Disciplines & Professions: Women's Studies

Web Sites

About.com's Women's Issues Directory
http://womensissues.about.com/

Focuses on the most current issues and news regarding women today. Op-eds and articles from major newspapers and periodicals are readily accessible, and links to other informational sites and resources can be found with a little more digging. Sample topics include corporate sexism, violence against women, and women in the military.

Academic Info's Women's Studies Gateway
http://www.academicinfo.net/women.html

Academically-oriented site looks at the role of women throughout historical periods, including Ancient Egypt and Medieval Europe. Other categories focus on the evolving role of women in various professions or organizations, such as the law and religion.

Open Directory's Women's Studies Directory
http://dmoz.org/Society/People/Women/Women's_Studies/

Potpourri of categories gives the directory depth and breadth, if not a lot of order and user-friendly organization. The largest category by far is women and health; categories tend to be less news-oriented than About.com, and more browser-friendly/general interest than Academic Info.

Reading Room: Women's Studies Database
http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/

A virtual reading room, this University of Maryland women's studies site invites you to grab a cup of coffee and make yourself cozy in front of the computer. The database of selected readings written by or about prominent women indexes materials according to fiction, nonfiction, history, book reviews, poetry, and academic papers and articles. Topics have links to full text materials; for example, selecting “fiction” and “Jane Austen” leads you to full-text versions of 6 novels.

Women's Studies/Women's Issues Resource Sites
http://research.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/links.html

Selective, annotated list of approximately 500 Web sites that contains resources and information about women's issues with a specific emphasis on sites of particular use to an academic women's studies program.

Yahoo!'s Women's Studies Directory
http://dir.yahoo.com/Social_Science/Women_s_Studies/

Varied topical index generally favors breadth over depth. Covers women in literature and history, and feminist pedagogy and theology; also links you to campus women's centers, events, and resources.

Databases

Contemporary Women's Issues (Responsive Database Services, available through OCLC FirstSearch)

Indexes books, journals, newsletters, research reports, and fact sheets. Most entries include full text. Provides information on women from over 150 countries. Over 35,000 references from 1992 to the present.

GenderWatch (SoftLine Information, available through OCLC FirstSearch)

Indexes publications and archival materials. Provides full text of sources. Over 55,000 entries from 1974 to the present.

Women's Resources International (National Information Services Corporation, available through BiblioLine)

This database includes bibliographic references for books, essays in books, and journal articles. Covers 1972 to the present and focuses on topics such as women's studies and feminist criticism and theory.

Print Resources

Amico, Eleanor B., ed. A Reader's Guide to Women's Studies. Chicago: Fitz Dearborn, 1998.

Offers brief descriptions of books on more than 500 topics and people in women's studies. Entries are arranged alphabetically and a general index is provided.

Andermahr, Sonya, Terry Lovell, and Carol Wolkowitz. A Concise Glossary of Feminist Theory. New York: St. Martin's, 1997.

Provides explanations for foundational concepts of feminist theory. Frequent cross-references to related entries. Organized alphabetically. Includes an extensive bibliography.

Brownmiller, Sara, and Ruth Dickstein. An Index to Women's Studies Anthologies. New York: G. K. Hall, 1994.

Indexes more than 500 anthologies across disciplines to identify articles related to women's studies. Provides brief annotations and subject, author, editor, and keyword indices.

Kinnear, Karen L. Women in the Third World. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1997.

Provides a historical survey and overview of issues confronting women in the Third World. Chapters include a chronology, biographies of notable women, relevant facts and figures, and sections on print and non-print sources.

Tierney, Helen, ed. Women's Studies Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. 2 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1999.

Alphabetically organized articles on a wide array of women's studies issues, people, and events. Focuses mostly on the United States. Articles include a list of references. Volume 2 includes an index.

Weatherford, Doris. American Women's History. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1994.

Focuses specifically on American women, events and issues. Entries are listed alphabetically.

Women's Studies Abstracts. Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Periodicals Consortium, 1990-.

Provides bibliographic information and abstracts of periodical literature on a full range of issues within women's studies. Abstracts are organized by subject, then alphabetically by author's last name.