Amber,
I cannot tell if your question is a serious one or not, since it's asked in
such a sarcastic way. But I'll assume that you are being serious and that
you really do think those things you mentioned - such as women's studies
programs and Take Our Daughters to Work - "advantage" women.
The long answer is, those programs and services were created to try to
alleviate disparities that have historically (and currently) existed in
those areas. Women's Studies is around because so many of the other
classes at colleges and universities focus only on the
writing/history/politics/etc. of men. They, by default, are ALL "men's
studies" programs. And I'm speaking from the experience of having studied
Public Policy as an undergraduate and including Women's Studies as a second
major because the Public Policy Dept. only concentrated on (and included
professors who were) White men. Take Our Daughters to Work stems from the
huge gender disparities that still persist in certain sectors - it is an
effort to help girls connect with non-traditional careers and spark their
interest in such fields. Women's centers on college campuses grew out of a
movement to make sure that women were receiving the services that they
needed but which had not previously existed. They came at a time when rape
on college campuses was just starting to be recognized as a problem but
nothing was being done by the administrations about it. That's not to say
that every women's center started for that reason (and women are certainly
not the only ones who are raped in college - but they are the vast
majority), but it's one important origin of the work that they do.
My short answers to your question is, do some research first on your
examples before you start making claims about them.
Christina Perez
christina_perez@terc.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Feb 15 2000 - 15:04:21 EST