sustained strong enrollments. More recently, a number of students have developed individualized majors in women’s studies suggesting the need to formalize the major,” said Dr. Hugh F. Lena, vice president for academic affairs and professor of sociology.

Jane Lunin Perel, professor of English and director of the Women’s Studies Program, said her colleagues and she, as well as the students in the Women’s Studies Program, were thrilled with the approval of the new academic major.

“The addition of the major is an acknowledgement that the discipline of women’s studies is as enriching, challenging, and rewarding as any other major,” said Perel.

As Lena noted, several students each year have chosen to create individual majors in women’s studies—a process that Perel said is quite cumbersome.

“Students would have to fill out paperwork and write essays in order to declare an individual major in women’s studies. I think that the easy access to it as a major will make a difference for interested students,” she said.

The College’s newest major is an interdisciplinary academic field of study that focuses on the challenges and contributions of women throughout history and in contemporary times. Perel stated that the goal of women’s studies is “to help students understand these accomplishments and challenges, to understand gender as a social construct, to fight against stereotypes, and to use the analytical categories of gender, race, class, ethnicity, religion, nationality, age, and physical condition to gain a broader knowledge of identity and diversity.”

As Perel explained, the department began its efforts for a new major with a proposal by Dr. Charlotte G. O’Kelly, professor of sociology, who was the acting director of the program during the fall 2006 semester. Once the proposal was accepted by the women’s studies executive committee, it was passed to Lena. It was then approved by the Faculty Senate and sent to Father Shanley, who made the final approval.

History and components
The women’s studies minor, which was developed in 1993, typically graduates an average of 15 students each year. Aside from an Introduction to Women’s Studies course and a Capstone Seminar in Women’s Studies, all courses in the field are interdisciplinary. Students enroll in courses cross-listed with those in the humanities and social sciences.

The minor requires students to enroll in the women’s studies introduction and capstone courses, two women’s studies courses in the humanities, and two in the social sciences. Students now declaring women’s studies as a major will go beyond these requirements by taking four additional courses in either discipline.

According to Perel, in order for a course to be considered as a women’s studies course, at least half of the course work must be written by or about women. In addition, each course must have a focus on the challenges and accomplishments of women and a theoretical component that emphasizes the analytical categories previously noted. It also must be student centered and employ the collaborative pedagogy of women’s studies.

As the major is entirely interdisciplinary, no new faculty will be hired, but as in the past, Perel will be looking to recruit more professors to provide courses cross-listed with women’s studies. Currently, about 28 faculty members conduct courses which are cross-listed in women’s studies, six of whom have a dual faculty appointment in women’s studies and their major departments.

— Cate Rauseo ’07