1. Why do cultural studies theorists separate words with capital letters from those without, even when the words in question are not proper nouns?

Theorists separate these words such as "women" verses "Women" because they have different concepts. The concept of "Women" is used in a more generalized concept. "Women" is used to assume that all women do the same thing or think the same way. "Women" is more a socially constructed concept. On the other hand "women" is used to identify a specific kind of women.