About

The Women's and Gender Studies program at Texas Tech University is an interdisciplinary academic program supporting transformational undergraduate- and graduate-level scholarship and teaching that explores how gender intersects with other social identities like race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, and disability. Through engaging feminist coursework, research, and practicum opportunities, we examine systems of power, privilege, and inequality. Women's and Gender Studies fosters creative, collaborative, and sustaining social justice approaches and feminist scholarship that advance understanding, equity, and compassion. 

History: The Program

There are * 652 Women's and Gender Studies programs at community colleges, colleges, and universities in the U.S.

In 1981, the Women's Studies Program was approved by ASCAP as an interdisciplinary program. Three students decided to pursue the minor that year. As of today, the program has grown to include curriculum for credit toward the Core Curriculum in the area of the Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Additionally, since 2006 the Women's Studies Program participates in the Graduate Certificate Program (GCP), offering a specialist inter-disciplinary sub-field in women's, gender, and identity studies for doctoral and master's degree candidates. The GCP also functions as a stand-alone credential useful for professionals.

If you are interested in adding to your critical thinking skills and focusing on a career that intersects multiple perspectives of diversity, our program will be a good addition to your academic plan. For more information see the following:

• Undergraduate Minor
• Graduate Minor & Graduate Certificate Program

* Source: “Mapping Women's and Gender Studies: A National Census of Women's and Gender Studies Programs in U.S. Institutions of Higher Education”, NORC Project 6433.01.62, Dec. 2007, The National Women's Studies Association

Evolution of Women's & Gender Studies

The first accredited Women's Studies course was held in 1969 at Cornell University. The first two Women's & Gender Studies programs in the United States were established in 1970 at San Diego State College (now San Diego State University) and SUNY-Buffalo. The SDSU program was initiated after a year of intense organizing of women's consciousness raising groups, rallies, petition circulating, and operating unofficial or experimental classes and presentations before seven committees and assemblies

The evolution of the discipline, and its status in academe today, are the subjects of the essays in The Evolution of American Women's Studies: Reflections on Triumphs, Controversies and Change (Palgrave Macmillan). Alice E. Ginsberg, an education consultant who edited the volume, responded to questions about its themes, citing the authors of essays in the collection.

Read more: Interview of Alice E. Ginsberg by Scott Jaschik, Editor, one of the three founders of Inside Higher Ed.,  Inside Higher Ed (2009)

What are students saying about Women's  and Gender Studies at Texas Tech?

Students Speak Out

Staff

Currently the program consist of a Director, Program Manager, Lecturer, and Visiting Assistant Professor.

Boards and Councils

Our Women's and Gender Studies Advisory Council consist of faculty, staff and students of the University. The purpose of the Women's and Gender Studies Council is to advise the Director of the program and enable all members of the University community to participate in and be informed about the Women's and Gender Studies Program.

The Director also serves, ad hoc, with the Gender Equity Council (Office of the President)

Organizational Design

• 2017 - present report to University Programs & Student Success (UPSS), Patrick C. Hughes
  Professor / Associate Vice Provost for UPSS
• 2010 - 2016 report to the Division of Institutional Diversity Equity & Community Engagement
• Go to the Timeline here

Resources

Miscellaneous Career Information

• WorldWideLearn Guide for Women's Studies Major
• Ms. Magazine Article on Women's Studies
• Artemis Guide to Women's & Gender Studiess in the US
• Feminism & Women's Studies
• Center for the Study of Women in Society
• National Organization for Women
• Global List of Women's Organizations (listed by country)

Recommended Reading

• Women's Studies on the Edge
• Joan Wallach.Scott - Duke University Press - 2008
• Transforming Scholarship:Wwhy Women's and Gender Studies Students are Changing Themselves and the World
• Michele TracyBerger - Cheryl Radeloff - Routledge - 2011
• Feminisms Matter: Debates, Theories, Activism
• Victoria L.Bromley - University of Toronto Press - 2012
• The world split open: how the modern women's movement changed America
• Ruth Rosen - Viking - 2000
• Sister outsider: essays and speeches
• Audre Lorde - Crossing Press - 1984
• Full frontal feminism: a young woman's guide to why feminism matters
• Jessica Valenti - Seal Press - 2007
• Teaching to transgress: education as the practice of freedom
• bell hooks - Routledge - 1994
• Different daughters: a history of the Daughters of Bilitis and the rise of the lesbian rights movement
• Marcia M.Gallo - Carroll & Graf Publishers - 2006
• Guyland: the perilous world where boys become men
• Michael S.Kimmel - Harper - 2008
• Girls speak out: finding your true self
• Andrea Johnston - Scholastic Press - 1997

Historical Resources

• Big 12 Conference WGS
• Evolution of WGS
• Texas Tech
• Tech Pioneer Women

Career Guide

Links of interest

• Big 12 Diversity & Equity
• National Equity Reports
• Salary Negotiation Websites

WGS Advisory Board/Council

The purpose of the WGS Council is to advise the Director of the program and enable all members of the University community to participate in and be informed about the Women's Studies Program.

• Strategic Plan
• Mission
• Vision