The following testimonials from a UW-Stout student and the program director describe how course work within the minor can enhance your degree.
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Tasha Sookochoff |
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Kate Thomas |
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Student Testimonial Transcript
Q: Why did you choose this minor?
“I chose the minor because I have a lot of interest in women’s studies in general. I’ve always been interested in civil rights and women’s studies to begin with, so this minor is really neat as it takes all of the reading I’ve done from De Beauvoir and Gloria Steinem and it culminates in these courses.”
Q: How will this help your career?
“I hope it gives me a wider perspective of gender issues in general and some things I might run into in a workplace and how to deal with some of those issues. And also really develop my critical thinking in the field; applying the issues and how you work them out and what the root of a lot of these stereotypes and social constructions are and how I can apply them to my applied field. It’s looking at the bigger picture instead of just one small area.”
Q: What advice can you give?
“I would suggest that they don’t approach it with any preconceived notions, go into it with an open mind. Get as much out of the courses as they possibly can. Consider some outside readings that can help them gain a full perspective of everything that’s going on. And maybe even take interest in some of the things going on with campus. Look at organizations who are dealing with issues and professors who might have insight, just really try and gain the bigger picture.”
Program Director Transcript
Why is the Minor so important?
Women and gender studies minor is important simply because either you are a woman or you know women. The other way to also think about it is that everybody has gender and so it just really helps to think about that and what does it mean. Especially because the stereotypes that we have of women or the stereotypes that we have as men actually have a long history to them. It is not the same 20 years ago, 50 years ago 100, or 200 years ago and so that of course also means that 50 years in the future we’re going to have different expectations too. I think it really helps to study them to know what society expects of us but then also, how we can change those expectations.
Is the minor only about women?
It used to be just women’s studies so because there is so much sexism and women being held to different standards or lowered standards or limitations and not being able to do certain things, that we first started out studying women but of course there are also limitations on what men can do. More and more there are men that choose to stay home take care of the children, while their wife works. But still that’s a very small minority so you know even while still changes we see going on we still need to look at both women and at men, to try and to figure out why society expects the things of us that they do and also to understand what the American expectations are of women are not the same as like if you go to China or you go to India or you go to some European country it differs by region.
What does feminism really mean?
I think it was what the American Revolution was about, freedom and equality for everyone. It means that you are not going to be discriminated against because of your gender. And I always like to give the example if it’s like firefighting or the military. You know if you need a certain amount of strength that you know that should be in the job description, not a man or not a woman but if you need to lift a certain amount of weight put that in the job description and then anyone that can meet that should be able get the job, so just sticking to the descriptions. And also not just jobs but also family relationships, personal relationships, feminism really cuts across the board you know if you’re talking about housework and both people in the relationship work forty hours a week then both should have to do the same amount of house work, so really about choosing equality.
How have women changed history?
Essentially anything that you look at women has been involved in. Women began the dairy industry in the United States, they began the canning industry, computers women were the first software programmers. In the astronaut program NASA when that was just beginning in the cold war in the United States women tested better than men and yet men were the ones chosen to be the astronauts. So essentially any filed you look at I think women have made huge contributions so I think a more interesting question to look at and which is what we do in Women’s Studies in U.S. Women’s History and the other courses is why don’t we know about these women? Why do we know about Einstein but not the fact that actually Einstein wrote that paper with his wife? He wrote three papers in one year with his wife at the time Malena, and yet we know about Einstein but we don’t know about her and that Einstein never did the amount of work that he did once he left his wife. All of a sudden his productivity went took a nose dive. And so you know recently public TV has made a movie about Einstein and his wife that takes a looks at the work they did together. And so a lot of people don’t know about Malena and so I think wondering why we don’t why we even have to ask that question. Who are the women and what did they do when we should be taught be taught that from grade school just like we are with Christopher Columbus and Einstein.
Will this minor help my career?
Career opportunities again I think they go in all kinds of directions though on a resume you might phrase things differently certainly there’s going to be the more obvious ones like shelters for women who have been abused but I think that any other kind of liberal arts or sociology or psychology fields. But I also think just also in terms of business it’s important for you to be able to put on your resume you can understand working with a diverse workforce in terms of gender. The other thing we do in women studies, because not all women are alike we also take a look at different economical classes of women, race, ethnicity, as well as international. So in that way you can also put on your resume, that you understand a diverse workforce from the point of view of class, race, gender, whatever it is that you are going to encounter. And then if you are a woman or a man going into a nontraditional field. You’re a man going becoming a nurse or if you’re a woman going into construction and the trades; it helps you be more aware of some of the difficulties that you might face and how you can approach those difficulties to be successful in the field.
Can I get involved on campus?
Well right now we have the Women and Gender Studies committee which runs the minor we also have a student group Manifesta, named after the book and so they’re getting involved in all kinds of things. Women in engineering club, women in math, and again just like I was saying before almost every field that you look at there are women involved in that. Sometimes there are the more formal groups like Women in Engineering. We are looking for women in the trades so if there is anybody out there that would like to start such a group we are looking for that to start up a group in that area. But I think those are the main groups along with the inclusivity groups is probably the last one.