What You'll Study
As a department that intersects with several different academic disciplines, a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies (WGST) complements many of Gonzaga’s majors.
We are an inter- and multi- disciplinary program that employs critical feminist theories and methodologies to foster transformative understanding of the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and class among other socially defined identities. Using gender as a central analytic, we examine and question systems of power, inequality, and injustice and their role in shaping lived experiences of persons, locally, nationally, globally.
Distinctive Opportunities
The program offers stand-alone and cross-listed courses taught by faculty with professional and academic backgrounds spanning disciplines—from sociology and religious studies, to English and history, to political science and biology. Our faculty members are trained in feminist scholarship and pedagogy. They seek to create a community of learners in which both professors and students take responsibility for the educational experience. Many courses use projects that invite students to put their knowledge to practical use solving problems, promoting social justice, lifting up the poor and vulnerable or otherwise serving the common good.
What can you do with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies?
The skills developed in WGST courses are applicable to many careers. Gonzaga WGST graduates work in business, education, journalism, government, international development, law, public relations, social services, and research. WGST graduates have also entered graduate programs in art history, counseling, critical race and ethnic studies, literature, media studies, political science, social work, sociology, theology and women’s and gender studies.
“So you took women’s studies courses? What on earth are those good for?”