LibGuides: Women's History: Articles & Databases

Suggested Databases

America: History & Life This link opens in a new window Covers the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to present. Over 1800 journals indexed. Scope: United States and Canada. Dates: 1895 to present.
Gender Watch This link opens in a new window Full text database of diverse publications focusing on gender studies. Search through scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books and NGO, government, and special reports. Gender Watch supports gay, lesbian, bisexual, family, and transgender studies, gender differences, equity, identity, and studies, femininity, evolution of the women's movement, womens studies and men's studies with a unique interdisciplinary approach. Scope: Worldwide. Dates: 1970 to present.
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window Covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from the 15th century to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and more. This authoritative database provides indexing of more than 2,300 academic historical journals in over 40 languages. Scope: Worldwide (excluding the United States and Canada) Dates: 1953 to present (some titles back to early 20th century).
Social Sciences Full Text This link opens in a new window Full-text access to 330 academic journals and indexing for more than 750 periodicals covering the social sciences. Subjects include: addiction studies, anthropology, communications, economics, ethics, family studies, gender studies, international relations, political science, psychology, public welfare, social work, and urban studies. Scope: Worldwide. Dates: 1972 to present.
Women and Social Movements in the US This link opens in a new window A resource for students and scholars of U.S. History and U.S. Womens History. This collection includes 123 document projects and an archives of over 5,100 documents organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000. Scope: United States. Dates: 1600 to 2000.
Gender Studies Database This link opens in a new window Indexes and abstracts of gender scholarship on topics including gender inequality, masculinity, postfeminism, and gender identity. Includes more than 1 million scholarly and popular sources such as professional journals, books, conference papers, working papers, theses, and more. Scope: Worldwide. Dates: 1930 to present.
Sociology Collection This link opens in a new window This collection provides access to Sociological Abstracts in combination with Sociology Database and Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts (ASSIA), covering the international literature in sociology and social services, along with related fields. Together, it provides abstracts, indexing and full-text coverage of journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, and more, including full-text from hundreds of leading sociology journals. Scope: Worldwide. Dates: 1952 to present.
Women and the Law (Peggy) This link opens in a new window Women and the Law (Peggy) is a collection that brings together books, biographies and periodicals dedicated to the role of women in society and the law. This unique collection of materials provides a convenient platform for users to research the progression of women's roles and rights in society over the past 200 years. Also included are more than 70 titles from Emory University Law School's Feminism and Legal Theory Project which provide a platform to view the effect of law and culture on the female gender. Scope: Worldwide Dates: 18th – 21st centuries

How to Find Articles using the Catalog: Interactive Tutorial

1 This tutorial works best in full-screen mode. To open up this tutorial in another window, click on the square on the bottom right-hand side of this box.

Then continue by clicking on the highlighted areas on the screen.

2 Starting from the Library's homepage, select the Articles tab in the catalog search box before performing your search.

3 Type in your keywords and either hit Enter or click Go.

To learn more about why the AND is capitalized and other search strategies, visit our Search Tips research guide.

4 You can refine your search by using the search limiters located on the left-hand side of the page.

5 For instance, if I'm only looking for recently published articles, I can limit my results under Publication Year to only see articles published within the last five years.

6 To dig deeper and find out more about an article, click on the title of the article.

7 From here, you'll learn important things that will help you evaluate your source, like where and when it was published, and whether the article is peer-reviewed.

To learn more, visit the Evaluating Information research guide.

8 To access the article, click on the View full text button.

9 This will bring you to the article in whichever database provides access to it. Here you can use the database tools to download, email, or print the article.

10 You will also be able to create a citation for the article by clicking on cite.

11 Going back to the catalog, click Refine This Search to continue reviewing results, adding keywords to your search, or applying other search limiters if necessary.

12 Note that every catalog record has a citation tool where you can easily get the citation of the article. Just click Cite.

13 Select a citation style.

14 An automatically generated citation will appear which you'll need to review and may need to edit.

It's essential to learn how to cite your sources correctly to avoid plagiarism. Learn more about Academic Integrity and Avoiding Plagiarism here.

15 Have questions? We're here to help!

Reach out to us by email or book a one-on-one online research consultation.

Google and Academic Databases

Google, and more appropriately Google Scholar, can be valid places to search for articles and organizations. However, subject specific databases will have more advanced search options and articles. Here are some key differences between databases and Google.

