33 Women & Gender Studies
The American LGBTQ Rights Movement: An Introduction
Kyle Morgan and Meg Rodriguez (Humboldt State University)
2020
Licence: CC BY-SA
A peer-reviewed chronological survey of the LGBTQ fight for equal rights from the turn of the 20th century to the early 21st century. Illustrated with historical photographs, the book beautifully reveals the heroic people and key events that shaped the American LGBTQ rights movement. The book includes personal narratives to capture the lived experience from each era, as well as details of essential organizations, texts, and court cases that defined LGBTQ activism and advocacy.
Format: PDF
Suggested for: WGST 470
Badass Womxn in the Pacific Northwest
University of Washington Bothell
2019
Licence: CC BY-NC
This zine is a collection of biographies and portraits of badass womxn in the Pacific Northwest. Undergraduate students collaborated to create this resource that fuses multilingual poetry, art, and writing to celebrate and honor some of the strongest people you might not have heard of. It was created in an interdisciplinary gender, women & sexuality studies classroom.
Format: Online
Suggested for: WGST 460
Between Violence, Vulnerability, Resilience and Resistance
Rand El Zein
2021
Licence: CC BY-SA
How are the structures of power and the notion of agency among Syrian women during the recent Syrian conflict connected? To explore this matter, Rand El Zein investigates gender politics around displacement, conflict, the body, and the nation. In doing so, she outstandingly reconciles critical media theory as myriad and productive with the theoretical concepts on subjectivity, power, performativity, neoliberalism, and humanitarian governance. The book examines how the Arab television news discursively represented the experiences of Syrian women during the conflict in relation to the four main concepts: violence, vulnerability, resilience, and resistance.
Format: PDF
Suggested for: WGST 422
Changing Gender Norms in Islam Between Reason and Revelation
Bakhshizadeh Marziyeh
2018
Licence: CC BY-SA
Women‘s movements in Islamic countries have had a long and arduous journey in their quest for the realization of human rights and genuine equality. The author examines whether discriminatory laws against women do in fact originate from Islam and, ultimately, if there is any interpretation of Islam compatible with gender equality. She investigates women’s rights in Iran since the 1979 Revolution from the perspectives of the main currents of Islamic thought, fundamentalists, reformists, and seculars, using a sociological explanation.
Format: PDF
Contemporary Families: An Equity Lens
Elizabeth B. Pearce
2020
Licence: CC BY
Created with students, approaches contemporary families from an equity lens, this book asks two questions relevant to the Difference, Power, and Discrimination outcomes at Linn-Benton Community College and Oregon State University: “What do families need?” and “How do society and institutions support or get in the way of families getting what they need?”
Format: Online, PDF
Suggested for: WGST 401
Dress, Appearance, and Diversity in U.S. Society
Kelly L. Reddy-Best
2020
Licence: CC BY
This book introduces topics about identity, dress, and the body. Through the content, readers explore how individuals and communities use dress as a way to communicate (i.e. “negotiate” in fashion studies) their various identities. There is heightened attention to social justice, power, privilege, and oppression. That is, the content focuses on the experiences of historically marginalized communities and the ways they navigate dress and dressing their bodies in different contexts. In the first part of the book, readers are introduced to concepts and theories related to fashion, clothing, dress, and/or accessories. In the second part, readers examine the role that fashion, clothing, dress, and/or accessories play in identity development for individuals in marginalized communities in the United States.
Format: Online, PDF, EPUB
Suggested for: WGST 320
eGirls, eCitizens
Edited by Jane Bailey and Valerie Steeves (University of Ottawa)
2015
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
eGirls, eCitizens is a landmark work that explores the many forces that shape girls’ and young women’s experiences of privacy, identity, and equality in our digitally networked society. Drawing on the multi-disciplinary expertise of a remarkable team of leading Canadian and international scholars, as well as Canada’s foremost digital literacy organization, MediaSmarts, this collection presents the complex realities of digitized communications for girls and young women as revealed through the findings of The eGirls Project (www.egirlsproject.ca) and other important research initiatives. Aimed at moving dialogues on scholarship and policy around girls and technology away from established binaries of good vs bad, or risk vs opportunity, these seminal contributions explore the interplay of factors that shape online environments characterized by a gendered gaze and too often punctuated by sexualized violence. Perhaps most importantly, this collection offers first-hand perspectives collected from girls and young women themselves, providing a unique window on what it is to be a girl in today’s digitized society. (Description from UO Press)
Format: PDF
Suggested for: WGST 350
Feeling Gender: A Generational and Psychosocial Approach
Harriet Bjerrum Nielsen
2017
Licence: CC BY
This book explores how feelings about gender have changed over three interrelated generations of women and men of different social classes. Drawing on both generational and longitudinal research, it looks at how gender is lived and has been lived in decades of rapid societal change.
