Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

You will learn about issues pertinent to women and about gender issues shaping the lives of men and women today—topics that are not always included in other courses.

Through guest speakers, service learning projects, and travel courses, you will meet a diverse range of women and girls from the surrounding community and the world—and learn first-hand about their experiences with gender issues.

Our program gives you the opportunity to partner with our Center and Institutes, travel the world, participate in hands-on research, and much more. Highlights include:

We offer a wide variety of classes from multiple disciplines and all three Schools.
WGSS students actively pursue internships, leadership, and research opportunities.
Our partnership with the Sr. Thea Bowman Center for Women provides an integrated, hands-on academic and experiential learning experience.
Honors seminar on Body Politics or Girlhood.
Our students regularly present their original research or engaged scholarship at conferences both locally and nationally.
WGSS critically looks at how gender operates through the intersectional lens of race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, ability, and nationality.
WGSS minors learn skills of critical thinking, communication, leadership, and content knowledge in order to work in a diverse world.
Our minors work in government, the nonprofit sector, as well as starting their own businesses or joining the corporate world.
Employment may include: advocacy/lobbying, education, health and wellness, law, human resources, social work, financial services, international relations, and more!
Students can build on the WGSS minor to create their own major through the Student DEsigned Interdisciplinary Major (SDIM) -- two examples are Global Gender Justice and Gender and Sexuality Theory and Activism.
WGSS minors fulfill the Franciscan Mission of creating a more just, peaceable, and humane world in respecting the dignity and uniqueness of each person. The minor emphasizes the dignity of each individual in order to understand work on structural injustices around gender.