Women's Studies on the Internet

Click on the category below to view links.
  

Appalachian State University Local Links

General Women's Studies Reference Sites

It’s easy to find references to women's studies on the Internet. Women's studies students can use the Internet to become familiar with some of the basic concepts in the field. The use of a search engine to find women’s studies will yield an enormous number of Web sites. Some specialized search engines allow you to search for women-oriented sites. These are:

The following Web sites contain general information on the field of women's studies and links to many Web sites that will help introduce you to the many topics and methods of women's studies scholarship.

Return to Top

Biographies of Great Women in History

Return to Top

Academic Women's Studies Programs,
Departments, and Research Centers

Universities around the U.S. and abroad offer diverse programs in women's studies for undergraduate concentrations, minors, majors, and graduate degrees. For a detailed listing of, and Web links to, these schools and programs, see the following sites:

Return to Top

Using the Web for Women's Studies Research

The vast majority of women's studies scholars' work involves research, though some women's studies scholars in the humanities create artistic work such as photographs and performances (which are themselves often based on various forms of research). Many sites are available on the Internet to help you find more information about research and performances, and to help you conduct your own research.

Finding Sources

The work of other women's studies scholars is priceless to the research process of working women's studies scholars and students. Previous work in an interest area not only illuminates the potential pitfalls, but it provides a foundation on which to build current work. Each piece of research is like a building block that adds its own dimension to our understanding of a topic.

Most articles need to be gathered from real-life sites such as libraries or archives. However, many people find it useful to use the Internet to figure out what they'll be looking for and where to locate it before venturing forth. Sometimes looking at specific journal Web sites will help locate the information you're looking for. At other times the use of a database, library, or archive is more helpful.

Some libraries have provided information on their Web sites, giving everyone access to their collections. Where once a researcher had to travel to a particular city to go through archival material at a specific library, in some cases a researcher can now see this material over the Internet. Some useful research sites are listed here. For information about other libraries and databases, try using a search engine or calling the particular library by telephone to ask if it has a Web site.

Return to Top

Journals in Women's Studies
(online and/or print)

Journals come from many different sources and address a variety of topics. Virtually every discipline has a plethora of journals that give voice to the research and ideas developed by practitioners. Women’s studies is no exception. Some journals focus on specific topics, such as the journal Violence Against Women, whereas others present a diverse collection of women’s studies scholarship, such as the journal of the National Women’s Studies Association, NWSA Journal. 

Not all women’s studies journals have Web sites at this time. Some of those that do only provide information about the journal and how to subscribe to a hard-copy version. Others, however, present the journal’s table of contents online, including the current issue and several years back. Still others allow users to access the entire contents electronically for free or for a small fee. The list below contains Web sites for journals of each type. 

Interdisciplinary Feminist Journals

Return to Top

Article Databases

Many school libraries and local libraries are equipped with computer terminals that provide access to databases listing articles and their abstracts. These databases are priceless to the work of any researcher. Although many require fees to use and keep updated, some provide limited access for free (full access for a fee). The following sites are good examples. Be aware that sites such as JSTOR may require permission to access their databases. For students and faculty this usually is provided through on-campus access to the Internet at a school; just type in the address. However, from off-campus terminals, or when you are using another Internet provider, you must find alternate ways of gaining access. One such method is the use of a proxy server. Your school's computer resource center should be able to provide you with the codes, passwords, and assistance to use a proxy server. If your school has a women's studies librarian, talking with that person will be an excellent way to learn about which databases are available to you.

Online Libraries

Online libraries can provide a wealth of information, including access to the full texts of sources you may be seeking. Using online libraries such as the ones listed below is just like visiting your school or local library. The Web sites allow you to either browse their services or do detailed searches of their catalogs to ferret out the information you need.

Participating in Women's Studies occurs at many levels in the life of a women's studies scholar. One form of participation involves interacting with other women's studies scholars. There are many online forums in which this type of participation takes place. In real life, women's studies scholars listen to each other present their ideas at professional conferences or symposiums. They may also participate in online discussion groups through the use of newsgroups and listservs. 

As mentioned earlier, women's studies is a field of inquiry aligned with social movements that bring our attention to injustice and strive for change. The ideas and conclusions that women's studies scholars gather may be applied in the real world; hence their participation and interests in struggles for gender justice. 

The following links illustrate all these ways to interact with women's studies scholars and the groups, causes, and agendas to which they often feel accountable in their work. Keep in mind, as you find these sites on your own, the cautions provided in the section that follows, "Evaluating Web Sites." Professional Women's Studies Organizations The following groups are instrumental in keeping the field of women's studies alive and growing–by organizing meetings, publishing journals, and so on. These groups provide access to their many duties through Web sites designed to educate and create a sense of community. The sites are beneficial to students, who wish to grasp the diversity and enormity of the discipline.

