My feminism, too, was born of less academic settings, and, honestly, I was pretty underwhelmed by the women's studies courses I took as an undergrad. I referred to my women writers class as "Bitchez with Penz." Oh, college.

I was definitely a feminist before I entered college, but I had to take Intro to Women's Studies before I really understood the various ways that patriarchy had affected my life. "The light came on," as Courtney put it, and I declared a women's studies major along with political science the next semester. In women's studies I found my passion; not just a major I could use for getting a good job, but something I could study and use for the rest of my life. Now I'm a senior, writing an honors thesis and getting ready to graduate!!!

BabyPop - I had the same reaction...I think.

My gender studies course did a darn good job of scaring me away from feminism. I don't know what I was expecting when I took it, but rampant pointless hating was not it. I guess I wanted something practical, address real issues, not make the six male classmates (out of 120 or so) into cardboard villains.

Thinking back on it, I still get angry when I think about that class and how it was presented. I hope other gender studies courses are better, but I only took the one. Hearing people have taken those classes still makes me twitch - which I know is a dangerous attitude when interacting with other feminists, or anyone really.

Women's Studies played such an enormous role in my personal life, political awareness, and later academic development. I grew up in a very conservative household and had republican ideals shoved down my throat my whole life, I really didn’t know a different belief system existed until my “A-ha!� moment in my very first Women’s Studies course. It was there when I realized, “holy crap, this stuff totally resonates with me and I wholeheartedly agree with what I’m learning.� This is also when I started getting incredibly interested in politics, social change, and working towards equality. Eventually I double majored in psychology and women’s health with a minor in women’s studies. I was able to tailor my undergraduate education to not only what interested me but also what was politically pertinent.

I completed a thesis on whether feminist identity plays a role in women’s thin-ideal internalization and body dissatisfaction. Along with many things, I found that taking an intro women’s studies course helps develop a feminist identity in women and this identity can later mediate the internalization of thin-ideals. Presumably because feminism pays close attention to media literacy, empowerment, and self-acceptance.

Feminism continues to play a HUGE role in my life and I accredit this life changing identity to Marita McComiskey and Mary Crawford, two incredibly influential professors that taught me so much more than just how to be a feminist. As a future professor, I can only hope to inspire and motivate half as many students as they have in their academic careers :)

All sorts of studies have shown that taking at least one women's studies course changes a person's worldview and makes them more active about issues and in their lives.
Taking a women's studies class literally changed my life and made up my mind about declaring 2 weeks after starting college. Now I've gotten all of my friends hooked. I was definitely a feminist before coming here (to school), but women's studies just gave me so much more vocabulary and so much more knowledge of things. And to think I once laughed at the prospect of majoring in women's studies at a women's college...

ORIGINAL POST "What role has women's or gender studies played in your feminism? What have your favorite classes been?"

My route to feminism was not through women's studies classes. I've actually never taken a women's studies class.

My first introduction was through several classes on primate behavior. We read "The woman who never evolved" by Sarah Hrdy and "Primate Paradigms" by Linda Fedigan, books which challenge portray the sexism in traditional primate research and the unique selection pressures on female primates. It really highlighted to me how biases ingrained by our socialization about gender can really impact science.

After that, one of my first serious girlfriend's was a women's studies center and active member of the womyn's center, which lead to many interesting discussions about sexuality and gender, reproductive rights, etc. It lead me to read the contrasting views of different feminists, from conservative (Christina Hoff Summers) to radical (Dworkin).

Okay, okay, I know this next part might sound hokey, but listening to musicians like Ani Difranco, Dar Williams, and Kimya Dawson, really helped me become aware of women's voices.

For most of high school and college, I was a mild-mannered jock so was surrounded by typical male banter. In college, however, I acquired a disability, which really opened my eyes to how gender effects people. When you can't enact proscribed gender roles, even small little things (e.g., being expected, as a male, to help move furniture) it's amazing the amount of guilt and strain that produces. Having a disability constantly reminds you of what typical gender roles you aren't able to enact in response to people's expectations. [As a side note, I've noticed there are essentially no posts on feministing.com on the intersection of disability and gender despite the role that plays in millions of people's lives - worth considering].