Format: PDF
Suggested for: WGST 320
Feminism and the Politics of Childhood
Rachel Rosen and Katherine Twamley
2018
Licence: CC BY
Feminism and the Politics of Childhood offers an innovative and critical exploration of perceived commonalities and conflicts between women and children and, more broadly, between various forms of feminism and the politics of childhood. This unique collection brings into dialogue authors from a range of social science disciplines, activist organisations, and theoretical perspectives. They address topics such as gender, generation and intergeneration, relationality, power, exploitation, solidarity, and emancipation in a variety of situations, including refugee camps, care labour, domestic violence, and childcare and education.
Format: PDF
Gender in Canada: A Companion Workbook
Rebecca Yoshizawa (Kwantlen Polytechnic University)
2023
Licence: CC BY
This workbook is designed for first or second-year sociology of gender or gender studies courses, focusing on the Canadian context. It is divided into five topics – Theory and Concepts, Institutions, Work, Family and Intimate Relationships, and Bodies and Health.
Format: Online, PDF
Suggested for: WGST 345
Gendered Lives: Global Issues
Nadine T. Fernandez (SUNY Empire State College) and Katie Nelson (Inver Hills Community College)
2021
Licence: CC BY
A gender studies textbook that takes an anthropological approach. Gendered Lives takes a regional approach to examine gender issues from an anthropological perspective with a focus on globalization and intersectionality. Chapters present contributors’ ethnographic research, contextualizing their findings within four geographic regions: Latin America, the Caribbean, South Asia, and the Global North. Each regional section begins with an overview of the broader historical, social, and gendered contexts, which situate the regions within larger global linkages. These introductions also feature short project/people profiles that highlight the work of community leaders or non-governmental organizations active in gender-related issues. Each research-based chapter begins with a chapter overview and learning objectives and closes with discussion questions and resources for further exploration. This modular, regional approach allows instructors to select the regions and cases they want to use in their courses. While they can be used separately, the chapters are connected through the book’s central themes of globalization and intersectionality.
Formats: Online, EPUB, and PDF
Suggested for: WGST 303
Global Femicide: Indigenous Women and Girls Torn from Our Midst
Edited by Brenda Anderson, Carrie Bourassa, Shauneen Pete, Wendee Kubik, and Mary Rucklos-Hampton (University of Regina)
2021
Licence: CC BY-NC
Laying our Canadian stories alongside the global phenomenon of femicide in other colonized countries such as Mexico and Guatemala, this book underscores the common, interlocking effects of racism and sexism on Indigenous women. Family members, scholars and researchers, artists, activists and policy-makers provide their decade-long perspectives, providing testimony and evidence that sexualized and racialized violence is not only a product of historic colonization but continues to manifest in entrenched systems of colonization and global femicide. The analysis and the heart of all the authors is generously shared, exemplifying what resistance looks like.
Formats: Online, EPUB, and PDF
Suggested for: WGST 304
Global Women’s Issues: Women in the World Today (Extended Version)
Bureau of International Information Programs, United States Department of State, with additions by Janni Aragon and Mariel Miller (University of Victoria)
2019
Licence: CC0 public domain
This global politics text has been positively reviewed and has been successfully adopted by other faculty. It covers concepts in women’s political issues, from women and education to the rights of children. We cannot solve global challenges unless women participate fully in efforts to find solutions. Female participation in the private sector is a crucial economic driver for societies worldwide. Economic security benefits every facet of a woman’s life, with positive effects on the health, education, and vitality of families. Learn about women who are changing their societies for the better.
Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, MOBI, and more.
Suggested for: WGST 201
Introduction to Human Sexuality
Erika Goerling and Emerson Wolfe
2022
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
This is an introductory human sexuality textbook.
Format: Online, PDF, eBook, Word
Suggested for: WGST 322
Introduction to LGBTQ+ Studies: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach
Deborah P. Amory, Sean G. Massey, Jennifer Miller, and Allison P. Brown
Licence: CC BY
Designed for an introductory course, this textbook takes a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of LGBTQ+ issues that helps students grasp core concepts through a variety of different perspectives.
Format: Online, PDF
Suggested for: WGST 201
Introduction to Queer Studies 101
Jimena Alvarado Chavarría (Everyday Social Justice and Portland Community College)
Licence: CC BY-NC
This course is an introduction to queer studies, with a focus on intersectionality and social justice. The course begins with some of the typical patterns that people experience when they’re confronting their privilege for the first time, including resistance, fragility, guilt and shame. The course uses a flipped-classroom methodology that centers student conversations during class time.
