Gender studies is not a very popular major at most universities. According to Data USA, only one to four percent of students in the U.S. are declared in gender studies while business and health related majors are the most common. A large reason why gender studies are not popular is because most men do not take those courses. It is uncommon for men to take gender courses because it is not yet a societal norm.
Stereotypes of masculinity and femininity are still very prominent in today’s society. Gender courses are seen as feminine which initially draws men away from them. Hallie Lieberman, part of Inside Higher Ed, tested this theory in an English course she was teaching. Prior to the class she did not inform the students of the focus of the course because she knew there would be a bias. The class consisted of students whose parents were mostly die-hard republicans, so most of them had never met a transgender person before.
Lieberman, understanding their mindsets, brought up the first transgender fighter, Fallon Fox. Bringing a “normal” topic that is well liked along the students made them more comfortable with the topic of transgender people. She found out the best way to inform them of gender studies was to put the focus on pop culture. This helped the students, who were previously close minded, see transgender people as normal in a sense.
Lieberman pointed out the flaw in women and gender studies is that it is not made appealing to men because the content is focussed around women. Stereotypically women’s studies are seen as being full of male bashing lesbian women; the best way of changing this stereotype is by having more men participating in these classes.
Some do not see the necessity of gender courses and majors and would rather see them reduced in Universities. The main reason why some do not see gender studies as necessary, other then most men not wanting to go into that field, is because there are not a lot of job opportunities that come from gender and women’s studies. According to Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post, women and gender studies are seen as “useless majors.”
A common narrow-minded opinion among people that want these classes to be reduced is that we already have equality between people of different class, sexuality, gender and race. Some do not see the necessity of having women and gender classes because they are already informed of the inequalities among these groups. What they do not understand is that WGS courses go much more into depth on the subject than the average person would ever understand or be taught.
There is a lot of importance in teaching all groups of people about women and gender studies. WGS courses at Sonoma State University teach students about men and women’s different lives and opportunities in association to race, sexuality, class and ethnicity. The professors teach about the inequalities among these groups in hopes to promote change in today’s society.
Without gender classes like these, societal inequalities among different groups will not change; if anything racism and sexism will increase. These classes allow students to voice their opinions without ridicule and unlike most courses WGS creates a community of people that want to see a change in our society today.
People need to be informed of all the aspects related to women and gender studies before a real change of equality can be made in today’s society.
