“By the time you’re old the way I am, and you’re a woman, you have had so many experiences with discrimination and prejudice that teaching women’s studies is a tremendous relief,” said De Anza College women’s and global studies instructor Constance H. Cole.

Cole will be teaching the newly added course “Women, Gender, and Politics” in the spring quarter. The class is listed as WMST/POLI 60.

“Many four-year programs in both of those subjects have offered such a class for decades, and we’re preparing people to transfer,” said Cole, who has been teaching at De Anza for more than 20 years.

The class will prepare students to engage their community in the months leading up to the November elections. Focus will be given to not only women but also the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.

Cole attended Swarthmore College and Indiana University, graduating with degrees in international relations, political science, and history. Cole has taught at numerous other colleges besides De Anza, including San Francisco State.

Cole said the class is important to implement into De Anza’s Women Studies program because American politicians are predominantly wealthy, straight white males.

“Even after 30 years of working to increase the participation of women in politics, only 17 percent of the members of the U.S. Congress are female,” said Cole.

Political science has often ignored marginalized populations, she said.

“The silence about people who are less powerful just about guarantees that they will stay less powerful and silenced,” Cole said. “That’s disastrous for a representative system.”

The class will focus on U.S. politics but will include discussions about world politics.

Cole said she hopes the class will inspire students to become more in politics, whether it to be “on campus, in the South Bay, in California, the U.S., or globally.”