Why Gender Studies?

At the Indiana University Department of Gender Studies

Gender Studies (GNDR) offers interdisciplinary courses that explore the making and meaning of gender - femininity and masculinity - across cultures and social formations, past and present.

Gender influences human options, conditions, and experiences. The legal, political, economic, and cultural systems are all profoundly gendered. Deep understanding of gender patterns, dynamics, and biases can enhance the accuracy and scope of work in many fields. Gender awareness benefits individuals, communities, and organizations.

Our professors are collectively engaged in original, cutting-edge research which they often discuss in class. This makes any course you take well worth it.

Some questions investigated in Gender Studies include:

•What is 'gender'?
•When and why was the concept first used?
•How is gender different from sex?
•Are human gender divisions the product of biology, cultural construction, both, or neither?
•How does gender interact with other "identity markers", such as ethnicity, sexuality, class, and culture?
•How does popular culture shape experiences of gender?
•How do gender concepts influence mass media?
•How has gender influenced the development of technology, science, research, and medicine?
•How are concepts of beauty, sexuality, and pornography shaped by gender prescriptions?
•How have debates about gender varied historically and cross-culturally?