SSU faculty and students remain committed to the Women’s and Gender Studies program

Feminism today means different things to different people.

Some say it represents a collection of political, social and economic movements that aim to put women on the same footing as men. Others say it is an attempt to achieve equality for all genders. Still others say it’s a step toward ending sexism forever.

At Sonoma State University, the Women’s and Gender Studies department allows students to think critically about all three perspectives – and more.

The department, which became official in 2001, aims to educate students about gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, immigration, class and ability. According to department chair Dr. Don Romesburg, Women and Gender Studies students also study how gender structures everything, including one’s deepest sense of self, family, community and transnational relationships.

“For years, the field of women’s and gender studies has moved beyond a single lens of looking at gender or women, to looking at the ways in which other social power relations inform questions about gender, culture and society,” he said.

Dr. Charlene Tung, another professor in the department, agreed.

“WGS (Women’s and Gender Studies) provides students with a language to understand the things they experience and deal with every day but don’t yet have the language to talk about,” she said.

Intersectional approach to feminism

Women’s and Gender Studies is one of Sonoma State’s smallest departments; “small but mighty,” as Dr. Romesburg said. Currently, the program has 35 majors, and since 2000, a total of approximately 450 students have graduated in the majors of Women’s and Gender Studies.

The curriculum revolves around a broad articulation of feminism – as a movement, as a philosophy and of course as a social issue.

Romesburg said the approach was inspired by author bell hooks, who does not capitalize her name, and talks about feminism as a movement to end sexism and oppression. Women’s and Gender Studies also celebrates feminism as it intersects with other issues in today’s society, including gender, sexuality, racism, ableism, and more.

This idea of ​​intersectionality was coined by legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw, who famously lamented that black women cannot file lawsuits that talk about sexism and racism at the same time. Her writings also inspired the Women’s and Gender Studies program.

Dr. Lena McQuade, a professor in the department, said intersectionality allows her and her colleagues to frame feminism in the context of multiple marginalization.

“If we cannot understand feminism and gender in the context of oppression and how oppression works, it is difficult to create change for social justice,” says Dr. McQuade, a university student and graduate of Women’s and Gender University. Department of Studies in its first year. “Students want to participate in these difficult and meaningful conversations.”

The study catalog reflects these emphases. One of the department’s most popular courses is titled “Gender in Asian America.” The class is one of the few Asian American studies courses on campus.

Other lessons are titled: “Men and Masculinity,” “Reproductive Justice,” and “Psychology of Gender.”

Students indicate that they feel welcome in the program.

Vera Lubbs, a senior graduating this spring with a double major in Chicanx and Latinx Studies in addition to Women’s and Gender Studies, noted that she appreciates the space professors create to ensure everyone’s experience is valued.

“Every professor does their best to support students’ ability to be curious about how our nation functions as a patriarchal capitalist society and why,” she wrote in a recent email. “This allowed me to understand more about the underlying systems that reinforce much of the systemic oppression.”

Helping the Sonoma County community

Most universities will have women’s and gender studies departments by 2024; Very few of those departments have internship programs like Sonoma State’s.

This intern program is designed to complement the classroom experience and reading materials by providing Women’s and Gender Studies majors with hands-on experience working with social justice organizations in and around the province.

The program is split into three units and 45 hours per unit. That means each student completes a minimum of 135 hours of volunteer service during their tenure at Sonoma State. Since 2015, when the program began, Women and Gender Studies students have contributed more than 30,000 hours to local nonprofits.

Among the organizations that have hosted women’s and gender studies interns in recent years: local chapters of the Boys and Girls Club, Verity, Face 2 Face, Committee on the Shelterless (COTS), and the Family Justice Center, to name a few to name a few.