Requirements for a Major or Minor in Women's Studies


An Interdisciplinary Program

Program offered

• Minor in Women’s Studies (20 credits)

Faculty

Aileen L.S. Buslig, co-director 

Elna K. Solvang, co-director 

Shawn Carruth 

Richard M. Chapman 

Jonathan P. Clark 

Eduardo Gargurevich 

Roy Hammerling 

Alfhild Ingberg 

Linda L. Johnson 

Polly K. Kloster 

Hilda P. Koster 

Tamara S.J. Lanaghan 

Susan J. Larson 

Michelle M. Lelwica

Joy K. Lintelman

Susan M. O’Shaughnessy

Gay G. Rawson

Mary K. Rice

Lisa M. Sethre-Hofstad

Women’s studies is an interdisciplinary minor that places the lives and experiences of women at the center of inquiry by analyzing the roles and perspectives of women as well as their contributions to the scholarly, artistic, political, social and religious worlds. Courses incorporate theory and research from different disciplines that examine the degree to which gender is a social construct. The women’s studies program is dedicated to building a more complex and inclusive portrait of humanity by using gender as a category of analysis, along with other differences, such as race, ethnicity, class and sexuality.

The women’s studies program provides learning experiences that prepare students to achieve the following outcomes:

• employ gender as a category of analysis in the contexts of women’s lives – personal, professional and public

• analyze the ways in which women’s lives are shaped by race, class, sexuality, religion and ethnicity as well as by culture

• explain multiple philosophical approaches to feminism

• interpret the legacy of women’s lives and of women’s contributions to the well-being of humankind

• recognize and value the emotional dimension of knowledge, reflect on their own lives, analyze the role of gender in their experience, and articulate their values and beliefs

Minor in Women’s Studies

The requirements for a minor in women’s studies are 20 credits: 

• WS 201 U – Introduction to Women’s Studies

• 16 additional credits from the following:

– ENG 365 U – Writing of Women, 4 credits

– FREN 223 E – Race, Gender and Power in the Francophone World, 4 credits

– GER 440 – Topics in German Film, 4 credits

– HIST 316 H, U, X – U.S. Women’s History, 4 credits

– HIST 344 H, G, X – Women’s History in Cross-Cultural Perspective, 4 credits 

– PHIL 337 – Philosophy of Feminism, 4 credits

– PSYC 383 U – Psychology of Gender, 4 credits

– PSYC 384 – The Life of a Psychologist: Women in Science Making Links Between their Work and their World, 2 credits 

– REL 224 D – Women in Religious History, 4 credits 

– REL 318 X– Women, Religion and Literature, 4 credits 

– SOC 317 U– Gender, Self and Society, 4 credits 

– SPAN 325 – Hispanic Women Writers, 2 credits

– THR 323 – Women and Theatre, 4 credits

• No more than 6 credits may be accumulated from WS 390 – Cooperative Education, WS 480 – Independent Study and WS 490 – Practicum.