Formats: Online, PDF and Word
Suggested for: WGST 201
Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies
Miliann Kang, Donovan Lessard, Laura Heston, and Sonny Nordmarken (University of Massachusetts)
2017
Licence: CC BY
This textbook introduces key feminist concepts and analytical frameworks used in the interdisciplinary Women, Gender, Sexualities field. It unpacks the social construction of knowledge and categories of difference, processes, and structures of power and inequality, with a focus on gendered labor in the global economy, and the historical development of feminist social movements. The book emphasizes feminist sociological approaches to analyzing structures of power, drawing heavily from empirical feminist research.
Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, and more
Suggested for: WGST 201
Introduction to Women’s & Gender Studies – First Edition
Colleen Lutz Clemens (Kutztown University)
2023
Licence: CC BY-SA
Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies (2023) is an eTextbook designed to provide an introduction to the fields of Women’s Studies and Gender Studies for students taking introductory courses. The textbook touches on a variety of subjects including gender theories, feminisms, intersectionality, equity, and activism. Chapters contain questions to consider and list of suggested readings by theorists and activists. This multimedia eTextbook incorporates videos and podcasts to create a rich introductory experience for students.
Format: PDF, eBook
Suggested for: WGST 201
Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies 101
Jimena Alvarado Chavarría (Everyday Social Justice and Portland Community College)
Licence: CC BY-NC
This course is an introduction to intersectionality and social justice. I’m starting from a beginner perspective assuming that folks are coming into these ideas for the first time. The course begins with some of the typical patterns that people experience when they’re confronting their privilege for the first time, including resistance, fragility, guilt and shame. I encourage folks to always stay focused on their privileged identities, whichever those are. Since it’s an introductory course, there’s a lot of interesting ideas, but we don’t delve deep into any of them. We explore some of the similar patterns that different oppressions face, like victim-blaming, competition, internalization, issues around visibility, disclosure, inheritability and familial relationships. We analyze economic systems around work and employment and question the structures and systems that shape our lives. I encourage students to develop their humility, ally and activism skills. We wrap up with hope for how to reimagine a better society. The course uses a flipped-classroom methodology that centers student conversations during class time.
Formats: Online, PDF and Word
Suggested for: WGST 201
LGBTQ+ Studies: An Open Textbook
Edited by Deborah Amory (SUNY Empire State College) and Sean G. Massey (Binghampton University)
2020
Licence: CC BY
This textbook is designed to provide an introduction to and an overview of LGBTQ+ Studies for the introductory level college student and the curious public. It offers accessible, academically sound information on a wide range of topics, from LGBTQ+ history, LGBTQ+ relationship, families, parenting, and health, to LGBTQ+ culture. It employs an intersectional analysis, highlighting the ways in which sexuality and gender are simultaneously experienced and constructed through other structures of inequality and privilege, such as race and class. This intersectional analysis is grounded in social theory and the social sciences. It also seeks to highlight a more global perspective on LGBTQ+ issues, from the ancient world as well more contemporary ones. Finally, it aims to support multiple learning styles by integrating visual elements and multimedia resources.
Format: Online
Suggested for: WGST 201
LGBTQ+ Healthcare: Your Guide to Building an Inclusive Practice
Selinda Berg, Scott Cowan, and Ashlyne O’Neil
2022
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
The LGBTQ+ community is diverse. While L, G, B, T, and Q are usually tied together as a single homogeneous entity, each letter represents a wide range of people of different races, ethnicities, ages, socioeconomic statuses and identities (National LGBT Health Education Centre, 2019). Unfortunately, experiences of stigma and discrimination are a common theme that transcends across the entire LGBTQ+ community. While discrimination exists across the community, the manifestations of oppression and discrimination are not a singular occurrence or experience. One area in which there is a long history of discrimination and lack of awareness is within the health care sector.
Format: Online, PDF, EPUB, and more
Suggested for: WGST 303
Persistence is Resistance: Celebrating 50 Years of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
Julie Shayne
2020
Licence: CC BY
Persistence is Resistance is a collection celebrating 50 years of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies. Contributors are a diverse group of scholars, from undergraduate students to faculty emeritus, representing twenty-four institutions. Essays cover GWSS’s history, praxis, and implementation. The book also includes artwork by GWSS undergraduates and alumni, and their answers to “why GWSS?” Persistence is Resistance is ideal for the classroom because the essays are short, jargon light, and inspire feminist inquiry, activism, and pride.
Format: Online
Suggested for: WGST 460
Women Worldwide: Transnational Feminist Perspectives
Tracy Butts (Chico State), Patti Duncan (Oregon State University), Janet Lockhart, and Susan M. Shaw (Oregon State University)
2022
Licence: CC BY
This textbook discusses global interconnection and its impact on women and social construction of gender. This social construction of gender, its shaping of the world, and its effects on individuals and groups of people are at the core of this textbook.
Format: Online, PDF