NWSA: RESEARCHING THE FIELD
INSTITUTIONAL NWSA MEMBERS FOR 2007
395
INDIVIDUAL NWSA MEMBERS FOR 2007
2,000
Source: NWSA Membership Database
DATA ON THE FIELD
The National Women's Studies Association established its Mapping Women’s and Gender Studies project to collect data that could provide a comprehensive portrait of these programs and how they manifest themselves in different U.S. institutions of higher education. Click here to search the database
This project is made possible with generous support from The Ford Foundation.
QUESTIONS FOR A NEW CENTURY: WOMEN’S STUDIES AND INTEGRATIVE LEARNING
Past efforts to assess the field of Women’s Studies include Ford Foundation sponsored reports by Catharine Stimpson (1986) and Beverly Guy-Sheftall (1995). A FIPSE-funded study was led by Caryn McTighe Musil and yielded three 1992 publications. Recent assessments are lacking, and there is a contradiction between the field’s assertion that it is at the forefront of educational change and the reality that program goals, student outcomes, and assessment methods have changed little in a dozen years. Women’s Studies must engage in renewed assessment efforts in order to maintain its leadership position, and this document offers a snapshot of the status of the field. Click here to read the full report
WOMEN’S STUDIES PROGRAM RANKINGS
The National Academies ranks doctoral programs, and is including the “emerging field” of women’s and gender studies for the first time in its latest assessment project. This assessment is scheduled to be completed in early 2008.
Note, however, that the women’s studies programs will not be ranked; instead they will be qualitatively and quantitatively assessed. The National Academies reserves rankings for programs that graduate at least 500 PhDs annually.