College Feminists Connect!

Interview with a Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Graduate

For the past two years, I have been working at Macalester College's Annual Fund as a student caller.  The donations and support that flow into the Annual Fund are some of the most important to campus life, seeing as they make the college's budget flexible and adaptable to the community's needs.  Luckily for me, the Director of the Annual Fund, Danielle Nelson, graduated from Macalester in 2005 with a B.A. in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS).  I decided to pick her brain and ask her some questions about her post-college life, and how her gender studies education and personal feminism are still vital to her being.  

I think that the work that the Annual Fund does to support the college inevitably supports individual students and their lifelong pursuits; in this way, I can identify the work that we do in the office as feminist at its core. Thanks to Danielle and everyone else for all of the hard work you put into maintaining Macalester College as a place where creativity, education, and diversity thrive - without your TLC and abundance of spirit, I would not have had the opportunity to study at Macalester and grow into my feminist identity.  

- Kelsey

How did you decide to declare a WGSS major?  Was there a specific incident/class/professor that inspired you to study this? 

Danielle: I declared WGSS my first year at Mac and took 4 classes my first year.  I came to Mac knowing I'd be WGSS.  I grew up in a feminist household and came to Macalester like so many students do--with a desire to change the world.  When I was in high school, I was a mentor to young girls who were neglected or generally unappreciated and it really opened my eyes to the reality of inequality. This is not the typical path for a student though.  

Did you have a favorite class at Mac (in WGSS or another department)?

Danielle: I ended up focusing a lot of studies on trans and intersex studies.  I was a TA for Scott Morgensen's trans and intersex studies course, which I really enjoyed.  Sonita (Sarker)'s Senior Seminar really challenged my writing and thinking and though maybe not my favorite, it was essential capstone experience.   Also, Karen Warren's ecofeminist courses shook me to the core.

Alumni Spotlight: Catherine Scallen

Hello all!

My name is Catherine Scallen, and I interned with the Minnesota Women’s Consortium the summer of 2010, right before my senior year in college. Meghan asked me to speak a little bit about what I’ve been up to since graduating college, and how my feminist beliefs have played out in that, so here I am!

Catherine when she began at the MWC

I graduated from Notre Dame in 2011 with a degree in American Studies and a minor in Spanish. While I don’t have Gender Studies on my degree, the American Studies major is the greatest thing since sliced bread (seriously—check out this link to understand why I’m so obsessed with my major), and I kept a heavy focus on Gender Studies classes throughout my undergrad experience. 

This culminated in my honors senior thesis—which I ADORED. I know everybody talks about how horrible writing a thesis is, and yes, there were definitely long sleepless nights and mental breakdowns alone in the library, but you can ask any of my friends—I’m completely obsessed with my thesis. Its official title is Bitch: Contemporary Feminism in American Consumer Culture, but I prefer to affectionately refer to it as The Bitch. You can find that little guy here. Good times.

Women's Studies, Now What?

If you are a women's studies major, you've no doubt been asked by strangers, friends, or parents what kind of job you can expect to get with your degree. And for many of us, we've also asked ourselves this very question. Macalester College alum and past MN Womens' Consortium intern, Shiveta, recently sent College Feminists Connect a link to a Ms. Magazine article called Transform the World that discusses the social justice work women's stuides majors are doing on the job by not only bringng unique skills and critical thinking to the workplace but also by bridging the gap between feminist theory and practice.

In my effort to defend my women's studies degree to the world, including many feminists, I have tried to explain how women's studies is one of the only academic disciplines that I see incorporating hands on social justice experience as well as the complex intersections of oppression.

"[Researchers] found that the fact that women’s studies majors and graduates were persistently asked what could be done with their degrees reflected a continuing ignorance about women’s studies as an academic discipline. In their study, Luebke and Reilly were also able to document a unique set of skills learned through women’s studies programs: empowerment, self-confidence, critical thinking, building community, and understanding differences and intersections among racism, homophobia, sexism, classism, ableism, anti-Semitism and other types of oppression."

Furthermore, as women studies majors bring these unique skills to the workplace and the global world they have gone beyond bridging the gap between theory and practice and have began building bridges to different job sectors.

"Deborah Siegel, author of the forth-coming book Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild, has noticed the same thing. She observes that in the 1970s, 'women’s studies was about bridging the divide between scholarship and activism. This current generation is bridging scholarship, activism and media."

The article focuses on the sentiment that while women's studies isn't so much about securing a job after college and is more about transforming the world through feminist perspective, it also provides concrete examples of what jobs women's studies majors are doing.