After I acquired a disability and couldn't play sports, I decided to study sports, which led me to study male body image and fitness behaviors, which led me to study body image and attractiveness more generally and examine the unique pressures facing men and women.

Now that I am responsible for mentoring many female undergrads and future researchers, my attitudes toward gender have taken on a new urgency. Messages that inhibit from reaching their full potential as people and researchers (being overwhelmed by the beauty myth, messages about the role of women in science, etc) need to be changed.

Finally, feministing.com has played a huge role in making me aware of the issues feminists focus on. Along with Espn.com, it's my favorite site :-).

Growing up in the liberal Unitarian Universalist Church, I'd always been for "women's rights" but never understood (and I still don't understand so many things)until after I dated a women's studies major who challenged me to take on women's studies as a course after a particular conversation.

I totally fell in love with it, and became a double major in political science and women's studies.

Although I've taken theory, and global feminism (both are quite useful for political science as well), my favorite course so far has been Women's Ways of Knowing (Feminist Epistemology), which I am currently taking ...

I didn't take a WMST class last semester, and I felt as though I was moving away from feminism and back to the patriarchy ...I think sometimes, we need to be surrounded by feminists to be reminded of feminist ideals and values.

Luckily, I have wonderful professors who also serve as mentors for me ...and God knows I need them.

UCLA - Ani DiFranco is wonderful. Friends and I are going to her concert later this month. "Letter to a John" is quite the song.

I never took women's studies courses in college, but studying sociology I had both introductory and upper division classes that talked about women's studies issues and got me interested in feminism.

My women's studies/gender studies classes in college were for the most part pretty wonderful and have had a large impact on my feminism... not necessarily the classes themselves always, but certainly the ideas and authors I was exposed to have shaped my outlook and given me a starting point for exploring feminism.

In the actual Women's Studies department, I took "Intro to Women's Studies" and "Women, Law, Public Policy & Activism." My college's sociology department also had several classes that were definitely gender studies themed... I took "Sociology of Gender" and "Sociological Theories of Sexuality." Awwh, now I'm getting all nostalgic thinking about college... getting to read great books all day and talk about them, that is the life.

I have always had certain beliefs about gender and its role in society. I've always stood up for the use of Ms. and gal/woman instead of Miss/Mrs. and girl. I've thought that prosecution of rape is handled porely, and women's role in society is much lower than it should be. When I was 4 I could not understand why the boys got to take off their shirts, but I could not. For years I've held these beliefs and have talked about them. It is only this previous year that I realized that there was a whole political and social movement out there that completely aligned with what I'd been spouting all these years. It was as if I was alone in my action, then suddenly found that I was not so. It's quite liberating, and I find myself talking more about equality now that I feel that I have all of you out there backing me up.

I never took any gender studies during college, but I did do a major research paper on Japanese and American women's tastes for homosexual media.

I didn't call myself a feminist until I took a course on "The Psychology of Women" two semesters before I graduated. If anyone asked me, I would have said that I was against sexism and pro-gay rights, etc. etc., but without a really concrete idea of what gender really meant for me and for our society. Looking at women through the lens of psychology, my major (and seeing psychology through the lens of gender) really made me aware of all the issues feminism talks about. I wound up writing a paper on male attitudes towards feminism, which I had the privilege of presenting at a psychology conference and women's studies conference. So college definitely led me to feminism.

Women in Journalism - UMass Amherst - taught by Karen List who was absolutely the best teacher I have ever had in my life. I felt like I was in the dark before that class started and you're right - a light totally got flipped on. Without the class I probably still would have been a feminist, but with the class I'm armed with a deeper understanding of how women are portrayed in the media, and of how women are involved in that portrayal (it was a journalism class after all!).

I think it's safe to say that had I not taken that class I wouldn't have sought out sites like this one.

Thanks for posting this! Women's Studies classes have obviously changed my life. I was a Women's Studies major in my undergrad and now I am working on my Master's Degree in Women's and Gender Studies. I hope to continue my education and one day teach Women's Studies courses myself.

