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Bachelor of Arts in Women's and Gender Studies

Graduates with a Women's and Gender Studies (WGS) major will be prepared to enter the full range of graduate, professional, and specialist service programs open to liberal arts and sciences graduates. WGS graduates additionally bring to their careers interdisciplinary research and writing skills and an ability to address structural inequalities from the local to global level. This major provides a sound background of skills, understanding, problem-solving, and advocacy relevant to work in a variety of fields valuable to the community, such as counseling, health, education, and social justice, as well as key areas of business, human resources management, public relations, advertising, mass media, the arts, civil service, and international aid organizations.

Academic Advising

College policy on advising requires that students meet with their academic advisors at least once each year, and in some departments, prior to each semester’s to enrollment. Advising holds are placed on all College of Liberal Arts and Sciences students prior to advance registration and are released following advising appointments. Students with a declared major are advised in their academic units. To determine who your advisor is and how to contact them, see One.IU.

Degree Requirements (120 cr.)

Degree Map >>

Students receiving the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree must complete 120 total credit hours including:

• IU South Bend General Education Curriculum (33 cr.)
• College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Bachelor of Arts Requirements (16-26 cr.)
• Required Minor taken in any campus school or interdisciplinary program (15-18 cr.)
• Major Requirements (30 cr.)
• Electives (balance of credits needed to equal 120 cr. requirement)

• A minimum of 30 credit hours at the 300– or 400–level.
• In addition, major and minor requirements must be completed with a grade of C– or higher.
• All courses are 3 credit hours, unless otherwise noted.

Major Requirements (30 cr.)

At least 15 credit hours must be taken at the 300–level or above

Core Courses for the Major (18 cr.)

• WGS-W 100 Gender Studies
• WGS-W 299 Research Methods in Women’s Studies
• WGS-W 301 International Perspectives on Women
• WGS-W 360 Feminist Theory
• WGS-W 400 Topics in Women's Studies; OR
  WGS-W 402 Seminar in Gender Studies
• WGS-W 480 Women’s Studies Practicum

Electives for the Major (12 cr.)

• At least 3 credit hours must be taken at the 300–level or above
• One WGS course in the humanities or arts (see below)
• One WGS course in the social or biological sciences (see below)
• Two additional WGS courses

Joint-Listed Courses

Joint-listed courses have a WGS prefix and a department letter designation before the number, i.e., WGS-H 260.

WGS course in the humanities or arts

• WGS-H 260 History of American Women
• WGS-L 207 Women and Literature
• WGS-P 394 Feminist Philosophy
• WGS-T 190 Literary and Intellectual Traditions
  VT: Reacting to the Past, Sex Wars
  VT: Bad Mothers
• WGS-T 390 Literary and Intellectual Traditions
  VT: Women and Sustainability
  VT: Bad Mothers
  VT: Gender in the Ancient World
  VT: Gender and Biography
  VT: Needle and Thread
• WGS-W 302: Issues in Gender Studies
  VT: Women in the Visual Arts
  VT: Feminist Ethics
  VT: Gender and Communication
  VT: Gendered Bodies, Colored Voices
  VT: Gendering of Food in Culture
  VT: Gender in African History
  VT: The Gender Politics of Fashion

WGS course in the social or natural sciences

• WGS-B 260 Women, Men and Society in Modern Europe
• WGS-B 342 Women in Medieval Society
• WGS-B 399 Human Behavior and Social Institutions
  VT: Race and Reproductive Rights
  VT: Women and Madness
  VT: O Canada! Gender, Human Rights, and Society (study abroad)
  VT: Intimacies
  VT: Intimate Relationships and Sexuality
• WGS-E 391 Women in Developing Countries
• WGS-N 190 Biology of Women
• WGS-P 391 Psychology of Gender, Race and Ethnicity
• WGS-P 460 Women: A Psychological Perspective
• WGS-S 310 The Sociology of Women in America
• WGS-S 338 Sociology of Gender Roles
• WGS-W 240 Topics in Feminism: Social Science Perspective
  VT: Introduction to LGBTQ Studies
  VT: Women in US Films
• WGS-W 302: Issues in Gender Studies
  VT: Women and Crime
  VT: Women in Developing Countries
• WGS-W 350 Global Women's Health
• WGS-Y 327 Gender and Politics

Cross-Listed Courses

Cross-listed courses have no WGS prefix. A significant portion of the material in these courses focuses on women and/or uses gender as a major analytical tool. These courses vary each semester. Check the Women's and Gender Studies section of the current Course Listings book to see what cross-listed courses are available each semester.