Women's Studies Research Starter:

Search tips

On this page you will find tips and suggestions for accessing resources within our women's studies collection. Scroll down the page for information tailored specifically to researching women's studies related topics. Below you will also find a list of searches that have already been performed, giving you access to scholarly search results on a variety of topics.

You can use the skills and tips presented here to access our women's studies collection.

Need a refresher on how to search within a database?  

• Searching and Finding Information in the Library Databases
• Keyword Searching: Find Articles on Your Topic

A subject term is a standardized word or phrase that describes a main idea in the article.

When an article is added to a database, the database will assign subject terms to it from the database's list of subjects. Most articles will have from 3 to 12 subject terms.

Each database has its own set list of subject terms. Subject terms may use technical jargon and odd punctuation. This means you won't be able to easily guess or intuit subject terms on your own. You will have to identify the subject terms in the database, and then use them in a search.

If you want to see all the subject terms used in a particular database, you can search the Subject Index to discover subject terms.

Here are some suggested subject terms for searching within our women's studies collections:

The following searches were conducted in our multi-database search tool. All results use subject terms when appropriate, are peer-reviewed, and available in full-text in the Walden Library. Click any of the links below to view the search results.

• Women OR Female
• Women OR gender AND data OR statistics
• Women OR Females AND discrimination OR stereotype
• Women OR Female AND experience OR perception OR identity
• Women OR Female AND higher education OR university
• Women OR Female AND military
• Women OR female AND family
• Women OR female AND reproductive rights
• Women owned OR female owned AND business OR corporat* OR entrepreneur*
• Women culture OR Female culture
• Women’s health
• Women’s movement OR Women’s rights OR feminism
• Women’s suffrage

Check out the Use example searches box for information on how to modify these example searches to meet your specific search criteria.

You can adapt any of these pre-set searches by adding your own search terms.  

For example, if you wished to focus on a health condition in a particular population, simply add your term for the health condition, while leaving the other population search terms in place. This is an example search for a preset population and diabetes:

This is an example search for a preset population and diabetes:

1. Click on a preset example search from the list.
2. On the results page, locate the search boxes at the top of the page. Leave the example search terms in place in the first search box, in this case the population terms Women OR Females.
3. Enter your search term(s) in an empty search box. In this case, enter diabetes in the second search box.
   
   
    
4. Once you've added your search term(s), click the Search button and review the new results.

You can continue to add other search terms, apply limiters, and shape the search as often as needed to obtain new results.