Im a women studies minor currently ( there is no major), and i must say, it has been the most positive experience of my life. Everyone knows each other in the program. We all have been able to find feminism together. Its been such a positive atmosphere to learn and grow in. My classes are like therapy for me, and i know many of the students feel the same way.

Last semester my class made this awesome zine. We all do activist work throughout the school and community and so much more. I love it!

i wish everyone gets to experience this. I just adore my classes.

Im a women studies minor currently ( there is no major), and i must say, it has been the most positive experience of my life. Everyone knows each other in the program. We all have been able to find feminism together. Its been such a positive atmosphere to learn and grow in. My classes are like therapy for me, and i know many of the students feel the same way.

Last semester my class made this awesome zine. We all do activist work throughout the school and community and so much more. I love it!

i wish everyone gets to experience this. I just adore my classes.

Im a women studies minor currently ( there is no major), and i must say, it has been the most positive experience of my life. Everyone knows each other in the program. We all have been able to find feminism together. Its been such a positive atmosphere to learn and grow in. My classes are like therapy for me, and i know many of the students feel the same way.

Last semester my class made this awesome zine. We all do activist work throughout the school and community and so much more. I love it!

i wish everyone gets to experience this. I just adore my classes.

I brought my early feminism with me to college. But at the time, I was one of those "I'm not a feminist, but..." types. I didn't want to be associated with the negative aspects of feminism, and most of the professors I had at the College reinforced that for me, they loved to play the "bad feminist!" card one anyone that disagreed with their perceived superiority and enlightenment. They talked down to you. They interpreted things in my generation differently and wouldn’t account for generational differences, cultures and norms. I was at a point where I was just playing along, I remember being in a film class with on particular teacher and I just bullshitted my way through it – “Put in something about the domination of women by men and I’ll get an A�. It worked every time, so long as I was a good little student and took on their brand of feminism, they loved me.

Then I took a class about feminism in pop culture. The woman that ran the class, in my initial opinion, was a total "ditz". She giggled. She was kind of “hip�. Commented on shoes. She wasn't sure about everything she said, so there was lots of discussion (which I took for weakness at first). She would engage us in discussion about current pop culture icons like Brittany or Avril Lavegne (sp?). Instead of teaching us, she wanted to hear how we felt about these issues in the mainstream.

After a few classes, that opinion completely changed. She wasn't a "ditz", she was just different from the feminist professors I had encountered until then. She was real. Human. Not a strawfeminist. More “like me�. She talked to us on our level, about our generation, and about the issues that we as young women face today, instead of applying a 30 year old set of standards to us. She wouldn't call you a "bad feminist" for disagreeing with her or not being subservient to "her" brand of feminism, she left room for everyone. She even disagreed with some of the things she was teaching us, which is why she wanted to discuss it. And the main message I got from her was - that was okay. There isn't a feminist litmus test that kicks you out. You don’t “fail� out of it.

I was young, and at a point where I was still trying to figure it all out, where I needed some wiggle room. And she was a good teacher in the sense of allowing you to do that without shaming you for it. And I've carried that with me, I tend not to shame women for their choices (although I will question the culture in which they make those choices). I don’t think it’s the way to go.

And I see that in the blogs I read today, I found feministing, feministe, Pandagon, Shakespeare’s Sister, etc after I had left college. It’s not pedantic or talking down to you, or saying you have failed if you have a weak point and give in to patriarchy. We aren’t preaching, instead we are hosting a forum for discussing these issues, because sexism affects us all, and in very different ways. In short, I see the bloggers of these sites as my peers – “like me� – and I feel as far as feminism goes, that’s the more appealing approach for me.

This is such a great post - makes for a fun trip down memory lane. I entered university already sure that I was a feminist and although I didn't take a formal "woman's studies" class until well into my studies, I did get involved with our University's Womens' Centre where I found many amazing role models who were very supportive and encouraging of a (then) teenage blossoming radical. At that time they were the coolest women I had ever met (and luckily were just the foreshadowing of the many awesome activists I was to encounter at school). I can only hope that I have passed on as much of the passion as the instilled in me.

