What is Women's Studies?

Women's Studies is an interdisciplinary field of research and teaching that places gender at the center of inquiry for the purpose of freeing the world from sexism, racism, homophobia, heterosexism, class bias, discrimination based on age and physical ability, and other forms of oppression.

Women's Studies assumes that sex and gender are socially constructed categories that shape individual and collective experiences.

Women's Studies asks questions about these shaping processes, especially how we produce knowledge about them and how they are affected by race and ethnicity, class, age, physical ability, and sexuality.

Considering these questions enhances our ability to think critically, and Women's Studies has transformed teaching and research in traditional disciplines since its founding in the 1970s.

Today there are over 600 Women's Studies programs in US universities. Thousands of universities around the world offer feminist curricula, and hundreds offer master's and doctoral degrees in Women's or Feminist Studies.

The PUC Women's Studies Program offers courses that can be taken individually or combined into the Women's Studies minor or a Women's Studies Concentration in the Associate of Arts degree in Liberal Arts.

The Women's Studies Program also sponsors events that address the personal, professional, cultural, and educational needs of a diverse population of women, both on the campus and in the community.

To register for classes, contact the university registrar at http://esc.calumet.purdue.edu/admissions/ or call 800/HI-PURDUE ext. 2213.

For more information about the Purdue University Calumet Women's Studies Program call 219/989-2257 or toll free throughout northern Indiana and Chicagoland 800/HI-PURDUE ext. 2257, e-mail wost@calumet.purdue.edu, or write:

Rebecca Stankowski, Director of Liberal Studies, Purdue University Calumet
2200 169th Street, Hammond, IN 46323-2094