Women’s and Gender Studies, B.A.

Minimum number of credits required to graduate:  124

Minimum cumulative GPA required to graduate:  2.0

Minimum number of credits to complete the major:  34-36

 

School: School of Arts and Sciences

Department: Gender, Diversity, and Social Justice

Learn more about the program

 

Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) is an interdisciplinary major with courses that investigate cutting edge issues of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, nation, and ability from an intersectional and multicultural perspective. WGS centers experiential, community-based, and interactive learning in which student involvement, critical thinking, and personal insight are encouraged and made relevant in the learning process.

With affiliated faculty in 14 departments across the College, students select courses from the WGS department as well as from Business, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Economics, Education, English, History, Human Development, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Visual and Performing Arts, Religious and Theological Studies, World Languages and Cultural Studies, and the Sciences. Courses cover a wide range of topics such as cultural representations of gender, sex, race, and ethnicity in media; legal issues; cross-cultural, global, and historical portrayals and experiences of gender and gender-based social movements; literary narratives and theories; economic aspects of gender; ethical issues associated with gender and diversity; and the social and psychological dimensions of gender and debates about it.

Degrees in Women’s and Gender Studies equip students with a range of skills and a background in diversity, which is highly valued in the 21st century labor force. The curriculum also prepares them for graduate study in the fields of women’s/gender/sexuality studies, race and ethnic studies, or for advanced study in traditional disciplines and professional fields. Our graduates secure highly prized positions in law, education, social justice and human rights work, non-profits, psychology and social work, business, media, publishing, human resources, and as international gender specialists and more.

 

In the Women’s and Gender Studies major, students will learn to:

• Use gender as a category of analysis and understand how gender intersects with other social and cultural identities, such as race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, class, ability, and nation

• Apply cross-cultural and global perspectives to “big questions” about women and gender, and critically consider those questions from multiple perspectives

• Connect knowledge and experience, theory and activism, and engage in critical reflection

• Apply knowledge for social transformation and engaged citizenship