Penn State University Libraries - Women's Studies

• Feminae : Medieval Women and Gender Index
  This index covers "journal articles, book reviews, and essays in books about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages". Librarians and scholars began working on this index back in 1996.

• Diotima : Materials for the Study of Women and Gender in the Ancient World
  Begun in 1995, Diotima includes "course materials, the beginnings of a systematic and searchable bibliography (with an emphasis on recent work), and links to many on-line articles, book reviews, databases, and images".

• Women's Rights National Historical Park
  Site for the park in Seneca Falls, New York commemorating the struggle for equal rights for women and the first Women's Rights Convention held in July 1848.

• National Women's History Project
  The National Women's History Project works to make women's contributions to society throughout history more visible and an important part of the curriculum in schools. This site has a wealth of information from materials to order to ideas for classroom projects to links to women's history organizations.

• National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) Collection, 1848-1921
  Part of the American Memory Project of the Library of Congress, "The NAWSA Collection consists of 167 books, pamphlets and other artifacts documenting the suffrage campaign". Many of the documents are available full-text.

• American Women's History : A Research Guide
  This research guide provides citations to print and Internet resources which will aid scholars, students, and librarians to find information relating to the history of American women.

• A Few Good Women : advancing the cause for women in the U.S. government, 1969-1974

• League of Women Voters

• Women in Politics Bibliographic Database
  This database from the Inter-Parliamentary Union contains bibliographic references to books and articles.

• Commission on Women in the Profession
  This site is from the American Bar Association.

• WSSLINKS, International Women [The American Library Association, Women's Studies Section]
  Includes links to organizations, directories, lists, newsletters and journals, and much more relating to International Women.

• InterAmerican Development Bank

  • Gender Equality in Development

• International Labour Organization (ILO)

  • Gender Equality Tool
    "The primary goal of the ILO [International Labour Organization] is to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity."

• Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)

  • Women in National Parliaments

• United Nations

  • WomenWatch

  • Women of the World
    Directory of UN resources on gender and women's issues

  • Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW)

  • Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)

  • Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

  • United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)

  • United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW)

• United Nations Economic Commissions

  • UN Economic Commission for Africa

  • African Centre for Gender and Development [ACGD]

  • UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

  • Asia and the Pacific Gender and Development Issues

  • Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Gender and Development

  • Interagency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE)
    "a network of Gender Focal Points in United Nations offices, specialized agencies, funds and programmes. The Principal Social Affairs Officer of UN Women serves as the Secretariat for the Network."

• United Nations Development Programme [UNDP]

  • Human Development Reports

  • Gender Publications

• United Nations Conferences

  • Fourth World Conference on Women [Beijing, China - September 1995]

    • Beijing Platform

    • Followup: Beijing+5

  • International Women's Day

• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)

  • Gender Mainstreaming

• United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

  • Voices of Youth

• United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination
  "...the forum which brings the executive heads of all organizations to further coordination and cooperation on the whole range of substantive and management issues facing the United Nations system".

• World Health Organization (WHO)

  • Women's Health

• World Bank

  • Gender and Development

  • World Bank Projects Database

• Women's Human Rights Resources Programme (formerly: Diana)
  includes links to international and national conventions.

• International Human Rights Instruments

  • Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

  • Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women

  • Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict

  • Universal Declaration of Human Rights

  • Convention on the Nationality of Married Women

  • Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage, and Registration of Marriages

  • Recommendation on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage, and Registration of Marriages

The Penn State University Libraries own many special collections available in several formats (e.g., microfilm, paper, photographs, and video). For a description of the areas in the Libraries on the University Park campus which comprise special collections see University Libraries' Special Collections Library.

Some of the key collections for Women's Studies which are owned by the Penn State University Libraries are available only on microfilm. Many of our microfilm collections are cataloged and can be searched using The CAT (Penn State Libraries' online catalog).

The following list highlights some of the most important women's studies collections available at the Penn State Libraries.

• Alice Marshall Women's History Collection
  The Alice Marshall Collection, housed at the Penn State Harrisburg Library (Special Collections and Archives), is one of the premier private collections of materials on the history of women in the United States. The collection contains books, periodicals, posters, sheet music, photographs, and other items.

• History of Women : Guide to the Microfilm Collection
  Indexes 995 reels of a comprehensive microfilm collection from the archives of the Sophia Smith Collection, the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, and others. The collection includes over 10,000 books or pamphlets; 117 periodicals, 800 photographs, and 32 manuscript collections.
  Note: Most titles in this collection are cataloged and can be found in The CAT.

