Women’s Studies (B.A.)

Program: B.A.
Women’s Studies Program
Department of Political Science  
College of Arts and Sciences

Liberal Arts Building 209  ~ 260-481-6686

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Women’s Studies is based on the premise that the study of women’s experiences, concerns, social roles, and creativity is essential to our knowledge of humankind and society.  Feminist scholarship and theory provide the knowledge and analytical tools necessary for a gender-balanced perspective on our world, both past and present.  The Women’s Studies Program affords you the opportunity to pursue feminist scholarship on women and gender through a variety of interdisciplinary courses.

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Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this degree, students will have:

• The major concepts of feminist critical analysis, including gender, race, class, sexuality, nationality, ability, and age, and the complexities of their intersections.
• How gender is socially and historically constructed, how it relates to systems of power, privilege, and oppression, and how it impacts women’s lives.
• A broad range of feminist theories with an appreciation for their cultural and historical contexts.
• The history and importance of feminist thought and activism in the U.S. and around the globe.
• The diversity of women’s experiences, roles, and contributions to society and culture.
• How gender impacts the production of knowledge and how feminist approaches to learning and research have transformed traditional disciplines and other canons of knowledge.
• The history and status of women’s studies as an academic field of study and the key principles that distinguish it from traditional disciplines, including its interdisciplinary nature, its commitment to feminist approaches to teaching and learning, and its development of feminist research methods.
• The ability to demonstrate effective reading, speaking, writing, and critical thinking skills through the work they complete in women’s studies courses.
• The ability to apply feminist perspectives to a range of issues and engage critical debates or ares of contention within feminism.
• The ability to apply feminist perspectives across disciplines.
• The ability to incorporate feminist theories and scholarship in research methods and problem-solving.
• The ability to transform knowledge into engagement and articulate effective strategies for change.

Program Delivery:

• This program is available on-campus.

Declaring the Major:

• Declare this major within the Department of Political Science  

General Requirements:

• Degree Requirements  
• General Education Requirements  
• College Requirements  
• Overlapping Content  
• Academic Regulations  

Program Requirements:

• A grade of C- or higher for all courses required in the major and a GPA of 2.00 or higher for all major department courses taken.
• A thematic focus of at least three courses (9 of the 30 credits in major requirements) must be selected in consultation with your women’s studies advisor.  The thematic focus provides coherence within this interdisciplinary major and can be defined in several ways: geographically (e.g., women in America, women in Western Europe); chronologically (e.g., women in antiquity, women of the Renaissance); by a category or issue (e.g., women and peace, women of color, etc.).
• If you major in women’s studies, you are also required to have a second major or one or more minors in other arts and sciences disciplines.  If you elect to double-major in women’s studies and another arts and sciences discipline, women’s studies may be either your first or second major.  See Program Descriptions  in this Catalog for details on other majors and minors.
• You may count the courses taken to fulfill this major toward arts and sciences distribution requirements wherever possible. However, no more than two courses may be applied to both majors.
• If you elect to combine a women’s studies major with one or more minors in other arts and sciences disciplines, you may count only two courses toward both the women’s studies major and College of Arts and Sciences distribution requirements.  Only one course may be counted toward both the women’s studies major and any other minor.

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To ear the B.A. with a major in Women’s Studies, you must fulfill the following requirements in addition to the General Requirements noted above: