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.
