Why Did Women’s Studies Emerge In The Academic Community?

Women’s Studies emerged in the academic community in conjunction with the second-wave feminist movement whose goal was to bring women from different backgrounds together and to become more knowledgeable of their experiences. The academic discipline of Women’s Studies started during the 1970s and it observes women’s lives from around the world. It focuses on how gender interconnects with other differences such as disability, class, age, ethnicity, race, and sex-orientation. Women’s studies is an interdisciplinary field and it examines gender as a social and cultural construct, the social status and contributions of women, and the relationships between power and gender. Women Studies disciplines consist of history, politics, literature, theory, psychology, and sociology. Literature is one of the most important disciplines in Women’s Studies. We rediscovering of old texts and while trying to understand the symbolism in the writings so that the women’s point of view can not be ignored or lost by the males point of view and contesting sexism in mainstream literature. Old literature during the first wave of feminism that I really admired while taking me World Lit Class was “A Room of Ones Own”, by Virginia Woolf. She spoke of how the only way for a woman to thrive in society during that time was to have her own home and maintain her own finances. The only reason she was able to maintain her own way of life was because her Aunt had passed and left her money. However other women had to rely on the finances of men.