Women & Gender Studies Minor

Degree Type
Minor

Women and Gender Studies is a multidisciplinary field that examines the creation, reconstruction, and perpetuation of asymmetrical sex and gender systems, as well as their connections to other systems of power and inequality. It explores the ways in which gender intersects with women’s and men’s personal identities, heath and well-being, social and cultural arrangements, economic and political systems, and our ways of knowing and understanding the world.

The minor examines how ideologies of sex and gender have influenced and been influenced by culture and society; literature and the arts; law and public policy; and health, science, and technology. It closes gaps in traditional higher education resulting from the exclusion of women and other marginalized groups from many fields of study.

This program of study empowers students through a feminist critique of social, cultural, and institutional structures that enables them to think more critically about their own lives and that inspires them to work as active citizens for social justice. The knowledge and skills attained from the Women and Gender Studies minor are valuable in such fields as education, social work, art, literature, business, and human resources, scientific research and the health professions, law and public policy, media production, nonprofit advocacy, psychology, and information technology.

Curriculum

Requirements:

The Women and Gender Studies minor requires at least five courses (20 credits), distributed as follows:
 

A. Foundation Course:

  • WS1000/AS1512 Introduction to Women’s Studies
     

B. Three Electives

(selected from at least two of the following three groups)
 

Group A: History
  • AS3412 African American Women’s History
  • AS3462 History of Women in the U.S.
  • AS4432 History of the Women’s Movement
  • HI4420 Women and Witchcraft
  • HI4850 Domesticity in 19th and 20th Century
     
Group B: Literature
  • EL2222 Women’s Voices
  • EL4030 Women and Narrative
  • EL4040 Black Women Writers
  • EL4050 Lesbian and Gay Literature
  • ML4450 Hispanic Women Writers (taught in Spanish)
     
Group C: Social Perspectives
  • AS3432 Women: Cultural Issues
  • AS3745 Film and Gender
  • AS3852 Women and the Media
  • AS4435 Women of Color Feminisms
  • BU5851 Consumer Behavior
  • CR4000 Gender, Crime, and Justice
  • IR3330 Women, Minorities, and the Workplace
  • PE3450 Women from a Global Perspective
  • PE4450 Politics of Gender and Sexuality
  • PH4450 Human Sexuality
  • PH4610 Women and Health
  • PY2720 Psychology of Gender
  • PY 3720 Feminist Psychology
  • PY4760 Sexual Identity & LGBTQ+ Psychology
  • SY 2222 Sociology of Caring
  • SY3700 Family and Society
  • SY 4830 Gender and Society
     

C. WS4900, Internship in Women and Gender Studies
OR WS9990 Independent Study (or one additional elective from Group A, B or C)


Prerequisite: WS1000/AS1512 Introduction to Women’s Studies or equivalent course.

Internships include work in the Women’s Center, or an internship at a local agency or organization working on issues of gender justice, gender awareness, LGBTQ awareness, etc. With approval from the Women’s Center’s Academic Director, students may substitute
an appropriate internship in the following departments:
AS 4202 Internship in Community and Government, EL4100 English Internship, HP3995 Career Internship; IR5900 Internship in Industrial/ Labor Relations, PE5990 PEL Internship, PH4900 Public Health Field Placement, PY3130 Internship in Applied Psychology, PY4130 Field
Experience and Research, SY4270 Internship in Social Work, VA4900 VA Internship. With approval from the Women’s Center Academic Director, students may substitute an appropriate independent study in the same departments.

Contact

Jillian Crocker

Director, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Associate Professor
Sociology
School of Arts and Sciences
Building
New Academic Building
Room
2037
E-mail