Women's Studies

Selected Purdue Libraries Databases for Women’s Studies

Since Women’s Studies ranges across all disciplines, almost any database in any field will yield a substantial number of citations dealing with women in relation to the main topic of the database. The following two Purdue databases are devoted exclusively to Women’s Studies, however:

Women and Social Movements in the U.S: 1600-2000. Books, letters, images, scholarly essays, commentaries and bibliographies documenting American women’s reform activities from the colonial period into the 20 th century.
Women’s Studies International. Covers the core disciplines in Women’s Studies and the latest scholarship in feminist research. Sources indexed include journals, newspapers, newsletters, bulletins, books, book chapters, proceedings, reports, theses and dissertations.

Other Databases:

The following subject-focused or general databases are also useful in women’s studies:

AccessUN. Provides access to United Nations publications.
Ageline. A bibliographic database in social gerontology produced by the American Association for Retired Persons.
America: History and Life. Abstracts of selected journal articles, citations of book and media reviews, and dissertations covering the history of what is now the United States and Canada. Coverage is worldwide but all abstracts are in English.
Archives USA. Provides bibliographic records on primary source materials from manuscript repositories in the U.S.
Contemporary Authors. A bio-bibliographical guide to current writers in fiction, general nonfiction, journalism, poetry, drama, motion pictures, television and other fields.
Family and Society Studies Worldwide . Provides abstracts and bibliographic records for articles from professional journals and popular literature, books, conference papers, government reports and other sources in the fields of Family Science, Human Ecology, Human Development and Social Welfare.
Francis (International Humanities and Social Studies). Indexes and abstracts a wide range of multilingual, multidisciplinary information in the Humanities and Social Sciences including journal articles, books, book chapters, conference papers, French dissertations, exhibition catalogs, legislation, teaching materials and reports.
Historical Abstracts. Abstracts of selected journal articles, citations of book and media reviews, and dissertations covering the history of the world excluding the U.S. and Canada. Provides cover-to-cover indexing for key international English language periodicals in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Searches can be narrowed to specific subject fields within those broad areas.
Sociological Abstracts. Provides abstracts of journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations and conference papers from the international literature of sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. Provides abstracts of journal articles and other sources in political science and related fields.

Selected Free Internet Sites: General Sites and Directories

American Women's History: A Research Guide: A guide to Internet reference sources and selected large primary source collections. Includes information about the tools researchers can use to find additional resources.
Women’s Studies: Core Books. This database is maintained by the Women's Studies Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries and is a core list of books in women's studies intended to assist women's studies librarians and collection development librarians in building women's studies collections.
Diotima: Materials for the Study of Women and Gender in the Ancient World: An interdisciplinary resource for anyone interested in patterns of gender around the ancient Mediterranean. Includes bibliographies with links to J-STOR when relevant and links to other relevant websites.
FeMiNa. Comprehensive links to Web sites for, by, and about women. Topics covered include business, education, entertainment, health, and motherhood. Access:
Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index: Indexes journal articles, book reviews, and essays in books about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages.
Women's Studies Programs, Departments, Research Centers, and Archives: compiled at the University of Wisconsin, Madison Libraries.
WSSLINKS: Women and Gender Studies. Developed and maintained by ACRL’s Women’s Studies Section, this site is arranged by broad categories and divided into topical areas.

Selected Free Internet Sites: Digitized Collections of Texts

African American Women Writers of the 19th Century: A digital collection from the New York Public Library.
Gifts of Free Speech: Women's Speeches from Around the World: This site is a full-text searchable database from Sweet Briar College
HEARTH: A full-text searchable collection of books and journals in Home Economics and related disciplines published from 1850 to 1950.
Victorian Women Writer’s Project. A full-text digital collection of transcribed works by 19 th century British Women with an emphasis on accuracy.
Women Working, 1870 - 1930 provides access to digitized historical, manuscript, and image resources selected from Harvard's library and museum collections.

Associations and Organizations

Association of Institutions for Feminist Education and Research in Europe. Founded in 1996 with the duel purpose of providing a legal platform from which to seek EU project funding, as well as unify and represent the thematic area.
Global Fund for Women. This nonprofit is a grantmaking organization that provides funding to support women’s groups working on emerging, controversial, or difficult issues such as female human rights.
Women Voters. This voluntary organization promotes political responsibility through informed and active participation of citizens in government. In addition to information about the organization, the site provides information on major public policy issues, voter information, and an e-library with publications, historical documents, and video and image archives.
National Council for Research on Women: A working alliance of women’s research and policy centers, affiliates, and a network of international centers.
National Organization of Women (NOW). The largest organization of feminist activists in the United States that furthers women’s rights through education and litigation.
National Women’s Studies Association: Founded to further the development of Women's Studies throughout the world at every educational level and in every setting.
The Worldwide Organization for Women's Studies: A federation of women's studies associations. Founded to promote and support feminist knowledge, critiques of knowledge, and practices and research. Includes information on member organizations.