Women's Studies

Purpose: The Department of Women’s Studies offers an interdisciplinary study of gender, with an emphasis on women’s lives, roles, and contributions. The department offers a major and a minor in Women’s Studies, which relies heavily on interdisciplinary materials related to other departments. These include the Anthropology Department (kinship studies); Child and Family Studies (women's changing roles within a family organization); Comparative Ethnic Studies (women of color, issues of diversity); English (women writers, etc.); Fine Arts (women artists); History (pertaining to women in specific societies or time periods); Political Science; Psychology (human sexuality); and Sociology (women's rights, women's issues), etc. Women's Studies faculty are also teaching graduate courses in the American Studies Program, both master's and Ph.D. classes.

In addition, the Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections division houses a number of collections dealing with women. The Media Materials Center also contains many relevant films and other video resources appropriate for classroom support. In addition, access to the History of Women microfilm collection, a large inter-institutional shared purchase, is available through interlibrary loan, on a priority basis, from the University of Washington Libraries. Library collections are also supplemented by document approval plans for the United States, Washington State, and the United Nations.

1. Languages: English is the primary language of the collection. Works written in other languages are ordinarily purchased only in English translations.
2. Chronological Guidelines: Primary emphasis is on materials in the 21^st century, particularly those that are most current. There is selective acquisition of historical materials.
3. Geographical Guidelines: Primary emphasis is on North America; secondary emphasis is worldwide.
4. Treatment of the Subject: Materials regarding all aspects of women in contemporary society are collected on a broad basis. Popular materials are selectively acquired. Works on the history of women are selectively acquired. Biographies of women are collected selectively.
5. Types of Material: Books and periodicals are the major types of materials collected. Statistical and governmental publications are also collected. Electronic resources will be considered for purchase, subject to the general collection guidelines. Textbooks and introductory works are not ordinarily purchased.
6. Date of Publication: Emphasis is primarily on current publications. Older materials are acquired chiefly as reprints or microforms rather than in the original format, and such purchasing is highly selective.