	Library Databases	Google	Google Scholar
Types of Information You Can Find	Scholarly journal articles Newspaper articles Reviews Theses & dissertations Empirical evidence	Popular, commercial, educational websites Organization websites Directories Current news & events Few free journal articles & books (many academic publications are not free)	Educational websites Theses & dissertations Conference publications & presentations Scholarly journal articles (but access will be restricted to free resources, see below for how to set up SLC links)
Credibility & Review	Subject specific books and articles Evaluated for accuracy and credibility	Lack of control allows anyone to publish material Usually not evaluated for accuracy & credibility	Some resources evaluated for accuracy & credibility, but not through Google, so need to verify review process for each publication
Discovery	Database functionalities allow users to search for & find more relevant results	Less ability to search for & retrieve precise results Not releasing information on algorithms, paid products can float to the top	Less ability to search for & retrieve precise results Not releasing information on algorithms, therefore it is not known why results float to the top

Setting Up Google Scholar for Off-Campus Access to SLC Resources

Suggested Journals

Frontiers: a Journal of Women's Studies Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal which figures among the earliest publications in the field of feminist and gender studies in the United States. First published in 1975, at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Frontiers takes pride in its extensive, interdisciplinary agenda concerned with the intersections of the different systems of oppression that produce and reproduce social inequalities and injustices.
Gender & History Gender & History is an international academic journal. It is an important academic journal for articles relating to the history of femininity, masculinity, and gender relations
Journal of International Women's Studies The Journal of International Women’s Studies is an on-line, open-access, peer reviewed feminist journal that provides a forum for scholars, activists, and students to explore the relationships among theories of gender and sexuality and various forms of organizing and critical practice.
Journal of the History of Sexuality The Journal of the History of Sexuality is a peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1990 and published by the University of Texas Press. The journal's scope spans geographic and temporal boundaries, to hold space for historical, critical, and theoretical research in the field.
Journal of Women's History The Journal of Women's History is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1989 covering women's history. It explores multiple perspectives of feminism rather than promoting a single unifying form. The journal covers all time periods and geographical regions. It is published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society is a peer-reviewed feminist academic journal. It was established in 1975 and is published quarterly by the University of Chicago Press. Signs publishes essays examining the lives of women, men, and non-binary people around the globe from both historical and contemporary perspectives, as well as theoretical and critical articles addressing processes of gendering, sexualization, and racialization.
Women's Studies Quarterly Women's Studies Quarterly, often referred to as WSQ, is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal of women's studies that was established in 1972 and published by The Feminist Press. Along with scholarly articles, the journal publishes fiction and creative nonfiction, poetry, and visual arts. Each issue is based around a theme.

Can't Find the Full Text?

If a database doesn't have the full text of an article you are looking for, you can copy and paste the title of the article into our catalog to see if we might have that item here. If we don't have it, request it through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Additional Resources

ViVa: A Bibliography of Women's History in Historical and Women's Studies Journals Bibliography of articles on women's and gender history dating back to 1975. From the International Institute of Social History.
Feminist Periodicals: A Current Listing of Contents An open access repository of digitized contents pages of 150 academic journals and pop culture magazines for researchers and scholars to view what is currently being published in the field of Gender and Women's Studies.
Black American Feminisms: A Multidisciplinary Bibliography Welcome to Black American Feminisms: A Multidisciplinary Bibliography, an extensive bibliography of black American Feminist thought from across the disciplines. References date back to the nineteenth century when African American women like Maria Stewart, Anna Julia Cooper and Sojourner Truth challenged the conventions and mores of their era to speak publicly against slavery and in support of black women's rights. These African American women did not refer to themselves as feminists, however, their beliefs and activism ignited a tradition of anti-racist and anti-sexist political movement and thought which now defines black American feminism. Many black American women, inspired by these nineteenth century trailblazers have continued over the years to work toward the eradication of race and gender inequality, among other systems of oppression, which have historically subjugated black American women.
National Collaborative for Women's History Sites (NCWHS) "...the NCWHS presents a bibliography of some key books in women's history as suggested by prominent U.S. women historians, and another bibliography of literature relevant to the interpretation of women's history at historic sites. While not meant to be all-inclusive, these lists should serve as good starts for those interested in reading more in these fields."
Wellesley Centers for Women "The Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College is one of the largest gender-focused research-and-action organizations in the world. Scholars at the Centers conduct social science research and evaluation, develop theory and publications, and implement training programs on issues that put women’s lives and women’s concerns at the center. Since 1974, our work has generated changes in attitudes, practices, and public policy."
Re:Gender "Re:Gender, formerly National Council for Research on Women, was established in 1981 by a group of feminist researchers who were looking to connect their similar organizations and promote research by and about women. With Mariam K. Chamberlain as the founding president, they created a membership organization that served as a clearinghouse to facilitate collaboration among researchers and share information with the general public."

Filtering Your Results

Most databases have Filters/Limits - use these to narrow down your search to the specific dates, article type, or population that you are researching.

Here is an example of limits in a database, all databases look slightly different but most have these options.

Women's History: Articles & Databases