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Explore Women and Gender Studies. Honor the Past. Change the Future.

What is the Women and Gender Studies Minor?

The Women and Gender Studies Minor is an interdisciplinary minor that enriches our understanding of women’s contributions to the shaping of society. The minor offers students the opportunity to develop a scholarly understanding of gender and its role in human life and an enhanced ability to function as responsible, engaged persons. The minor is designed for students planning careers in business, law, politics, international relations, science, health professions, social and community service, and education.

The goal of the minor is to explore the complexities of the relationship between gender and power. By viewing the topic from a variety of perspectives—social, artistic, historical, scientific—students will begin to grasp the ways in which gender is constructed. We investigate how gender has affected the lives of men and women all over the world and throughout human history.

Minor Requirements

The Women and Gender Studies Minor consists of six courses (18 credits), drawn from a variety of academic disciplines.

The Introduction provides students with a background to many of the major themes and issues in Women and Gender Studies—a multidisciplinary field developed to investigate women’s experiences, perspectives, and contributions, and to interrogate the ways that gender functions in everyday society. Readings from a wide array of perspectives strengthens an awareness of diversity and focuses on crucial issues of social justice by interrogating notions of dominance and oppression.

The Perspectives and Applications area consists of four electives chosen from approved courses taught across the College. These courses offer students a wide range of topics, including gender and race in the workplace, women and peace, women and politics, literature by women, queer studies, women’s history, global gender studies, sociology of the family, marriage in society, feminism and religion, women in sports, and psychology of gender. These courses must be chosen from at least two different disciplines and should reflect a coherent thematic focus. Selection of these courses is done in consultation with the Program Director or one of the members of the Faculty Advisory Committee. Students should consult the semester course listings that will satisfy these requirements each term.

The Capstone course explores a variety of approaches to feminist and gender theories and discusses both how to apply these theories to a variety of texts and the historical development of feminism itself. With approval of the Director of the Program, the capstone requirement may be fulfilled by taking a course offered by another department when the topic of the course is feminist theory.

Required Courses for the Women and Gender Studies Minor

The minor requires 18 credits, distributed as follows:

• Introduction (3)
  WGST 101C: Introduction to Women and Gender Studies
• Perspectives and Applications (12)
  Four elective courses with WGST designation or affiliation, chosen from at least two different disciplines.
• Capstone (3)
  WGST 440: Feminist and Gender Theory

Sample Courses

• WGST 150 LC: Equity and Access
• WGST 199C RW: Research-Based Writing
• WGST 203P CC: Introduction to Queer Studies
• WGST/SOCI 211C: Prejudice, Discrimination, and Stereotype
• WGST/SOCI 234P: Social Power and Society
• WGST/AMST 237 P3: Hope, Survival, and the Human Spirit: Theories of Resistance
• WGST/HIST 240D CC: Women in East Asia
• WGST/PSYC 250P P3: Psychology of Gender
• WGST/SOCI 257D: Gender Roles and Society
• WGST/SPST 305: Women in Sports and Leisure
• WGST/AMST 470: Senior Research Seminar
• AFAM 282P: Contemporary Issues and Challenges in the 21st Century Black Church
• AMST/SPST 225 P3: Sport and American Culture
• CLST 210 P5: Love in the Ancient World
• ECON 110P CC: Gender and Race in the American Workplace
• ENGL 223C: Marriage in Contemporary Literature
• ENGL 230 P1: Literature of Travel
• ENGL 261C: Topics in Sexuality and Literature
• ENGL 262P CC: Multicultural Literature
• ENGL 370: Women’s Autobiography
• HIST 201: Women in History (LC)
• HIST 202 P1: Women and Gender in the 19th Century
• HIST 205D CC: American Social History: The Family
• HIST 242D P3: Women in American History
• HIST 244: Women and War
• SPR/POSC 270D: Global Gender Studies
• LLIT/LSPR 230P P1: Hispanic/Latino Film and Literature
• PSJS 210D: Women and Peace
• POSC 215D: Women and Minority Politics
• POSC 216: Women and the Law
• POSC 299D: Sex and the Body Politic
• REST 255: Great Women in Christianity
• REST 340D P2: Feminism and Religion
• REST 352D: Marriage and Sexuality Issues
• SOCI 223: Sociology of the Family
• SOCI 308: Women and Crime

Faculty Advisors

• Dr. Katrina Arndt (Special Education)
• Dr. David Baronov (Sociology)
• Dr. Melissa Bloom (English)
• Dr. Kathleen Costello (Modern Languages)
• Dr. Cathleen Cox (Physics)
• Professor Lisa Cunningham (English)
• Dr. Margaret V. Ekstrom (Modern Languages)
• Professor Maria Gonzalez-Smith (International Studies & Political Science)
• Dr. Ruth Harris (African American Studies)
• Dr. Lisa Jadwin (English)
• Dr. Barbara Lowe (Philosophy)
• Dr. Linda MacCammon (Religious Studies & Peace and Social Justice Studies)
• Dr. Arlette Miller Smith (Office of Multicultural Affairs and Diversity Programs)
• Dr. Cynthia Ricci McCloskey (Nursing)
• Dr. Barbara Rockell (Sociology)
• Dr. Jennifer Rossi (American Studies)
• Dr. Deborah Uman (English)
• Dr. Carolyn Vacca (History)
• Dr. Nancy Wilk (Nursing)

Women and Gender Studies Club

The Women and Gender Studies Club is a student organization affiliated with the WGST program. The club is an active presence on the Fisher campus and sponsors a number of events throughout the school year, including: Love Your Body Day, the Clothesline Project, Self-Defense Classes, Movie Nights, and Breast Cancer Awareness Week. The primary goal of the Women and Gender Studies Club is to institute and sustain a meaningful dialogue about gender and gender issues on the Fisher campus. Through both formal and informal means, this club hopes to create an open and safe space for students to examine issues related to gender. The WGST Club has received recognition for excellence and innovation, including a student government award for the most creative fundraiser for Heifer International.