This spring, nine seniors will be the first Bowdoin students to graduate with a major in Gender and Women's Studies. The Curriculum and Educational Policy Committee has announced its approval of a plan to change the name of the Women's Studies program to Gender and Women's Studies beginning in the spring of 2005. According to Associate Professor and Chair of the Women's Studies Program Jennifer Scanlon this change will reflect shifts in the field and in the program's coursework.
"Women's Studies started out as a way of rescuing lost perspectives, but now we've reached a different stage," said Scanlon. She noted that while the new title acknowledges the larger study of gender, it would also still reflect the field's continued study of women.
"Unlike biological sexes, gender is a social construction," said Scanlon. "We're interested today in constructions like masculinity. It's less appropriate to call it strictly Women's Studies."
Many Women's Studies majors are excited and enthused about the change. "The name change from Women's Studies to Gender and Women's Studies is a step in the right direction," said Rebecca Fontaine '05. "By placing emphasis on gender, rather than just 'women,' it is challenging the assumption that only women have a gender, or, in other words, the invisibility of masculinity."
Scanlon was first inspired to investigate changing the program's name after Women's Studies major Desneige Hallbert '05 asked her why the program was not called Gender Studies.
Scanlon and a committee of a dozen faculty members met over the summer to examine the name changes of departments at other schools and to discuss if such a change would be appropriate for Bowdoin's program. Other colleges and universities have christened their corresponding departments with titles like "Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies," "Women's and Gender Studies," and "Gender Studies." Scanlon and the other members of the Women's Studies Program Committee unanimously agreed that Gender and Women's Studies would be the most appropriate title.
"We didn't want to lose the title 'women' because we would risk making women invisible, but I thought [Hallbert] was on the right track," said Scanlon. "We're not just talking about women, we're talking about women and men as gendered human beings."
Fontaine agreed with Scanlon about keeping the word "women" in the program's title. "I would not feel comfortable with simply being a 'Gender Studies' major. There are material concerns [women] face in the world?reproductive rights, wage gap, child care, and human rights to name a few?and the name 'Women's Studies' emphasizes the importance of both examining and working for change on these issues."
Jessica Koski '05 was also pleased with the committee's choice. "I'm really glad that they kept the 'Women's Studies' portion of the title," she said. "The discipline is still relatively new and I think it's important to keep that bit of the title to keep fresh the movement that it grew out of: feminism and the need to create an explicit space for women, and the study of women's experiences, reality, and history."
Scanlon and the committee anticipate that the title change will impact the program's curriculum. She hopes that the new title will encourage more students and faculty to participate in the interdisciplinary program.
"Faculty interested in teaching courses on masculinity can be affiliated with our program," she said. "It's a way of inviting faculty members not involved [in the department] before as well as students not involved before. It may be that more male students enroll and may be surprised and appreciative to discover that masculinity is a topic of discussion."
This fall, the Women's Studies Program Committee sent their proposal for a program name change to Curriculum and Educational Policy Committee, headed by Dean of Academic Affairs Craig McEwen.
"The Committee reviewed with care the Program's recommendation, examined the names of programs at hundreds of other institutions, talked about its implications, and embraced the Program Committee's recommendation fully in large part because it represents better what the courses in the Program do and the current nature of scholarship and thinking in this field," McEwen said.
Taylor Salinardi '05, who will graduate this spring with a major in Women and Gender Studies, is glad that the new program title reflects the focus and materials covered in courses.
"I think this change is important because women's studies is not solely about the study of women and women's issues, but rather it incorporates the study of sexuality, sex categories versus gender categories, and the performance of gender," said Salinardi. "I feel that the new title 'Gender and Women's Studies' more accurately describes the issues discussed in the classes that we take in this major."