Undergraduate Minor in Women and Gender Studies
The minor in Women and Gender Studies requires 18 semester credit hours. Drawing on recent scholarship on women and gender, this interdisiciplinary minor provides a flexible, coherent program that enables students to consider the significance of gender.
On a personal level, courses in this program enhance the human potential of both men and women, because knowledge about how societies construct gender relations can encourage students to examine their own attitudes and behavior. On an academic level, a minor in Women and Gender Studies provides study of the ongoing scholarship about women and gender and offers students the opportunity for exciting intellectual growth. On a professional level, the minor provides a valuable specialty to prepare students for opportunities in a variety of fields, including business, counseling, education, government, health and medicine, human resources, law, politics, psychology, social work, and graduate studies. The Women and Gender Studies minor helps students recognize their opportunities in a rapidly changing society and flexibly complements any major.
The two required core courses examine the images of women that are prevalent in Western culture (with examples being drawn from films, literature, visual arts, and popular music) as well as those topics and issues related to the realities of women’s lives. Topics courses, offered on a selective basis, may also count toward the minor with permission from the Women and Gender Studies Program Director. The two required core classes are WS 3376: Images of Women and WS 3377: Realities of Women. Students can choose their remaining courses from a list of prescribed electives found in the course catalog .
WS 3376: Images of Women
This course is a survey of the changing images of women in the U.S. since 1800 through the eyes of historians, writers, artists, orators, the media, and educators.
WS 3377: Realities of Women
This course is the study of realities faced by women in the U.S. today-- including biological and psychological differences in males and females, politics and the law, the workforce, and the home. Gender roles in societies outside the U.S. will also be examined.