Women's Studies

Today women's lives today are increasingly shaped by global transformations in work, technology, politics, and popular culture, resulting in profound changes in gender roles and expectations. Women's studies explores these issues in both national and transnational contexts.
   Women's studies is an interdisciplinary program that examines how systems of oppression/resistance and privilege operate. It is designed to provide students with an understanding of the importance of gender as a category of analysis, and its intersections with race/ethnicity, class, age, sexual identity, and (dis)ability.
   The women's studies faculty are dedicated to creating an environment that fosters critical thinking, supports student activism, and emphasizes faculty/student and peer mentoring. Students are encouraged to question conventional wisdom and to participate actively in their education.
   Women's studies helps prepare students for a variety of careers. Women interested in law, education, politics, business, and the arts will be well prepared by the women's studies major. Understanding the importance of gender in society helps women to have successful careers and lives and to promote social justice and gender equity.

Women's Studies Internships

Internships and other experiential learning projects are an integral part of the women's studies program. As students become familiar with the field, they can apply the knowledge gained in the classroom to internships that will help them prepare for many different sorts of career opportunities. Students have focused on human rights, immigration, the arts, violence, poverty, peace, and justice. Some possibilities are listed below:

• Awakening Foundation, Taipei, Taiwan
• Battered Women's Shelter, Charlottesville, Va.
• Center for Women and Politics, Washington, D.C.
• First Lady's White House Staff, Washington, D.C.
• Choice, U.S.A., Washington, D.C.
• Guggenheim Productions, New York City
• Institute for Women's Policy Research, Washington, D.C.
• Human Rights Council, Washington, D.C.
• Planned Parenthood, Roanoke
• Legal Aid Society, Roanoke
• Ministry of Human Development, Belize City, Belize
• Southern Poverty Law Center, Montgomery, Ala.
• Wildcat Garden for Peace and Education, Williamsburg, Mass.
• Women Make Movies, New York City
• In-Lighten, Roanoke, Va.
• Women's Injury Law Center, Richmond, Va.

Many students also undertake independent experiential learning projects. Some recent examples:

• A curriculum project to develop a Hollins course titled Confronting Isms
• A video project documenting the feelings, attitudes, and concerns of the teenagers who populate the Roanoke city market area
• An examination of the roles of women in the financial industry
• An examination of the effects of gender on class participation
• An exploration of the relationship between women's self-assertiveness and date rape
• The establishment of a community garden on campus
• Conducting writing workshops at an all girls' middle school
• Research on birth practices cross-culturally
• Research on women and outdoor leadership

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