I was a feminist before I took any courses in feminism, and I kind of thought that womens' studies courses were going to be a little hokey. As a philosophy major, one of the upper level philosophy courses was a cross registered women's studies course and I thought, what the heck, I go to a women's college, I'll try "Feminist Theory." It opened up my eyes to a lot of discrimination I hadn't even thought about before. In a way, it strengthened my feminist ideals, but it also made me really disillusioned. It made the job of feminism seem like an extremely daunting task, to think about gender socialization as starting within seconds of knowing whether you have a boy or a girl. And, as UCLA body image pointed out, it talked about other damaging societal constructions, like how almost everything in the world is set up for men or women who have two working legs and two working arms. It makes anyone who may be on the fence about their gender identity, hermaphroditic, or with some form of disability completely isolated from society. What bathroom do I use, can I even get into that building? etc.

i can't really pinpoint a "eureka!" moment in my personal feminist evolution. i suppose i was raised to be and always have been a feminist, but in high school i was wary of the name, with all its baggage in popular culture, but was not shy about expressing my opinions on gender.

i never actually took a womens studies course in college, but i took a wide range of interesting liberal arts classes and somehow the notion crept upon me that "feminism" as a word is nothing inherently scary and not something i should be ashamed to espouse. probably my philosophy and literary criticism courses helped me learn the most about deconstructing gender.

as with politics, gender issues have always held a great deal of interest to me in my young adult life and over time i find myself increasingly compelled to get involved to effect change in both.

I've always been a "feminist" at heart... but taking my first sociology class, Social Problems from a feminist prof -- we discussed mainly issues with racism, sexism, and the environment -- really stirred me to want to learn more. I was also exploring my sexuality and delving into my lifelong fascination with America's love/hate affair with sex. So I started reading everything I could get my hands on about feminism, queer theory, women's studies, glbt history and issues, etc. I'm a gender studies minor (my college doesn't offer a major), but we don't have a "Gender Studies" or "Women's studies" class. Instead, the minor can include your choice of several classes throughout different disciplines (religion, bio, poli sci, eng, etc.) which discuss gender -- like Women & Religion, Constitutional Rights & Liberties, Animal Behavior, Gender & Early Christianity, etc. Most of these happen to be taught by feminist-leaning professors. The integration of the major has helped me immensely in seeing how feminism ties to all aspects and issues in life -- past and present. The only two "core" classes for the minor are Sociology of the Family and a soc class on Sex and Gender, both of which delve deeply into feminist issues without screaming "you have to be a feminist if you are in this class." Sex and Gender is possibly the most popular class on campus, which gives me hope that everyone will be exposed to issues surrounding gender, glbt individuals, and sexuality before they leave the academic bubble...

As for how it's affected my life, well, damn. I'm looking at careers/masters in either Sexuality Studies, Gender Studies, or Public Service with concentrations in Sexuality Studies. In other words, I want to work with feminist, gender, and queer issues for the rest of my life -- and I have my professors (and a good friend who introduced me to this site) to thank for loaning me books, challenging my ideas, and offering support along the way.

Women in American History and Feminism, Queer Theory, and Religion, were both amazing experiences for me.

I've said this on here before, but I had to read a book last semester in my yoga class that (in a nutshell) said that women are more superficial than men because their vaginas can fit any penis, that women should always be on the bottom during sex (because men are the ones who should be dominant), and that it's certain we're in the Kali Yuga (age of ignorance) because women are driving cars and flying airplanes. I told my Feminsism, Q.T, and Religion class about the book and an uproarous laugh was had by all. The best thing about that class for me was being able to see that some theology out there is very egalitarian and non-patriarchal (Reform Judaism and New Age Christianity being among them), and that not all religion is bad.

Women in American history was eye-opening for me simply because I had never stopped to consider before just how much of a sidenote women are in the pages of history, especially considering all the bad-ass things women have been doing in America.

Lots of fun personal stories to read!

