What Can I Do With a Women's Studies Major?

A brief WMST-L discussion in February 2000 produced some useful resources
to help address the question "what can I do with a major in
Women's Studies?"  Also relevant are some later messages that
respond to the question of whether/how women's studies prepares
students for the job market.  For additional WMST-L files
available on the Web, see the WMST-L File Collection.

Does anyone or any program out there have a brochure or handout on the
important question, "What can I do with a major in Women's Studies?"  Our
program needs one and would rather not reinvent the wheel, if we don't have
to.
Thanks in advance!
Glynis Carr
Program Coordinator for Women's Studies
Bucknell University

Glynis,

You might want to take a look at the book _Women's Studies
Graduates: The First Generation_ (1995) eds. Barbara Luebke and
Mary Ellen Reilly (New York: Teacher's College Press).

We've just finished writing a short section on this topic for our
department pamphlet and we tracked what some of our grads are
doing with their ws degrees.

Hope this helps.

Katherine Side
Katherine.Side  AT  MSVU.ca

Department of Women's Studies
Moutn Saint Vincent University
Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3M 2J6

York University's WS Dept. has a section on its web page on this very
question.  It's very good. [The URL is http://www.yorku.ca/wsyork/career.htm ]

-Nancy Jabbra, Loyola Marymount University, <njabbra  AT  lmumail.lmu.edu>.

I'm putting together a workshop for undergrads in the certificate program
at UM- St. Louis addressing this topic and just stumbled across a terrific
web resource from Michigan State. It's the most comprehensive site I've
found so far.

http://www.msu.edu/unit/wmstdy/wsmjr0.htm

Shereen Siddiqui
Department Specialist, Institute for Women's & Gender Studies
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of Sociology
University of Missouri- St. Louis
shereen  AT  umsl.edu

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"Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try."
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----- Original Message -----

> >Our administration is asking that our WS Program demonstrate that women's
> >studies ed--taken under liberal arts--leads to jobs. Does anyone know of good
> >sources of data either about liberal arts ed or ws ed leading to jobs or
> >"serving industry"? Please reply to iiamm  AT  aol.com. Thanks--Inez Martinez
>
> You might ask them if they require the liberal arts departments such as
> English, literature, history to prove the same thing.
> mp

Marge raises a very good question.  I would suggest you review the
WMST-L archives since I think this has been posted before.  Also I
always find the University of Massachusetts, Amherst web site section
What can you do with a WS degree? helpful. It has a great list. I am
sure other college and university web sites have similar information.  
http://www.umass.edu/wost/

Good luck, Anne Wiley

Anne M. Wiley, Ed.D., Professor
Psychology and Women's Studies
Greenfield Community College
Greenfield MA 01301
wiley  AT  gcc.mass.edu
wiley  AT  crocker.com

Recent work by Maryanne Dever will be helpful.  See her recent
publications at
http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ws/staff/maryanne_dever.html

Here is a taste:

'Don't Know Where This Will Take Meö: Rethinking Study/Work
Relationships for Women's Studies Students'. Women's Studies
Quarterly, 30: 3-4 (2002)

'Life After Women's Studies: Graduates and the Labour Market'. In
Robyn Wiegman (ed.) Women's Studies On Its Own. Durham, N.C.:
Duke University Press, 2002 [With D. Cuthbert and L. Pollak]

'Beyond the Campus: Some Initial Findings on Women's Studies,
Careers, and Employers'. Journal of International Women's Studies, 2:
2 (May 2001).(with E. Day) Journal of International Women's Studies

(with D. Cuthbert and L. Pollak.) Life After Women's Studies:
Graduates and the Labour Market. In Robyn Wiegman (ed.) Locating
Feminism: The Politics of Women's Studies. Durham, NC.:Duke
University Press. In press.

 'The Women's Studies Major: What Employers and Careers Advisors
Had to Say', AWSA Newsletter (2001). (with E. Day) Australian
Women's Studies Association

Facing New Challenges and Finding New Answers: Women's Studies
in Australia. Gender Studies: News and Views No. 16 (October 1999),
12-14.

(with D. Cuthbert and A. Dacre) Women's Studies Graduates and the
Labour Market: New Thoughts and New Questions. Atlantis: A
Women's Studies Journal 23:2 (1999), 102-110.

Hope this is helpful.

Cheers
hb
________________
Dr Heather Brook
Women's Studies
Flinders University
GPO Box 2100
Adelaide, SA 5001
Australia