<p>Hi all, </p>
<p>My interest is in studying social issues involving women and I'd like to study it both in their domestic and international forms. However, I am finding most schools offer a program in extremes, either a women's studies program, which focus largely on feminism or an international studies program, which also covers a broad scope of international issues rather than a concentration in women's issues. Do any current or prospective students have suggestions on great programs that would allow me to focus on what I would like to study? Any pointers appreciated, thanks. </p>
<p>Well, it depends on what you want to do. What’s your undergrad major?</p>
<p>There are a lot of different ways that you can study women’s issues, but the kind of degree you get (and I assuming that you want a PhD) is going to be dependent upon the approach/methodology you want to take towards the research and where you want to end up afterwards. Let’s say that you were a sociology major in undergrad. You can study ‘social issues involving women’ in a sociology department; in a women’s studies/gender studies department; in an international studies PhD program (if they have a concentration on that area), and in several other kinds of PhDs - social work, or social policy, maybe communications.</p>
<p>If you wanted to end up in academia, I would say that the sociology or social work PhDs were the best bet. Sociologists have the most flexibility - a person with a sociology PhD could teach in any one of those departments I listed, but if you got a PhD in, say, women’s studies you might have a difficult time finding a job outside of interdisciplinary departments. Social work PhDs mostly work in social work programs, but those positions are a bit more prevalent than the professional interdisciplinary programs like communications or social policy.</p>
<p>But if you wanted to go into industry for sure, or any non-academic position then it might not matter as much what you chose. Then you’d choose primarily based on approach - a sociology program is going to teach you to approach the study of women’s issues through a sociological lens, using sociological theory and sociological methods. A women’s studies PhD program is going to be more interdisciplinary - and the theory and methods they choose are going to be primarily based upon the backgrounds of the faculty (but will likely be primarily sociology and anthropology)</p>