Women's and Gender Studies
BA

Explore the lives, voices, histories, roles, and ideas of women. Learn how gender, together with race, class, and sexuality, affects all our lives. When you major in Women's and Gender Studies (WGS), you'll analyze how gender structures societies past and present, you’ll study how it affects people at the individual and group levels, and you’ll explore paths to achieve equality for all people.

Your studies will be interdisciplinary, combining core WGS courses with classes in fields such as political science, crime and justice studies, health and society, and history that are taught by WGS faculty or faculty affiliated with WGS.

With a degree in Women's and Gender Studies, you can pursue careers in advocacy, business, communications, education, family services, human resources, law, marketing and sales, nonprofit organizations, and politics.

Major in Women's and Gender Studies

Our curriculum focuses on core courses in feminist theory and these areas of concentration:

Gender Studies: the social construction of gender and the ways gender intersects with other forms of identity
Politics, Justice, and Policy: the gendering of our socioeconomic and political worlds and the individual and collective components of social change
Cross-Cultural Inquiry: culturally and historically specific ideas of gender, sex, and sexuality
Arts and Letters: a feminist perspective on the study of literature, history, and the arts

For the major, you'll complete 36 credits, consisting of five core courses, including a 3-credit internship course and electives from the above concentrations. You'll complete 120 credits overall.

Minor in Women's and Gender studies

With an emphasis on critical thinking and communication, the minor in women's and gender studies can enhance your career prospects and graduate study opportunities.

For the minor, you'll complete 18 credit hours.