Why is there women's studies, but no men's studies?

Question

I would definately like to study that!

Answer 1

Men's studies would be considered sexist, while women's studies is considered progressive.

Pookie- You didn't learn about any women in those fields?  Your education must've sucked.

Well, to be completely honest, most of those people were men.  I learned about some of the women who did those things.  In fact, most of my teachers went out of their way to teach us about them, to the point where I had a couple of teachers have to point out the women who were actually worthy of being included in the classes and not just stuck in there to make the liberals happy that there was some equal representation.  Plus, I learned a lot about women's everyday lives in many societies, but men's everyday lives kind of somehow got lost in that shuffle.

Answer 2

A while ago, it used to be just women's studies.. Now its Gender and Women's Studies.. So i'm gonna take a wild guess that Gender represents men.

Answer 3

Maybe because we think we have them all figured out.  Freud used to call women the "continent noir", the dark continent.  So maybe he started it all, who knows?

Answer 4

Good question. Someone should make a nonprofit school to teach men's studies. I have no idea why there is no men's studies class.  

Answer 5

One could argue that men's studies is covered in regular history.

However, i think its more because men haven't asked for it.

I really could give a c**p.

I took women's studies in high school, not a very exciting or useful course, but an easy A.

I wouldn't waste college money on women's studies personally.

Answer 6

Everything else academically is pertaining mostly to men.

All documented history is about men.. only when women step from the private sphere to the public sphere were they documented..

In short: Women's studies covers many of the issues ignored by the mainstream.. Men's Studies isn't necessary because it's always been all about men anyway.  

Answer 7

My standard reply -

Because at school (and in popular culture), we are only taught about past and present male scientists, male poets, male philosophers, male psychoanalysts, male doctors, male rulers, male writers, male artists, ... Get my point?

Most people have no idea about the female counterparts of these writers, philosophers etc. Here, we are SUPPOSED to have a space where we can freely discuss these things, without some moronic MRA screeching "Unfair! Unfair!" at every post.

Answer 8

Because women want so many things dedicated to them.

Answer 9

I was thinking the same thing not too long ago. My conclusion was...women are such complex beings. There are so many facets to a woman's emotions, psyche and physical being and it is intriguing to learn about all these areas...men on the other hand are not as complex and the class would not take up a full semester...hahaha

To the below poster...at no point in my comment was there "bickering". How you could translate anything I said into "bickering" is amazing.  As far as being "complex" if you think about how women are different than men you would see how much more complex women are in physical attributes alone. Do men go through the physical and hormonal roller coaster every month? Do men experience childbirth? Postpartum depression? These are just a few examples of complexity to consider...so get off your high horse.

Answer 10

When I was in grades 1-12, the only women I heard about were Madame Curie, Florence Nightengale, Clara Barton and Jane Austen. You'd never know there had been a single woman inventor, doctor, lawyer, farmer, philospher, psychologist, economist, historian, athlete, artist, architect, computer programmer, broadcaster, or even a politician. It was as though women didn't exist.

I took women's studies in college in 1977 and couldn't believe the rich history of American women, let alone all of the things women had done world wide. I'd read a couple of paragraphs about the suffragists in high school as though they existed for a day or two when it took decades to get the vote. If the lower grades have updated their textbooks in science, literature, the arts and math and they reflect the accomplishments of women, they'll be less need for women's studies. But since many colleges are changing their program titles to Gender studies or Women and gender studies, I think they are doing a good job of reflecting more and more the need for further study of the sexist nature of our society as a whole, not just how it relates to women. With time, hopefully the lower grades will do the same.      

Answer 11

Because history is HIS story...

Answer 12

Men pretty much run things, and have pretty much run things for time immemorial.  Because of this, by proxy, most studies could be construed as being "male studies."

World history, for example, which focuses on how different kingdoms affected the world, is largely a study of male power structures and struggles.

Psychology includes the study of both the male and female mind, however, it focused primarily on the male psyche up until about two-thirds of the way through this century.

To retort to the above poster: childish pot-shots and bickering about one gender being more or less "complex" than another are pretty pointless.  I've known simple men and simple women, and I've known complex men and complex women.  Men are emotional creatures who have their own emotional peaks and pitfalls as well, but the same social structures paint women as these alternately frail and demonic beings who can't be figured out also teach boys to not express their emotions and to "suck it up."  Just because the average guy doesn't break into tears when someone says something deeply hurtful to him doesn't mean he doesn't hurt just as badly as a gal would.

Answer 13

Because men have run practically everything in history, so they are history.  Women's history is like teaching all these various parts of history, more in relation to culture, and how a child is raised.

Also, you don't hear about men getting angry that their rights are infringed, only feminists.  Feminists were the reason that the useless course was made in the first place.