Women's and Gender Studies

The Women's Studies Program introduces students to an interdisciplinary framework with the lives and experiences of women as its focus. Students learn to analyze and assess the impact of the multiple layers of identity women juggle--for example gender, ethnicity, class, disabilities and sexual orientation--as they study the fields of human history, creativity, economics, society and social sciences. As statistics continue to show more women pursuing higher education and more women in the workforce, this program prepares students to negotiate conflicts in the workplace and in their personal lives.

Women's Studies students learn to understand the impact of gender, ethnicity and class on their lives, and the lives of people in the past. Synthesizing the subject of women's lives with skills in critical thinking, the program seeks to create active and informed citizens, workers and parents, guardians or stewards of children.

Students can pursue an 18-hour minor, providing them with 15 hours of courses and a 3-hour capstone seminar in Women's Studies. The capstone seminar surveys feminist research methods and gives students the opportunity to design a research project of their choice. The Introduction to Women's Studies serves as a foundation course to frame students' experience for subsequent courses.

 Program of Study