The Role of Women’s and Gender Studies in Advancing Gender Equity

Abstract

Gender equity in and through education in part requires that the curriculum includes attention to the contributions and experiences of all sexes; teaching practices are designed to engage all students; and educational opportunities are not tied to sex, gender, sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Women's studies programs and courses emerged to specifically address women's lack of inclusion in the curriculum, engage in teaching methods which valued female experiences and learning styles, and create academic experiences that embraced students of all sexes and sexual orientations. From its earliest developments in the 1970s, to its vast institutional inclusion by the beginning of the 21st Century, women's studies has played a major role in achieving gender equity through education, and advancing understanding of sex and gender. The related fields of men's/masculinity studies, gay and lesbian studies, queer studies, and sexuality studies, often combined with women's studies under the designation “gender studies,” further extend attention to sex and gender within the curriculum and as the subject of research.