Women's and Gender Studies Resources

Beginning Your Research

Consult Reference Works

As you approach a new topic, consider consulting a reference book or web site. You can browse the Reference Collection on the second floor of Chalmers, near Helpline, or you can search for reference books within CONSORT, the shared catalog of Kenyon College, Denison, Ohio Wesleyan University, and the College of Wooster.

Sample CONSORT searches of Reference Works:

Browse the Reference Collection, as well as the Main Collection, for books to help give you some grounding in a topic. At Kenyon, books are organized according to the Library of Congress classification system. The HQ call number range includes books about women and gender, but you'll find relevant books in many other ranges as well.

Finding Books

Use CONSORT, Kenyon's library catalog, to find books, newspapers, ebooks, videos, music, maps, periodicals, and more. Note that CONSORT does not include individual journal articles. See the Finding Articles section below. Kenyon is also part of OhioLINK, the central catalog of 85 colleges and Universities within Ohio. You can search OhioLINK separately, or within CONSORT. If your'e unable to find books and other materials on your topic in CONSORT and OhioLINK, try searching in WorldCat. WorldCat aims to be a catalog of libraries' holdings throughout the nation and the world. To request a book or article not in OhioLINK, complete and submit the Inter Library Loan (ILL) form.

Search Strategies for finding materials in library catalogs:

Begin your search with key words.

Once you find a good book, scroll down to the subject headings and link to relevant subject headings. Subject headings, assigned by the Library of Congress, are like virtual bookshelves. They group related works within the catalog.

Finding Articles

Women's and Gender-Studies-Specific Indexes

GenderWatch [1970-]
Gender Watch is a full text database of unique and diverse publications that focus on how gender impacts a broad spectrum of subject areas. This database provides an important historical perspective on the evolution of the women's movement and the changes in gender roles. Publications include scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books, and NGO, government and special reports.

Gender Studies Database [1972 - ]
Gender Studies Database provides coverage of sexual diversity issues from 1972 to the present. GSD covers the full spectrum of gender-engaged scholarship inside and outside academia.

Contemporary Women's Issues [1992-2006--CWI will no longer be updated]
The Contemporary Women's Issues database provides full-text access to global information on women. Journals, newsletters, and research reports from non-profit groups, government and international agencies are easily accessed through CWI. Information on women in over 190 countries is compiled in a single collection bringing together such disciplines as sociology, psychology, health, education, business administration and political science.

Women's Studies International [1972 - ]
Women's Studies International covers the core disciplines in Women's Studies to the latest scholarship in feminist research. More than 2,000 periodicals are indexed, with some coverage from 1972 and earlier to the present.

LGBT Life with Full Text
LGBT Life with Full Text indexes more than 120 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender periodicals and more than 230 books and reference works and contains the full text for 50 of the most important and historically significant GLBT journals, magazines and regional newspapers, as well as dozens of full text monographs.

Women Studies Abstracts. [Reference Area]
A quarterly annotated index of women's studies periodicals and special issues (that focus on women) of other publications.

General, Interdisciplinary Indexes

Academic Search Complete
Academic Search Complete is a comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database designed specifically for academic institutions. This resource contains more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. In addition, Academic Search Complete offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1865, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format.

Arts and Humanities Citation Index [1980 - ]
Arts & Humanities Citation Index indexes 1,100 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 6,800 major science and social science journals.

Humanities International Complete [1984 - ]
Humanities International Complete is a comprehensive database covering 2,000 journals, as well as books and reference sources in the humanities. All data from American Humanities Index is included with the addition of international coverage. This database provides citation information for articles, essays and reviews, as well as original creative works including poems and fiction. Photographs, paintings and illustrations are also referenced.

Social Sciences Abstracts [1994 - ]
Indexes and abstracts articles from English-language periodicals published in the United States and elsewhere. Coverage includes a wide range of interdisciplinary fields covered in a broad array of social sciences journals. 

Social Sciences Citation Index [1980 - ]
The Social Sciences Citation Index indexes 1,700 journals spanning 50 disciplines, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 3,300 of the world's leading scientific and technical journals. It contains searchable, full-length, English-language author abstracts for approximately 60% of the articles in the database.

Electronic Journals

OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center: Social Sciences Journals
Includes the full text social sciences journals from Elsevier, Academic Press, Project Muse, Springer-Verlag and Kluwer Academic.


JSTOR
Provides access to the full content of a variety of scholarly journals. Coverage generally begins with volume one of a journal, and ends 2-5 years from the present. Journals may be browsed or searched.

Finding Primary Sources

Access to Women's Studies (Primary Sources in U.S. History)
Part of Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, Access to Women's Studies allows you to browse or search a variety of sources from American History, including images, speeches, manuscripts and government documents (for example: US Dept of Labor Wages of Candy Workers in Philadelphia 1919)

Library of Congress American Memory Project
Over 5 million digitized text, sound and video recordings, images, maps, and sheet music from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions.

Women Writers Online
Published by the Women Writers Project at Brown University, this database offers full-text access to early modern writings by women (1400-1850) that includes medical texts, natural history, and domestic manuals. Authors are primarily English and American. 

The Gerritsen Collection of Women's History, 1543-1945 [On microfiche/microfilm]
A microfilm/microfiche collection. The full collection, all languages, includes over 4000 monographs and 265 serials. The richest part of the collection centers on the 19th century and includes monographs and periodicals in the following areas:

  • BIBLIOGRAPHY; HISTORY AND SOCIAL CONDITION; EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING; WOMEN AND EMPLOYMENT; FEMINISM; PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMEN; BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY; OPINIONS, SATIRES, ANECDOTES, APHORISMS; WOMEN AND THE ARTS; POLITICS AND SOCIAL REFORM; RELIGION.

The collection is located in the microforms area on Level 2 of Chalmers. Items in the collection will appear in CONSORT searches or may be searched specifically by adding the word gerritsen to your word search (e.g. "gerritsen and suffrage"). For help in using the collection, ask at the Information Desk.

Finding Published Primary Sources in CONSORT, OhioLINK, and WorldCat
In any of the above three catalogs CONSORT, OhioLINK, or WorldCat, you can use subject heading subdivisions to do advanced swearching for published versions of primary sources. See these suggested subject headings; ask at the Information Desk for help in searching. 

Internet Resources

Questions to ask yourself as you evaluate Internet resources. 

American Women's History: A Research Guide
From Middle Tennesee State University.

Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia
From the Jewish Women's Archive. The encyclopedia is extremely thorough and international in scope.
Look at the Jewish Women's Archive page as well for primary sources, historical timelines, and more.

CONFERENCE

Transnational Dialogues: De-centering the Academic Debate on Global Feminisms will be held at Kenyon, 26-28 September 2008.