<p>If there's a women's studies major, why isn't there a men's studies? I think that not only women but also men would benefit from studying it.</p>
<p>That's because the whole world is a men's studies course.</p>
<p>Lurkness has it about right, I think. It would be like having "Straight Studies" or "White Studies."</p>
<p>I know an awful lot about the ideas of straight white men, and you probably do too, just from living in the world.</p>
<p>There is a men's studies course. It's called History.</p>
<p>Well, it's not that uncommon to find courses on masculinities, male identity or gender studies under "Women's Studies" departments. Queer studies stuff is also often under women's studies; the name can be misleading. It's often the case that Women's Studies departments and programs are more organized around courses that study analysis deriving from a feminist theoretical and critical approach than that they're really all about women.</p>
<p>And then there's what LurkNess said :)</p>
<p>Cheers- great minds..... As soon as I saw the thread topic I said to myself, "There is. History."</p>
<p>Women's Studies is often called Gender Studies, which tends to be a more accurate description since the major, as I understand it, is much more about studying gender than about studying a specific sex.</p>
<p>Of course, at many schools you can create your own major.</p>
<p>Yes, I agree with Pseudonym. Women's Studies is more than just women. In Women's Studies, we talk about all disadvantaged groups, race, sexuality, and more. It would be impossible to study women's role in the world without discussing their interactions with men. Everything can be analyzed from a feminist approach, this is why I love Women's Studies.</p>
<p>Besides the obvious reasons stated by LurkNessMonster and cheers...</p>
<p>It's because men just aren't interesting and complex enough to have a whole major about them. I mean, maybe there's enough meat in there for a minor or concentration ;].</p>
<p>/juuuust joshing</p>
<p>Some schools have a Men's Studies class...but there's not history of men's rights/struggles to take classes on.</p>
<p>I'll ask a related question - </p>
<p>Why is there a "Women's Studies" major? What's the point and what are the job prospects of one with a BA degree in it?</p>
<p>mens' rights? over whom? women? men's struggles? against whom? isn't it usually called war? or conquering nature or space? or the history of sports? or the voyages of discovery? </p>
<p>But in fact there has been a boomlet in men's studies; notions of fatherhood, of success and failure (Scott Sandage, Born Losers); machismo in diplomacy- (look up the works of Kristin Hoganson). More can be found by googling masculinity and history. And then there is a whole body of works showing how Westerners denigrated the men of the countries they had conquered by describing them as "effeminate."</p>
<p>EDIT: The Women's Studies departments were created because most of the social sciences disciplines posited the agents as men. Women did not appear as subjects. Most now offer courses on men's studies. I would think that the prospects for majors in women's studies are the same as those in most multi-disciplinary social sciences and humanities programs. In such fields, the important skills that are gained are the ability to read vast amount of materials quickly and critically and to write well.</p>
<p>Marite, on a related note, have you ever seen a photo of the Congressional White Caucus?</p>
<p>^You mean the Republican primary debates?</p>
<p>LOL, TheDad!</p>
<p>Let me tell you about living in a man's world. When H got his Ph.D., he, and every other man, whether that man was receiving a degree or not, was allowed to walk in front of John Harvard's statue. I, being his wife, and not receiving a degree, was told I could not walk in front of the statue, but had to walk around University Hall. How humiliating was it? I did not bother attending my own Commencement. I was by then in London, and H was working at a company where it was the norm for men to be paid higher for exactly the same job as women on the quite open but totally erroneous grounds that "men are breadwinners whereas women work for the fun of it."</p>
<p>The upside of the Harvard tradition was that the Faculty Club had a dress code for men (obligatory jacket and tie and no jeans please) but had not bothered to formulate one for female profs of TFs because it was assumed all profs would be male. One female graduate student I knew delighted in going to the Faculty Club wearing disreputable jeans. She is now a Dean. At Harvard. And the new president is a woman. Sweet.</p>
<p>As the Mom of two sons I think a case could be made for men's studies OR, better yet, men's and women's studies. The boys growing up today don't remember when women couldn't vote, didn't work outside the home, had to wear dresses to school, didn't get equal access to jobs, pay (hah!), sports, etc. They grew up with "Girl Power", special programs for women, more women in college than men, women as competition, yet they also grew up with constant sexualization of women in the media. I presume the young men today have a very confused view of women and confused view of their own expectations/role. Men's studies could validate the cultural changes and help them bridge the gap between the mixed messages they receive all around them (grandfather's world/today's world) . I remember when one of my son's was in 5th grade the teacher answered every girl who raised her hand to answer a question with "Girl Power - you go girl". My son was so upset by this as he was hurt - he thought the teacher only liked girls. He did not have the long perspective at that time. Anyway, think what could be included in men's studies! Smile! Please, this is not an anti-feminism post! I was there!</p>
<p>marite - that is awful. I remember those days well. After undergrad school I wasn't sure I wanted grad school and took a job in Boston at a brokerage house. At that time (1974 to 75) there were 50 brokers on the floor - ALL men. But all the women were secretaries - all of them had B.S or M.S degrees - most more qualified than the men. Each was "waiting" to be sent to brokerage school. I spent almost a year watching new male college grads go directly to training while the women waited and waited and waited. Today that would not happen but it did then.</p>
<p>Good question ucsd dad. I know a couple of rising seniors who will end up with Women's Studies degrees because by the time they got their act together for a four year major--that was the easiest major to finish in four years.</p>
<p>Personally, I would not be pleased to see my sons taking a men's studies course at $5k a pop.</p>
<p>Rileydog:</p>
<p>I have more stories along these lines. When I showed up for a reception for newly admitted graduate student, a male student automatically assumed that I was there as someone's girlfriend. Later on, a male student told me seriously that by pursuing a Ph.D., I would be "taking a job from a male breadwinner."<br>
Things have improved greatly since then in this country, but in my travels abroad, I get plenty of opportunity to see that gender discrimination is alive and well in many parts of the world. </p>
<p>None of this is to say that men's studies is an illegitimate field; as I and others have pointed out, nowadays gender studies include the study of both men and women.</p>
<p>Cheers:</p>
<p>Your sons might not mind reading a text such as: Kristin Hoganson, Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars (Yale University, 1998) or the book by Scott Sandage, Born Losers for which he combed the archives of Dun & Bradstreet. These would be pretty standard fare in a history course with a men's studies approach.</p>