Women’s Studies Program

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The Women’s Studies Program offers a major and a minor in women’s studies. Women’s studies is an interdisciplinary exploration of the creation, meaning, function, and perpetuation of gender in human societies past and present. The program focuses on the assumptions about gender that have influenced the construction of knowledge and experience both in the United States and globally. It introduces students to the new scholarship in women’s studies that has brought neglected material into established fields and raises important methodological questions about sex and gender that cross disciplinary boundaries and challenge intellectual frameworks. The Dorothy E. Brody ’35 Endowment Fund for Women’s Studies annually supports a prize for academic excellence in women’s studies. The fund also supports internships specifically related to improving women’s position in society. Study-abroad programs are also offered for women’s studies students.

Program Faculty

Professors

Jean H. Baker (history), Kelly Brown Douglas (philosophy and religion), Marianne Githens, (political science), Flo Martin (modern language), Richard Pringle (psychology), Janet Shope (sociology), Michele Tokarczyk (English)

Associate Professors

Joan K. Burton (sociology), Penelope S. Cordish (English), Irline François, director (women’s studies), Margret Grebowicz (philosophy), Gail Husch (art), Jeanie Murphy (Hispanic language & literature), Shirley Peroutka (communication and media studies), Antje Rauwerda (English)

Assistant Professors

Nsenga Burton (communications and media studies), Erica Fraser (gender, Russian and East European history).

Internships and Leadership  Program

Public Leadership Institute for Women

Under a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Goucher established a Public Leadership Institute for Women to prepare students for leadership roles in the public arena. The institute provides an opportunity for students to work as interns with women leaders at all levels of government. Goucher students have served as interns in Washington, DC, with women lobbyists, members of regulatory commissions, and congresswomen, and in Annapolis with women members of the Maryland legislature and the women’s caucus of the Maryland General Assembly. Placements have also included internships with women judges and members of city and county councils. Internships with women office holders are also available to students in their home communities during January and summer breaks.

The Public Leadership Institute for Women sponsors public leadership conferences that bring prominent women leaders to campus to meet and talk with students. Recent speakers have included judges, members of the Maryland state legislature, and a former member of the European Parliament.

Goucher offers a January seminar on gender and public policy in Washington, DC. The seminar provides students with a firsthand look at the policy-making process at the federal level through faculty lectures supplemented by guest presentations by women judges, lobbyists, regulatory board members, congressional leaders, and government agency representatives. Policy briefings and site visits are an integral part of the seminar. Not limited to Goucher students, this seminar attracts students from across the country.

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