Women's Studies as change agent

Abstract

Students ’ attitudes toward women and changes in those attitudes after taking a women’s studies course were studied. The Spence Attitude Toward Women Scale was administered to 354 undergraduate students at two mid-western institutions. Matched pre- and posttests were obtained for 176 students. Results showed that attitudes toward women became more liberal after taking a women’s studies course ( p <.001); also that attitudes were initially more liberal at an affluent liberal arts college than at a regional campus of a state university (p <.001). Concurrent women’s studies courses a t two adjoining midwestern institutions in the spring of 7974 provided an opportunity to tes t some assumptions about the impact of women’s studies courses on attitudes of students. The hypothesis was that students ’ mean score on an attitude toward women scale would be higher after taking a women’s studies course. It was also hypothesized that mean scores of students at an affluent liberal arts college would be higher than the scores of students a t a regional campus of a state university. Participants were 196 students from the liberal arts college and 158 students from the regional campus. Females totaled 252 and males 81; the remaining 21 forms did not indicate sex. There were 222 women’s studies students and 132 students from psychology, history, literature, and ethics. Matched pre-and posttests were ob-tained from 104 women’s studies students a t the liberal arts college, 42 women’s studies students at the regional campus, and a control group of 30 psychology students a t the liberal arts college. This *Reprints and a paper with more complete description and discussion o f the study may