Return to Top

National Women's Studies Association Caucuses, Task Forces, and Interest Groups

Provided below are a few of the Web sites for topical and concern-based caucuses of the National Women's Studies Association. These may prove helpful in your search for information on your own interest areas and give you a sense of the field. 

Return to Top

Discussion Groups to Ask Questions
and Stay Informed

Discussion groups, like professional organizations, provide women's studies professors and students with a venue in which to present and compare ideas, stay informed on current events in the field, and ask questions. This is especially informative for students of women's studies when experts in the field survey ground-breaking ideas or rehash old arguments with new twists. Some discussion lists concentrate only on specific topics, while others allow a broad range of discussion. Many more discussion groups exist than are listed here. 

Usenet Newsgroups

As discussed in Part Two, Usenet is a UNIX-based information system that maintains thousands of special-interest discussion groups (called newsgroups). Access to Usenet is provided through university computing accounts and other Internet service providers (ISPs). You should seek more information locally if you do not know how to access these resources. 

Usenet newsgroup discussions differ from listserves (see below) in that messages are not sent directly to individual users, but are stored on servers for individual retrieval. Usenet newsgroups tend to be used by a much wider audience than individual listservs. The topics of messages can be extremely varied. 

Some newsgroups spring up, die out, and are reborn with great frequency; others continue for long periods of time. It would be impossible to list all of the newsgroups that might be of interest to those in women’s studies. Basically, if you want to talk about something, there is probably a newsgroup that has begun or is waiting to begin the discussion. To find lists of Usenet newsgroups (and some of them are searchable by topic), check out the Yahoo! search engine category on Usenet newsgroups for the most up-to-date list.

http://www.feministing.com/

Listservs

Listservs are programs running on Internet servers that allow for the management of lists of e-mail addresses. These programs receive messages sent to the listserv’s e-mail address and then immediately redistribute copies of that message to other addresses on the list. The effect is to create an electronic bulletin board on which messages can be posted can be read by many users. Some lists can have thousands of members. Others will have only a dozen or so. Members can respond to messages either publicly (on the list) or privately (through a direct e-mail message to an individual). Further, some discussion lists are archived and available to the general public on the Internet, whereas other discussion lists are private and ask list members to refrain from forwarding messages from the list to other people. Most listservs have open subscriptions, but some are exclusive, allowing subscriptions only from individuals with specific qualifications. It is always advisable to read all of the instructions and guidelines for the use of a specific list before posting a message. 

Listservs differ substantially from most Usenet newsgroups in that they are controlled by a "listowner," who has the ability to control access to subscriptions and, in some cases, monitor messages before they are posted. The listowner even has the power to delete a subscriber from the list. Listserv discussions tend to be much more professional than those in Usenet newsgroups.

On a well-maintained list, all messages should be clearly labeled. Some e-mail programs, such as Netscape Mail, Pegasus Mail, and Eudora Pro, will display messages with the same "Subject" line together as a thread, permitting users to read contributions to a discussion that may stretch over several days or weeks. Traffic, or the rate at which new messages appear on the listserv, can range from one message a month to dozens a day. The listservs with heavy traffic usually allow members to select a "digest" function so that members receive only one message a day with all the day’s messages in it. 

Some lists have advanced features that permit subscribers to specify the categories of messages that they would like to receive. Frivolous posts and requests that look as if you are trying to get someone else to do your homework are likely to be flamed with negative, mocking, or even insulting responses. Some lists are moderated by an individual or panel in an attempt to eliminate silly, useless, distracting, off-topic, or offensive messages. Most lists encourage new subscribers to lurk for a while in order to familiarize themselves with the level and kind of discussion in the listserv before contributing to the discussion. Try to get an idea of the kinds of participants and their personalities before jumping into a discussion. If you consider submitting a message to a listserv, remember that copies of it will go out to hundreds, if not thousands, of professors, potential colleagues, and employers. 

The following academic e-mail lists focus on women's studies. To subscribe to any of the listservs, send an e-mail message to the appropriate address (listed below) with the message SUBSCRIBE [listname] Your Name (e.g., SUBSCRIBE WMST-L Jane Doe). Once you are subscribed, you will receive information about the listserv and instructions for posting to the listserv. It’s important to save these instructions because if you later want to be removed from the list, you will need to follow the instructions for how to unsubscribe. (Remember never to post a message to the listserv asking to be removed from the listserv. That message would go to everyone, cluttering their mailboxes.)

Blogs of Interest

Return to Top

General Resources for Feminist Activists

Specific Activist Sites and Organizations
A Sampling

Return to Top