Introduction

My name is Sarah. I’m from Arlington, Virginia. I’m a senior at UCF (obviously) and working to graduate this May with a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Women’s Studies. At first, I was interested in Women’s Studies simply because it was the easiest minor for me to add at the time, but now that I have taken more courses on the subject I have become very interested in the concepts and ideals of feminism.

I wasn’t raised in what you would call a “liberal” household. I’m pretty sure my mother freaked out a good amount when I mentioned I was going to start a women’s studies minor. She has a legitimate fear of me turning into a man-hating-hippie-woman. But I feel like, through the courses I took last semester, I’ve learned so much more about the true goals of feminists. I don’t think these goals have much to do with man-hating or bra burning. I try to remind my mother of this whenever the subject comes up. My women’s studies classes have been some of the most interesting classes I have taken in my three and a half years in college. I really enjoy having my eyes opened to things I never noticed before when dealing with gender. For example, realizing that 99% of all cleaning commercials on TV today feature a woman doing the house work for her husband and family was pretty surprising to me. I had never noticed it before.



So I guess I would say that my parents have the greatest influence on my understanding of how men and woman behave just because they were the example I had as I was growing up. My mother was a stay at home mom who did/does volunteer work, keep the house together, and did the majority of the cooking and cleaning for the family while she raised her three children. My father was in the military for the majority of my life so he worked long hours to provide for his family as the sole income and traveled a lot. I know some would say that my family is pretty stereotypical in their gender roles. Others might try to point out all of the problems with this set up: uneven division of household labor, the pressure on the woman to stay home and raise the children, etc. But I honestly know it was the best set up for my family. Even if I might change a few things for my own future family someday, there are more things that I want to keep the same.

I hope to learn much more about the history aspect of women’s studies. I’m pretty embarrassed I don’t know more already but I think I can go ahead and blame the public school system for a lot of that.

Dear Professor Perez: I have read, understand, and agree to the terms of the course syllabus and the blogging protocols.