The focus of the collection is on how attitudes toward gender and sexuality have changed over time and space. There is however a bias toward purchasing materials with a current focus.
The Penn program for Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies explores a wide variety of issues in science, history, culture and language. The program offers a major, a minor and a graduate certificate. It touches on nearly every academic discipline and most libraries on campus have relevant materials. Most relevant physical stock is in Van Pelt and concerns the social sciences.
There are no collections at Penn that a reader might think of as focusing on GSWS issues as such, though some are directly applicable. For example occupations historically thought of as falling under the sphere of women are covered in the Bates History of Nursing Archive and the Penn Culinary Collections.
The GSWS department is deeply interdisiciplinary, with classes and scholars focusing on a wide range of topics in the humanities, social sciences and other fields. As such, research will vary greatly depending on one's particular interest and focus.
