"Transform The World: What you can do with a degree in Women’s Studies."
Click here to read the Ms. Magazine article

Women's Studies students present their Senior Projects, Fall 2007.

Why Women's Studies?
Who We Are and What We Do

	Women's Studies is a central site for interdisciplinary teaching and research in the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State. As a field of study, Women's Studies analyzes the unequal distribution of power and resources by gender. By adding the perceptions, contributions, and experiences of women, this young and vital field of research and teaching has produced an exciting body of knowledge and theory that transforms traditional areas of study.
Penn State's Women's Studies Department was established in 1979. The undergraduate minor was added in November of that year. The graduate minor and the undergraduate major were approved in July 1991. Dual Degree Masters and PhD programs were established in 2001.		Over 25 faculty members at University Park are active in Women's Studies teaching and research. Nearly 50 faculty members are active in Women's Studies at Commonwealth campuses, the Behrend College, and Harrisburg Capital Campus. Behrend and Harrisburg both offer a Women's Studies minor.
The Women's Studies major emphasizes the development of critical and analytical skills, creative approaches to problem solving, and the ability to articulate productive alternatives. We encourage our students to be active learners and to take advantage of the many opportunities that Penn State offers for educational enrichment. We especially encourage participation in internships, study abroad, independent research with faculty and, if eligible, Penn State's honors program, the Schreyer Honors College.		Women's Studies scholars study women and women's perspectives in all areas of academic scholarship. The Women's Studies major focuses on feminist analyses of women's lives; of women's social, cultural, and scientific contributions; and on the structure of sex/gender systems. Women's Studies students learn about the diversity of womens' experiences and study women's lives through history and across cultures. On the graduate level, dual degree PhD candidates and graduate minors come from a wide variety of fields to Women's Studies to enhance their work through the study of feminist theory and research methods.

Photos (courtesy of Lorraine Dowler) depict the Women's Studies 497A: Global Activism international service learning class trip to East Africa in summer 2007 to work at the Mt. Meru Peak School in Tanzania


Carolyn Sachs, Department Head
Lori Ginzberg, Graduate Officer
Jill Wood, Undergraduate Director