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Difference Between Gender Studies And Women’s Studies
Though Gender and Women’s Studies may share some basic concepts but in reality they are totally different from one another. Both disciplines have different scope and objectives. Some of the major distinctions between Women’s and Gender Studies have been discussed in below paragraphs.
Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Nature
Women’s Studies is the outcome of Second Wave Feminism. It came into being in 1970’s by a group of feminists and university graduate students. In order to work for the welfare of women they launched Women’s Studies.
Gender Studies on the other hand came into being in 1990’s, when the scope of Women’s Studies expanded and it include the study of Queer theory, masculinity, research and other similar things. In this way Women’s Studies is older than Gender Studies.
Another distinction is difference in their motif. The subject matter of Women’s Studies is women. It not only focuses on the fuller understanding of women in society but also stresses on the need of development of new criteria and methods for assessing the status of women in all spheres of life. Women’s Studies discusses society, politics, economy and literature by keeping women at its center.
On the other hand Gender Studies as compare to Women’s Studies is a broader discipline. It discusses not only women but also study queer theory and masculinity. It is an interdisciplinary field that concentrates on the new scholarship in Women and Men Studies.
Gender Studies discuss men as equally as women where as Women Studies focuses on women for most of the time.
Women’s Studies try to evaluate and expose disparities and problems faced by women in society.
Gender Studies on the other hand tries to explain problems faced by a person because of his/her gender.
Defining Women And Gender Studies:
Women Studies as per United States National Women’s Studies Association is “an education strategy for change”. In Women’s Studies, women are kept at the center while discussing the topics of health, work, politics and literature. According to Klein the subject matter of Women’s Studies is women but women’s lives do not exist in vacuum, they are located in a social context which includes the study of men and children as well the man-made environment.
Gender Studies is the academic study of the phenomena of gender. Gender Studies try to analyze those traits and characteristics that a person, on the basis of his gender is expected to perform. It tries to explain the position of man and woman on the basis of class, caste, religious and sexual identity in different societies.
In short Women Studies examine women and their role in social, political, economic spheres of life. Similarly it also study various challenges that women faces because of their sex. Gender Studies on the other hand examines the way in which historical, cultural and social events shape the role of gender in different societies.
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