Program Requirements
Major Common Core
This course familiarizes students with the field of Gender and Women's Studies. It focuses on major questions and approaches to understanding gender alongside race, class, and sexuality, among other identity categories.
- Prerequisites:
- none
- Goal Areas:
- GE-05, GE-7A
- Diverse Cultures:
- Purple
This course will examine women's lives and activism, past and present, throughout the world. We will explore and evaluate individual and collective efforts to achieve social justice in the context of interlocking systems of oppression. Fall, Spring, Summer
- Prerequisites:
- none
- Goal Areas:
- GE-08, GE-09
- Diverse Cultures:
- Purple
This course will introduce you to major theories of feminism as well as key issues in contemporary feminist thought. Students will have an opportunity to advance their own feminist thinking through engagement with a diversity of theoretical perspectives on gender.Fall
- Prerequisites:
- none
Students in this course will learn concrete examples of feminist and other social justice activism. Students will conceptualize, plan, and implement their own feminist activism project, and use research skills to contextualize their action within feminist scholarship. This course will give students a deeper introduction to contemporary feminist activism and its connections to other social justice movements in the United States.
- Prerequisites:
- none
This course explores an advanced topic in women's and gender studies.Spring
- Prerequisites:
- GWS 110 or GWS 220 or consent
Major Restricted Electives
Required Internship - Choose 4 Credit(s).
Students assist a faculty member in teaching a 100 or 200 level GWS course.
- Prerequisites:
- GWS 110 or GWS 220 and consent.
The Gender and Women's Studies internship provides students with the opportunity to gain experience within an on-campus, off-campus private, public or community organization. This internship provides a means for pursuing an interest in a field of work, or within a particular organization; gaining work and/or activist experience and practical skills; making appropriate contacts which might be useful in establishing a future career.
- Prerequisites:
- none
Major Unrestricted Electives
Choose 8 Credit(s).
Being American Indian and being woman creates a unique situation for women who have been directly influenced by the differences of gender roles from two intersecting cultures. This course will focus on how those differences have affected American Indian Women.
- Prerequisites:
- none
- Goal Areas:
- GE-05, GE-7A
- Diverse Cultures:
- Purple
Kinship is the most basic principle of organization for all human societies. The course analyzes the main theories and methods of studying social organization, and explores cross-cultural variations in kinship, marriage and family systems.
- Prerequisites:
- none
Major anthropological theories of gender relations are read, discussed, and applied to a variety of contemporary ethnographic case studies.
- Prerequisites:
- ANTH 101, ANTH 230, or consent
Works by global artists throughout history are examined through the lens of gender in order to develop complex, multi-perspective and intersectional awareness of topics including feminism, gender nonconformity, sexuality, identity and race.
- Prerequisites:
- none
An introduction to biological topics of special interest to women with emphasis on anatomic and physiologic changes over the course of a woman's lifetime. Designed for students not majoring in science. Presents fundamental biologic concepts within this specialized context and provides opportunity to collect, evaluate, and analyze data.
- Prerequisites:
- none
- Goal Areas:
- GE-03
This course focuses on the experiences of women in the criminal justice system--as victims, offenders, and professionals. Women's involvement in this system (whether they were a defendant, an attorney, an inmate, a correctional officer or a crime victim) has often been overlooked or devalued. The goal of this course is to bring the special needs and contributions of women in the criminal justice system into sharper focus.
- Prerequisites:
- none
Selected topics course on literature about gender and gendered experiences
- Prerequisites:
- none
- Diverse Cultures:
- Purple
Examines the effects of sexism and racism on women of color and provides an understanding of the significant contributions they have made in their struggle against oppression.
- Prerequisites:
- ETHN 400, or consent
- Diverse Cultures:
- Purple
- Prerequisites:
- none
This course is designed to provide an overview and analysis of the historical experiences of the family in the United States from earliest settlement to the present in order to aid students in understanding the contemporary situation of the family in American society.
- Prerequisites:
- none
- Goal Areas:
- GE-05, GE-7A
- Diverse Cultures:
- Purple
A history of women from Classical Greece and Rome to the modern era. An analysis of the changing concepts of gender relations within a study of women as individuals and as members of socio-economic, ethnic, kin, and religious groups.
- Prerequisites:
- none
- Diverse Cultures:
- Purple
This course is designed to provide a survey and analysis of the historical experiences of women in the United States from earliest settlement by indigenous peoples to the present in order to aid students in understanding the contemporary situation of women in American society.
- Prerequisites:
- none
Politics impact on women: women's impact on politics and governance; primary focus on United States but some comparative considerations.
- Prerequisites:
- none
A critical examination of current psychological approaches to the study of women's behavior and experience. The course will emphasize empirical ways of knowing and address psychological questions of central concern to women. Development of gender differences also will be explored.
- Prerequisites:
- PSYC 101
- Diverse Cultures:
- Purple
Explores the social construction of sex and sexuality. Key topics include the social, cultural, and historical construction of sexual identities, sexual bodies, sexual politics, sexual socialization, and sexual technologies, in the context of the sexual activities, beliefs, and morals of people.
- Prerequisites:
- none
- Goal Areas:
- GE-05, GE-7A
- Diverse Cultures:
- Purple
This course describes and analyzes sex/gender systems, interpersonal power, language and communication, the role of gender in social institutions such as the family, work, and politics, and the role of social movements in creating change in gender relations.
- Prerequisites:
- none
This course explores various forms of family violence including dating violence, spouse abuse, and child abuse. There is particular emphases on power dynamics in families and in the broader culture and evaluations of current policies related to family violence.
- Prerequisites:
- none
Course provides an overview of intimate partner violence from a theoretical and evidence-based, social work perspective. Students learn about intervention strategies from direct practice to advocacy and policy change. Multiple systems are explored. The intersection of gender, class, sexual orientation, age, and culture with intimate partner violence is covered.
- Prerequisites:
- none
Minor
Required Minor: Yes. Any.
Policies
GPA Policy. A grade of "C-" or better must be earned in all Gender and Women's Studies courses.
P/NC Grading Policy. With the exception of workshops and internships, up to two classes in the major or minor may be taken on a P/NC basis.
Accelerated Combined Degree (BA/BS and MA/MS). Students interested in receiving both their undergraduate and graduate degrees in GWS at MSU, Mankato may apply to the Department for admission into the Accelerated Graduate Program. Interested majors may apply upon the completion of 60 credits if they have a minimum GPA of 3.0. If accepted, students will work with an advisor to design an accelerated program in which up to 12 credits of 500-level courses can be applied to both their undergraduate and graduate programs. If accepted, students must maintain a minimum of 3.0 GPA overall and a 3.0 in the major the to continue in the program. Interested students should contact the Department for more information.
Degree
Bachelor of Science
Major Credits
32
Total Credits
120
Locations
Mankato
Career Cluster
People and Cultures