I, like many people here, was a self-identified feminist long before I took my first WS class. My own ersatz "aha" moment in college occurred in my first semester when I realized how hostile so many people at my college were to the idea of feminism! (I know, I led a sheltered and idealistic adolescence :-/) It was a small liberal arts college with religious ties and the year I started we had a symposium on "feminism and faith" which I thought was wonderful and many, many students were profoundly threatened by. I was so blown away that there were people in the world who thought women couldn't be ordained. The denomination was also struggling over the homosexuality-as-sin issue, and lots of homophobic rhetoric was flying around. Women's Studies classes were where I took shelter, and it was intellectual and activist feminism that kept me sane in academia :).

I still have a special place in my heart for my first WS course, Feminist Theology. I also loved a class on Women and the Law that gave me a really good background in repro rights issues. Feminism is what helps me ground my love of book-learning in reality, and I'm really grateful that I had a WS program that encouraged me to bring together my love of ideas with my desire to work for change in the world.

I can get sick of the over-theorizing and intramural squabbling (and have at times been guilty of them both) . . . and I passionately believe that higher education is NOT the only or the best route to feminist consciousness. But for me, it's been one of the ways I've learned the language of feminism and most of the time it's been both a joy and a tremendously powerful experience.

I'm currently a first year at St. Michael's College just outside Burlington, VT. It's a small, Catholic liberal arts school (no, that's not an oxy moron) that adopted a Gender Studies major just this past October. I fully plan on being one of the first to graduate with a declared Gender Studies major all four years. I think it's a huge step in getting feminism into the mainstream educational system. Granted there are the obvious problems with attending a Catholic college and being a feminist (they refuse to even sell condoms on campus; a problem I've made my new pet project) but I think at least having the option of educating college-age students about feminism through a credited department is good progress. Call me crazy but I figure the more awareness there is, the better.

My interest in feminism also firt developed out of my every day experiences, but I had a few undergrad classes (at Small Midwestern State U) that really made me think harder about feminist issues, none of them being women's studies classes: "Writers of the African Diasporas" and "Post-colonial Lit" made me think about women/people in other countries, and "LGBTQ Film" helped form my veiws on gender and gender norms.

I should mention, "Writers" and "Post-Colonial" were taught by two very strong women, one born in Nigeria (Tess Onweume, a playwrightwho even has her own Wikipedia page :) ) and one born in India.

I went to the Univ. of Minnesota which (I think?) may have had one of the first official Women's Studies departments in the nation. I had so many interesting classes there, other than Intro. to WoSt. Feminist Film Studies, Queer Theory (which was the hardest class I have ever taken, including Master's classes) Skin, Sex, and Genes, and I loved them all. Rachel Raimist, a TA/asst. prof. is amazing and a real inspiration for me. I think I was primed for feminism by my upbringing, but I really latched on to the academic side of it and the cultural criticism that it brought.

I took an Intro to Women's Studies online last summer as an elective. Although the course was run terribly (the prof was hardly online!), the textbook was often interesting and really made me see some things differently. It made me see how so much sexism is not obvious but present as a "normal" part of our culture.

I spent half my college career at a small liberal arts college and half at Hunter College (it was a while ago, so Courtney wasn't my prof, alas). I was a feminist before I got to college, but participating in things like Take Back the Night and learning to deconstruct gender in the texts I read in my History and English courses (I double majored) taught me to analyze current and later "real world" texts and situations I found myself in.

While a gender-studies bent was incorporated into many of my courses and overall college experience, the only course I took that was officially cross-listed as Women's Studies was a course on women in 19th-century England. I was taking the 19th Century British Novel at the same time, and it totally rocked my world how the courses related. I don't think my papers in either course would have be so insightful or feminist had I taken either one alone.

I've never taken a women's study class and really, if given the chance, I probably would not, but that has more to do with the fact that I tend to be vocal and argumentative in a classroom setting (don't ask, it's complicated) than my feelings one way or another about feminist theory and gender studies.

Ironically, however, my feminist ideals solidified while I was in school, studying to become a grade school teacher, arguably one of the most stereotypical of female careers.

