Future Students

Women's Studies

These include the history and politics of gender relations; sexualities; the intersections of race, class and gender; feminist theory; masculinity and femininity in contemporary culture; the body; and work and technology.

Women's Studies is informed by varieties of feminist scholarship, and invites you to consider some of the most significant and recent bodies of contemporary theory, while examining key issues about the meanings and experiences of gender in societies, past, present, and future.

There are currently one Level 1 and two Level 2/3 Women's Studies units available. These units, together with others cross-listed with History, Asian Studies and Labour and Organisational Studies make up a Women's Studies major. You can study Women's Studies units as part of an English or History major or as electives. Further, all our units are available to students who wish to develop Women's Studies as a named area of study in their undergraduate degree.

Gender-related units are also taught within different disciplines in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and if you major in areas such as History, English, Anthropology and Fine Arts, you will find that Women's Studies units are a valuable complement to your work.

The interdisciplinary nature of Women's Studies also assists you to develop critical perspectives about the nature of research and scholarly enquiry both within and beyond disciplinary boundaries.Women's Studies can be studied as a major in the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Arts (Asian Studies) and Bachelor of Arts (Communication Studies). This includes combined courses which include these degrees. You may also be able to study Women's Studies units within other majors or individual units within other degrees.

Level 1
In Level 1 you will examine key debates around issues of power and gender in contemporary Australia. You will be invited to use specific debates to consider the broader dimensions of power, inequality and the politics of representation. For example, we may look at media representations of female and male political leaders; the struggle between midwives and doctors for control of birthing in Australia; or debates about the connections between masculine sexuality and sport. You will be introduced to methodological issues raised by interdisciplinary Women's Studies approaches.

Level 2
In Level 2 you may study a range of topics, all of which are cross-listed with other discipline areas.

Cross-listed with English:

• Self.Net: Communicating Identity in the Digital Age
• Sex, Bodies, Spaces: Gender and Popculture
• The Story of My Life: Textual Selves
• Text and Gender: Feminist Theory and Practice

Cross-listed with Asian Studies:

• Engendering Culture in South-East Asia

Cross-listed with History:

• Gender and Sexualities in History

Cross-listed with Labour and Organisational Studies:

• Managing Diversity

Career opportunities

As well as contributing to the development of critical perspectives on such issues and important research skills within your degree work, Women's Studies also provides graduates with important analytical skills in areas of gender relations which are relevant to many workplaces. While some graduates who have taken Women's Studies have gone on to specialise in related areas (such as equity policy development and implementation in the workplace), the critical skills and insights of Women's Studies can be applied much more broadly in diverse fields of work including research occupations, communications, public service institutions, and professional practice. Further, the emphasis upon explicit generic skills training in all our units —for example, through collaborative research projects and the use of Information Technology — provides graduates with important practical skills which are valued by employers.