Guides: Women's &amp; Gender Studies: Databases

Getting Started

Women's & Gender Studies is Interdisciplinary -- think broadly and outside the box!

This research guide suggests many types of information sources, including reference books, scholarly journals and primary sources, with a focus on Women's & Gender topics. However, you may have to search databases specific to multiple disciplines to get a thorough sense of your topic.

Conducting research in Women's and Gender Studies requires assessing the reliability of the information found while considering it through the lens of Women's & Gender Studies. Some questions to keep in mind when evaluating research:

Who did the research?
Who is the audience for this research? What is the purpose of the article?
How inclusive or exclusive were the researcher(s)? How large (or small) was the participant group?
What evidence does the author provide? Was there bias in the analysis?
What was not considered -- what did they ignore or overlook?

Essential Databases

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides full text coverage to peer-reviewed titles in the social sciences, humanities, general science, multi-cultural studies, education and more.
Gender Watch This link opens in a new window
Notable scholarly journals within the Gender Watch database include "Politics & Gender" and "Hypatia."
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Notable scholarly journals within the JSTOR database include "Hypatia" and "Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society."
Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new window
Information on social issues including articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, interactive maps, videos, and streaming audio.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Link to collection of Pepperdine accessible Women & Gender Studies academic journals available: https://muse.jhu.edu/search?action=browse&limit=subscription:y&limit=discipline_id:198&limit=format:journal&min=1&max=20
Biography in Context This link opens in a new window
Biographical information on more than 528,000 people throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas.
Some 50,000 new and/or updated biographies are added each year, as well as daily status updates of existing subjects

Recommended Databases

America: History and Life This link opens in a new window
Access to scholarly journals, dissertations and book and media reviews about U.S. and Canadian history and culture. Coverage for some titles back to the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Strong English-language journal coverage is balanced by an international perspective on topics and events, including abstracts in English of articles published in more than 40 languages.
Cambridge Journals Online This link opens in a new window
Notable scholarly journals included in the Cambridge Journals Online database include "Politics & Gender" and "Hypatia."
Communication & Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
Use Communication and Mass Media Complete to find articles on media representations or influences on gender as well as gender dynamics in interpersonal communication.
Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index This link opens in a new window
Covers journal articles, book reviews, and books about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages.
Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
Digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists and the extreme right-wing during the latter half of the 20th century.
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
This Resource is all Full Text and has Biographies of Authors.
Policy Commons This link opens in a new window
Reports on urban affairs, agricultural and environmental sciences, economics, social justice, gender equality, international development, sustainability, public health, legal and public policy.
PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Use PsycINFO to find articles on how gender identity is formed or how expectations, attitudes and roles are formed between the sexes.
Taylor & Francis Social Science & Humanities Library This link opens in a new window
Access to peer reviewed journals covering Behavioral Science; Education; Business, Management & Economics; Media, Cultural & Communication Studies; Politics, International Relations; Sociology; Sport, Leisure & Tourism.