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Women's
and Gender Studies Department
Department Office
Rachel Carson Hall 18
1801 East Cotati Avenue
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
Phone: (707) 664-2840
Fax: (707) 664-4202
Acting Department Chair:
Don Romesburg (Sp'09)
Administrative
Coordinator:
Jo-Ann Smith
Women's and Gender Studies (WGS)
is an interdisciplinary major that examines the experiences and
opportunities of women and men in relation to race, ethnicity,
class and sexuality. WGS places gender in specific cultural and
historical contexts in relation to families, communities, and nations.
In addition, feminist scholarship in recent years has inspired
a vast array of work on those who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual
or transgendered. Uniting inquiry in Women's and Gender Studies
is the effort to understand and explain the inequalities between
and among men and women and to envision change.
"My degree in Women's &
Gender Studies has given me a depth and breadth of understanding that
really helps me to help people understand that many of the things they
accept as just 'how things are' are really nothing more than social
conditioning, and are therefore things they can change. Violence is
not a matter of men being innately aggressive, or women being innately
passive, but without the scope my education gave me, I don't know if
I would be able to present this as effectively. I love being able to
use my knowledge in a way that touches so many people's lives in such
a positive way."
- Corey Hale (2000) Domestic Violence Prevention Education Coordinator,
Project Sanctuary, Ukiah
"Gender Studies is proof
that the study of "the Other" is also a study of the Self. It
is when we stereotype--whether it is by gender, race, or sexuality--we
give our power away and allow it to be taken. Gender Studies has given
me a foundation in which to more clearly see others for who and what they
are while empowering me to better know myself in working with them."
- Gaye Grace (1997, WGS and Psychology), Graduate Administrative Coordinator,
Psychology Department, SSU
"My undergraduate degree
in Women's and Gender Studies provided me with a passion and a direction;
it was my hope that graduate study would enable me to take the knowledge
that I had gained to the next level. I wanted to do research in women's
history, and eventually to teach at the college level."
- Jenny Thigpen (1994) M.A, American Studies, CSU Fullerton; History Ph.D.
program UC Irvine
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