Graduate Degrees in Gender and Women's Studies??? The fact that you have to ask proves they are relevant!

also posted on Feministing:  http://community.feministing.com/2010/02/graduate-degrees-in-gender-and.html

My mother never questioned my undergraduate major in Women’s Studies or my certificate in Sexuality Studies, perhaps because they were supplemented with a major in English.  She did, however, question my decision to work for a single Master’s in Gender and Women’s Studies, claiming it was a field that would only hurt me in the long run as I applied for jobs. Her concern was that my graduate degree’s presence on a job application would label me a “bra-burning feminist”, as well as render me unqualified for any position outside of feminist non-profits.

My mother’s concern that having on a resume a graduate degree in Gender and Women’s Studies would label me a “bra-burning feminist” has a rich, anti-feminist history of the Rush Limbaugh brand. Stigma surrounding the F word is so prevalent that it could cost me a job lest I stir up the system. I felt this fear of speaking truth to power last summer when I claimed sexual harassment at work and was told by an ombudsperson it would never hold up because I am legally considered an unreasonable woman...due to my area of study and involvement with feminist and women’s organizations. While much of society, and particularly young women, have bought into Limbaugh’s feminazi theory as well as the liberty of “Girls Gone Wild” and other side-effects of post-feminism, Gender and Women’s Studies acknowledges the political ploy at play. Gender and Women’s Studies states that what has changed has changed to fit a new generational context but that the status of women is not necessarily better. Further, the field actively works to dispel this myth so that “bra-burning feminists” such as myself are legally able to challenge the system while employed.

The wide-spread belief that a degree in Gender and Women’s Studies is not applicable to any “respectable” career stems from, among other things, a misunderstanding of the field. Like any other area of humanities, Gender and Women’s Studies does not lead directly into a specific career like with business and medical majors. Not only do I get asked what I plan to do with this degree, I am also asked what I am going to do with an English degree. Gender and Women’s Studies trains students in critical reading and writing, argument formation, theory, research, personal and political exploration, diversity and cultural competency, interdisciplinary knowledge, and professionalism, many of which are components of other humanities. But unlike English, Gender and Women’s Studies is seen as irrelevant. With these skills, however, many careers engaging with social and victim services, politics, education, and other sectors are possible.

Perhaps most importantly, Gender and Women’s Studies has the power to influence and change lives in a way that most other disciplines do not. It fosters an honesty I have yet to find in other disciplines, and it is easy to place myself in the material and its objectives as both academic and activist in nature. Gender and Women’s Studies is one of the few academic fields that attempts to engage social, cultural, and political realities while working to eradicate oppression and provide new world-views. Its scholarship encourages free-thinking and the challenging of tradition. In its intertwining of the personal, political, and interdisciplinary, the field serves as an educational tool, a tool for personal development, and a tool for social activism.

If more people understood the current state of feminism to be in jeopardy, Gender and Women’s Studies perhaps would not need to be defended. It is not an outdated 1970s discipline because equality has not been reached. And contrary to popular opinion, sexism (as well as other isms for that matter) does still exist; it exists so deeply that most young women are blind – complacent – to its power. Gender and Women’s Studies functions to eradicate sexism and systemic oppression. Even after (if ever) it is eradicated, the field will still have a place in education, ensuring that all remember the past as it was. Further, feminist scholarship influences the way people think about themselves and the world, providing a place for self and social exploration, and perpetuates feminism’s livelihood.

Gender and Women’s Studies is necessary to our world. We feminist scholars directly and actively link the personal with the political in a way that encourages action; we provide the slate – the way of thinking about society – for activist methodology. We enter into various careers that engage this way of thinking either through publishing or utilizing it in an environment that needs it. If society were to view Gender and Women’s Studies for what it truly is – if more people knew its purpose and merit as a field examining gendered power relations and systemic oppression – it would be accepted as a “respectable” field of inquiry with “respectable” careers. If more people were to accept that feminism is not dead because sexism is alive and kicking and that this is problematic because of how it distributes power, my mother wouldn’t be so quick to suggest a different educational path. She would see my decision to continue my education in Gender and Women’s Studies as another way in which I work to make the world a better place for her, for all women, for all people. And my mother would praise me for this, no matter what I do with my degree.