Feminist Studies

Chris Bourg, Feminist Studies Bibliographer; mchris@stanford.edu; (650) 724-9899

Women's Studies Electronic Databases

Stanford has five electronic databases of special interest to those researching women and gender issues. Contemporary Women's Issues, Women's Studies International, GenderWatch, The Gerritsen Collection and Women's Studies on Disc are all available through the Web.

Indexes:

Women's Studies International (1972+) - formerly Women's Resources International, part of BiblioLine, is an interdisciplinary database based upon Women's Studies Abstracts (1984+), Women's Studies Database (1972+), New Books on Women and Feminism (1987+), Women of Color and Southern Women (1975+), The History of Women and Science, Health, and Technology (1970-1995), Women's Health and Development (1995), Women, Race, and Ethnicity: A Bibliography (1970-1990), and WAVE: Women's Audiovisuals in English (1985-1990).

Women's Studies on Disc (1989+) is the electronic equivalent of the Women's Studies Index which covers a wide range of periodicals on women--everything from the ones you see at the check-out counter to feminist journals.

Full-text:

Contemporary Women's Issues (1992+) includes reports documenting surveys and data, recognized and alternative journals whose primary focus is on issues affecting women worldwide, and newsletters. "Major sources of information include Human Rights Watch, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the United States Government Reports, FEMNET and the Center for Women's Global Leadership. Broad subject areas cover: Health, Development, Human Rights, Legal Issues, Workplace Issues, Social Issues, Contemporary Family Life, Education, Violence and Sexual Exploitation, Lesbian Concerns, Feminism, Arts and Media, Culture and Customs, and Reproductive Rights.

Gender Watch - A fulltext database with "periodicals, academic journals, newsletters, magazines, regional publications and government reports focused on gender and women's issues."

Both Contemporary Women's Issues and Gender Watch include many resources not typically found or easily found in an academic setting. Some, such as HotWire (on Gender Watch), are no longer published. The overlap among all four databases is surprisingly small.

Gerritsen Collection - Women's History Online (1543-1945) fulltext database available to the Stanford community via the Web.

Last modified: July 19, 2006