• Guide to the Microfilm Edition of Herstory
  Herstory is a collection of women's journals, newspapers, and newsletters dating from 1956 to 1974. Organizations represented include the National Women's Political Caucus, Women's Equity Action League, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and newsletters from many chapters of the National Organization for Women.

• The Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony : Guide and Index to the Microfilm Edition

• The Brown University Women's Writers Project
  "Our goal is to bring texts by pre-Victorian women writers out of the archive and make them accessible to a wide audience of teachers, students, scholars, and the general reader. We support research on women's writing, text encoding, and the role of electronic texts in teaching and scholarship."

• National Museum for Women in the Arts
  Home page for the museum in Washington, D.C. dedicated to bring "recognition to the achievements of women artists of all periods and nationalities by exhibiting, preserving, acquiring, and researching art by women and by educating the public concerning their accomplishments".

• The Canadian Women's Health Network
  The goal of this site is basic: "To improve women's health and health services."

• Women's Health Initiative, National Institutes of Health
  The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) focuses on the "major causes of death, disability and frailty in postmenopausal women. The overall goal of WHI is to reduce coronary heart disease, breast and colorectal cancer, and osteoporotic fractures among postmenopausal women via prevention/intervention strategies and risk factor identification".

• Women-Focused Magazines and Newsletters on the Web
  This site from the University of Wisconsin Women's Studies Librarian's Office provides information about women's magazines, newsletters, and journals.

• Women's Studies Resources : Communication and Media
  This site includes links to resources related to women and language, women and television, and other topics for women and media.

• The Association for Women in Communications (AWC)
  AWC is a "professional organization that champions the advancement of women across all communication disciplines...". Disciplines represented within the association include: print and broadcast journalism, television and radio production, film, advertising, public relations, marketing, graphic design, multi-media design, and photography.

• WomensNet
  WomensNet, part of the Institute for Global Communication, "supports women's organizations worldwide by providing and adapting telecommunications technology to enhance their work".

• 4000 Years of Women in Science [University of Alabama]
  "...emphasizes women of the past - mainly pre-20th century.

• The Feminist Majority Foundation
  The premier site for activism issues, and issues relating to social, economic, and political change for women.

• The White House Project : Advancing Women's Leadership
  "The White House Project aims to advance women's leadership in all communities and sectors-up to the U.S. presidency — by filling the leadership pipeline with a richly diverse, critical mass of women."

• United States Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women
  This office was created in 1995 to implement the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, and to lead the effort to combat domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking of women.

• Gender Equity in Sports
  This site, developed by two faculty members from the University of Iowa, "is designed to serve as a resource for any individual investigating the state of affairs in interscholastic or intercollegiate sport". This site provides an excellent overview and introduction to Title IX, and also provides current information on lawsuits, resources, and other actions being taken regarding gender equity issues relating to sports.

• Gender Equity in Athletics and Sports
  This page from the Feminist Majority Foundation provides information on the Olympics,empowering women and girls in sports, Title IX, and gives links to other web sites.

• Yahoo! : Women and Sports
  Provides links to many other sites related to all aspects of women and girls in sports.

• U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau
  Created by Congress on June 5, 1920 to "promote the welfare of wage earning women", the Women's Bureau has several functions. These include working to alert women about their rights in the workplace; proposing policies and legislation that benefit working women; and researching and analyzing information about women and work. From this page you can link to other sites on different topics including business, children and families, sexual harassment, and legal issues.

• United States Small Business Administration

  • Office of Women's Business Ownership : Entrepreneurial Development

  • Women-Owned Business Economic Research

  • Financial Assistance

• The International Labour Organization (ILO): Gender Equality Tool
  This site from the International Labour Organization provides information about key policies and iniatives the ILO is working on to promote the empowerment of women. You can also find labor standards; information resources such as statistics and working papers; and links to other sites.

• University of Maryland Women's Studies Database
  One of the premier Internet resources for women's studies, this site provides links to conference announcements, calls for papers, employment opportunities, and even feminist movie reviews.

• University of Wisconsin, Women's Studies Librarian's Website
  The Office of the Women's Studies Librarian at the University of Wisconsin has long been a publisher of important research aids for women's studies librarians. This site provides access to many of their publications online as well as linking you to several other good sites.

• WSSLINKS : Women and Gender Studies Web Sites
  Maintained by the Women's Studies Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, this site provides links to several subject-specific sites relating to women.

• Gifts of Speech : Women's Speeches from Around the World

• Voice of the Shuttle : Gender and Sexuality Studies Page
  This site leads to other Web resources including those for gay, lesbian and queer studies; men's movement and men's studies; and cybergender and techgender.