What is Gender Studies?

Gender/sex plays a role in almost all spheres of life. It is an important aspect of politics and economy. It has an impact on everything from working life to intimate relations. It makes itself felt in war and in love. We read the world through gendered glasses, and media, institutions, families, social networks and many other arenas construct gendered distinctions and norms for "proper" gendered behaviours and appearances. To visit a standard department store in order to find baby clothes or toys  for toddlers that are NOT marked by gender is, for example, not such an easy task today. Even when people transgress gender in various kinds of transgenderism or queer practices, "proper" gender is often still an underlying norm for what should be transgressed.

Gender Studies is a transdisciplinary area of study which engages critically with gender realities, gender norms, gender relations and gender identities from intersectional perspectives. To study gender intersectionally means to focus on the ways in which gender interrelates with other social categorizations such as ethnicity, class, sexuality identity, nationality, age, dis/ability etc.

Teachers and students of Gender Studies are diverse, but share a belief that women and men, girls and boys, are much more than just gendered stereotypes and cultural "dopes" who simply perform a pre-given gender/sex, defined by a heteronormative two-gender-model. In Gender Studies, we analyse how gender/sex interacts with other social distinctions such as ethnicity, class, sexuality identity, nationality, age, dis/ability etc. We explore how gender, power and norms are intertwined and cannot be understood independently of social and cultural contexts. We scrutinize how various kinds of social injustice, for example, class- and ethnicity-based injustices, often haves strong gendered dimensions. A key focus of Gender Studies is the question: how to foster change, make space for diversity and for new kinds of social, cultural and ecological sustainability and equality. Gender Studies educates agents for change.

Why not try Gender Studies?

Are you interested in analysing culture, organizations, economy, science, technology and other social phenomena from a gender perspective? Would you like to learn about meanings of gender in politics, media, organizations, intimate life, or to seek in-depth knowledge about questions of equality, social justice, equal conditions and sustainable futures with intersectional gender as a lens? Do you want to know how gender interacts with other social distinctions and social powers? Would you like to become better informed to work as an agent for change? If so, try Gender Studies.

 A Brief History of Gender Studies