Pictured | Dionysus Raven | Bachelor of Arts in Women's and Gender Studies / Bachelor of Art Education | South Bend, Indiana (hometown)
Honors Program
Volunteer Activities | Planned Parenthood, Potawatomi Zoo
Club Participation | Japanese Club, Gamers Guild, Queer Straight Alliance

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

Your academic advisor is a critical partner in fostering your success at IU South Bend and beyond. Your advisor will help you explore academic majors and careers, plan your degree, choose classes, learn about internships and study abroad, and much more. To see who is assigned as your advisor, visit your Student Online Advising Record in one.iu.edu. For more information about advising at IU South Bend, visit the website for the Undergraduate Advising Center.

Final responsibility for meeting degree requirements rests with the student.

Questions about advising? Email sbadvise@iu.edu or call (574) 520-4550.

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 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 natural 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
  VT: Women in Social Movements
• 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 190 Human Behavior and Social Institutions
  VT: Coming to America: Race, Gender, and Migration
• 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
  VT: Interracial Intimacies
• 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 Health, Gender, and Sexuality
• 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.