An Empirical Examination of Subject Headings for Women’s Studies Core Materials

Gerhard, Kristin H.; Su, Mila; Rubens, Charlotte C.

doi:10.5860/crl.59.2.129

Cited by 15 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Sanford Berman has been raising concerns about omission of topics and choice of terminology in relation to women in LCSH since at least 1981. Several empirical studies have continued to focus on terminological omission and bias (Gerhard, Su, & Rubens, 1998;Olson, 1992;Rogers, 1993). While these studies addressed important issues, they did not probe the structural underpinnings of the standard.…”

Section: Feminist Critique Of Tools For the Organization Of Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

How We Construct Subjects: A Feminist Analysis

Olson¹

2007

lib

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To organize information, librarians create structures. These structures grow from a logic that goes back at least as far as Aristotle. It is the basis of classification as we practice it, and thesauri and subject headings have developed from it. Feminist critiques of logic suggest that logic is gendered in nature. This article will explore how these critiques play out in contemporary standards for the organization of information. Our widely used classification schemes embody principles such as hierarchical force that conform to traditional/Aristotelian logic. Our subject heading strings follow a linear path of subdivision. Our thesauri break down subjects into discrete concepts. In thesauri and subject heading lists we privilege hierarchical relationships, reflected in the syndetic structure of broader and narrower terms, over all other relationships. Are our classificatory and syndetic structures gendered? Are there other options? Carol Gilligan's In a Different Voice (1982), Women's Ways of Knowing (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986), and more recent related research suggest a different type of structure for women's knowledge grounded in "connected knowing." This article explores current and potential elements of connected knowing in subject access with a focus on the relationships, both paradigmatic and syntagmatic, between concepts.

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Section: Feminist Critique Of Tools For the Organization Of Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

How We Construct Subjects: A Feminist Analysis

Olson¹

2007

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“…The work of Olson, Rogers, Long, and others (Mowery, 1989;Gerhard et al, 1998) mirrors the discussion of linguistic and structural concerns in the related literature of feminist theory. Some early examinations of sexist language tended toward linguistic determinism in positing the role of "man made language" in structuring male dominance (Spender, 1980).…”

Section: The Language and Structure Of Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 86%

Elaborate Isolation: Metastructures of Knowledge About Women

Palmer¹,

Malone²

2001

The Information Society

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This paper examines the category of "Woman" within the metastructure of a system of knowledge organization. We trace the subject scheme used to list books about women in a standard bibliographic guide over the rst three-quarters of the twentieth century. Building on the feminist critique of subject representation, our analysis documents how the category was continually constructed over time, providing evidence of multiplication, isolation, and confusion in the process. The outcome is a framework that fails to capture the complex nature of knowledge about women and conceals relationships to the larger body of knowledge. The case of this legacy system exempli es problems associated with representing the complexity and integration of knowledge and provides a basis for considering the potential residual impacts of current information organization and navigation systems.What do the terms purity, chastity, spinsters, amazons, and sisterhoods all have in common? They can be found in bibliographic guides-the library catalogs, periodical indexes, and bibliographies -that scholars and other seekers of information consult to identify and locate published literature. Designed as an organizing overlay for the 20th-century information explosion, these tools not only list and describe books and articles and other forms of recorded knowledge, but they also divide materials into categories by subject. Subject headings name the topics of the publications included in a given category. As artifacts of a society's intellectual history, the structures that result from this process of sorting and naming reveal commonly held beliefs and assumptions about women emanating both from the authors of the publications being organized and from the catalogers who partition the publications by subject.In this article we explore the metastructure of a system of categories as a way of considering the gendered aspect of information organization. To do this, we gather and analyze empirical evidence, tracing the subject scheme used to organize women-related literature in a standard bibliographic guide. Our primary concern is not so much with how or why speci c subject headings were chosen but with the outcome of the decisions made-not with language but with structure. We describe the complexities and inconsistencie s built into the system and characterize outcomes that cannot be associated solely with publishing trends or professiona l indexing conventions of the time. For example, the subject heading Wives came and went despite woman's persistent identi cation as wives and the consistent production of books about wives. The application of the heading Woman-Social and Moral Question is particularly interesting. As we show, during its 69-year reign this broad and highly inclusive category misrepresented certain titles and collapsed a range of books that had little in common.Our analysis highlights the temporary nature of certain headings, and, more importantly, the indivisible , multifaceted relationship between published knowledge products and the ide...

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“…The work of Olson, Rogers, Long, and others (Mowery, 1989;Gerhard et al, 1998) mirrors the discussion of linguistic and structural concerns in the related literature of feminist theory. Some early examinations of sexist language tended toward linguisti c determinism in positing the role of "man made language" in structuring male dominance (Spender, 1980).…”

Section: The Language and Structure Of Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 86%