Teaching:

Barrie Thorne loves teaching women’s studies. She likes how feminism provides useful tools for life and how it allows people to think more critically about their world. She enjoys teaching women’s studies to undergraduates because she feels that it serves more of a purpose than her sociology courses. She partly enjoys teaching women’s studies courses because her students seem to be enthusiastic to learn. Thorne was thrilled by being able to teach such an interdisciplinary courses. Women’s studies allowed for her to teach classes which included poetry and philosophy and history.
Through her teaching she tries to change the knowledge of her students by helping them to understand the affects of gender roles. Her teaching and work focuses on the sociology of gender, feminist theory, and the sociology of childhood, age relations, and family. Today she mainly teaches upper division undergraduates in the women’s studies and sociology departments focusing on the division of gender. One of her current classes is called Sociology of Family and the Life Cycle, this class focuses on the different ways of family life and how they are viewed.
Not only does Barrie teach at Berkeley, but she also speaks at workshops which she is invited to in the surrounding areas. These often times involve an audience full of teachers. She also speaks to parent groups about race and class in Berkeley. During these speeches she encourages her audience to communicate with each other about the racial stereotypes and problems within the schools in order to help the students, their children.

Sources:
Thorne, Barrie. "A Telling Time for Women's Studies." (2000):