Women’s studies programs should continue to be supported to ensure the fight for women’s rights are not reversed or forgotten.
As we witness the reversal of women’s rights worldwide, it’s clear that women cannot become complacent about protecting their civil liberties. According to the UN’s Sustainable Development Agenda, the world is not on track for meeting its goal of gender equality for women by 2030.
History of women’s studies Women’s studies programs were, and continue to be, an important teaching and learning opportunity for understanding the ways women’s pasts and presents intersect. These programs continue to lay out future paths in the fight for social justice and equality. The “othering” of women through misogyny, racism and sexism in scholarship has had, and continues to have, consequences ranging from prescribing drugs tested only on men to women, the exclusion of women from certain fields and disciplines and barring women from historically male-dominated fields, including in post-secondary education.
Both the financial and social climate contribute to women’s studies programs being at risk of being defunded.