It's difficult to explain and I'm doing a crap job at it, but it all boils down to the fact that we were treated like something less than worthy because we wanted to be teachers. One prof in the science department told us - after finding out we were mostly elem ed majors - that it was good to have a 'fall back' degree, so we would be able to get a job after marrying and popping out kids. The notion that we might actually want to make a difference obviously never entered his mind. He was actually rather proud of the fact that we had 'thought ahead' enough to get a viable - and to his mind - a 'female appropriate' degree.

There were only a handful of males in the elem ed program and they were, if possible, treated even worse than we were. We at least were doing something appropriately female, while the males were obviously doing something wrong to want to work with children.

Arg, I'm not doing a great job at explaining, sorry. The message we recieved constantly from the profs, the teachers at the ISDs, the admin at the school, fellow students even, was that being a teacher was the best job for 'women'.

The notion that there were 'female' jobs and 'male' jobs pissed me off more than a little bit.

This just came through my RSS feed from RH Reality Check:

Indoctrination? Not My Women's Studies Class

Thought y'all might be interested :)

I'm currently working on my masters thesis in Gender Studies.
I was a feminist before I went to university but it introduced me to so many wonderful theories (and theorists).
My favourite courses have always been related to pop culture.

Last year, I tutored for the first year Gend courses - it was amazing seeing people "get it". Listening to the students talk about how the theories apply to their own lives and seeing them realise that feminism is still important and gender discrimination is far from over.

I just wish my university admin felt the same way.
We only have one academic staff member and she has been fighting tooth and nail to keep the department going. There hasn't been a single easy moment for her.

Of course, my university administration are keen to destroy almost all of the arts programs by sacking staff and cutting budgets to a ridiculous degree ...

I'll save that rant for another day.

I haven't taken a women's studies course per se, but I taught one last summer. Pretty freaking cool. I was a soc/phil double major, but never got around to the gender course; as a Soc doctoral student, teaching it was phenomenal.

I became a feminist at birth, I don't know what to say? I can't think of a time in my life where I haven't been resentful of gender norms. I was in a class action title IX law suit (me and eight other girls) against my HS, when I was 13-14. It sparked a lot of my interest in the real issues; but to me, if you believe in fairness, then the disparities are very obvious from early on. I remember being ticked off that none of the 'boys' helped clear off the table after Thanksgiving at my grandparents house, but I had to. I understood everybody pitching in, but please?! I was probably 8?

My parents are not progressive per se (my Dad is pretty conservative) but really he is a feminist and he doesn't even know it. It's so sad.

Reading these posts about WS classes made me think of a few things about my own experience taking a Lesbian Literature class back in 1990.

I was raised in a house where people had little use for feminist theory, actually. My mother lived it instead--she was an OBGYN at a time when there were very few women doctors, let alone OBGYNs. And she has always been absolutely fierce when it comes to reproductive rights.

So when I hit my first WS class, I have to say I was less impressed. Too often, I felt like the prof was trying to scare the men out of the classroom, and too often I felt like there was a lot of knee jerk reaction to anything remotely "patriarchal." UCLA may know of the Adrienne Rich essay "institutionalized heterosexuality" which has the most laughable anthropology ever. And the whole "science is gendered" track she was on left me cold.

BUT with all those weaknesses I learned a few really cool things. First I got to see Joanna Russ' writing. (I was already a huge UK LeGuin fan). Then I got a chance to understand my own positions better. The prof was also good about showing how we can fall into the trap of essentialism. And it gave me a better appreciation for how any political movement should be very aware that when you are marginalized, it's easy to fall into the trap of navel-gazing.

So in a sense, a weak introduction to women's studies helped me gel what I was thinking about, and helped me refine it.

I don't know where my feminism came from, but it's always been there.
After high school, I fooled around before attending college. Finally, my mom convinced me to take one class, just to see if I liked it. The class I chose was Women's Studies.
I was so excited that on the morning of what was supposed to be our first day of school, I went to get a haircut. I came out of the salon to a whole different world. It was September 11, 2001.
After reading "The Terror Dream," by Susan Faludi, I was reminded of how post 9/11 America was not a good era for feminism. The media was sounding it's death toll.
I am glad I had that Women's Studies class to make me feel strong. With the media going on and on about "opt out revolutions" and "marriage booms," my feminism beliefs stayed tough!