Dec 05, 2025

2025-2026 Undergraduate Catalog

Women and Gender Studies (BA)

Program Educational Goals

Goal 1:

The successful student will be able to recognize cultural assumptions and common knowledge as socially constructed in historical, cultural, political, scientific, religious, and aesthetic contexts by critically speaking, thinking, writing, and reading.

Goal 2:

The successful student will be able to work and learn collaboratively.

Goal 3:

The successful student will be able to understand “feminisms” as interdisciplinary, creative, theoretical, and social movements.

Goal 4: The successful student will be familiar with feminist epistemolgies and methodologies, and will be able to apply appropriate frameworks to evaluate research and to ask and answer their own research questions.

Goal 5: The successful student will be able to discern and critically engage categories of social difference (including gender, sexuality, race, class, language, ethnicity, nation, empire, geography, and disability) as intersectional, transnational, always shifting, and shaped by hierarchies of power, including capitalism, heteropatriarchy, imperialism, and white supremacy.

Goal 6

The successful student will be able to recognize, analyze and critique their social locations and differential privilege within society, and to reflect on their interests and capacities to participate in feminist social change.

Four Year Plan

Please refer to the Four-Year Plan for departmental recommended path toward graduation.

University Requirements:

ENGL 110 - First-Year Writing (C- minimum)
First Year Seminar (FYS) (0-4 credits)
Discovery Learning Experience (DLE) (three credits)
Multicultural Requirement (three credits)
University Breadth Requirements (C- minimum):
- Creative Arts and Humanities (three credits)
- History and Cultural Change (three credits)
- Social and Behavioral Sciences (three credits)
- Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Technology (three credits)
Capstone Experience

College Requirements:

College Breadth Requirements:

The College Breadth requirements are in addition to the University Breadth requirement. Up to three credits from each of the University Breadth Requirement categories may be used to simultaneously satisfy these College of Arts and Sciences Breadth Requirements. Minimum grade C- required for courses used to satisfy College Breadth.

GROUP A: Creative Arts and Humanities (Nine credits of courses representing at least two departments or appropriate instructional units)
GROUP B: History and Cultural Change (Nine credits of courses representing at least two departments or appropriate instructional units)
GROUP C: Social and Behavioral Sciences (Nine credits of courses representing at least two departments or appropriate instructional units)
GROUP D: Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Technology (Ten credits of courses representing at least two departments or appropriate instructional units and including a minimum of one course with an associated laboratory)

*If the grade earned is sufficient, a course may be applied toward more than one requirement (e.g., breadth and major requirements), but the credits are counted only once toward the total credits for graduation. If all but one course in a group has been taken in one department or program, a course cross-listed with that program will not satisfy the distribution requirement.

Second Language:

Completion of the intermediate-level course (107 or 202) in a language other than English with minimum grades of D-.
- Languages offered include American Sign Language (ASLC), Ancient Greek (GREK), Arabic (ARAB), Brazilian Portuguese (PORT), Chinese (CHIN), French (FREN), German (GRMN), Hebrew (HEBR), Italian (ITAL), Japanese (JAPN), Korean (KORE), Latin (LATN), Russian (RUSS), and Spanish (SPAN).
Students with four or more years of high school work in a second language, or who have proficiency in a language other than English, may attempt to fulfill the requirement in that language by taking an exemption examination through the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures.

Mathematics:

The math requirement must be completed by the time a student has earned 60 credits. Students who transfer into the College of Arts and Sciences with 45 credits or more must complete this requirement within two semesters.

Complete one of the following four options (minimum grade D-):

Option One:

MATH 113 - Contemporary Mathematics Credit(s): 3 (designed for students who do not intend to continue to the study of mathematics)

Option Two:

One of the following:

MATH 114 - College Mathematics and Statistics Credit(s): 3 (designed for students who do not intend to continue the study of mathematics)
MATH 115 - Pre-Calculus Credit(s): 3 (designed for students who intend to continue the study of mathematics)
MATH 117 - Pre-Calculus for Scientists and Engineers Credit(s): 4 (designed to prepare students for MATH 241 )

Option Three:

Successful completion of any 200-level or higher mathematics course except: MATH 201 , MATH 202 , MATH 205 , MATH 251 , MATH 252 , MATH 253 , and MATH 266 .

Option Four:

Successful performance on a proficiency test in mathematics administered by the Department of Mathematical Sciences (0 credits awarded).

Second Writing Requirement:

A Second Writing Requirement approved by the College of Arts and Sciences. This course must be taken after completion of 60 credit hours, completed with a minimum grade of C-, and the section enrolled must be designated as satisfying the requirement in the academic term completed.

Women and Gender Studies Major Requirements:

Requirements:

A grade of C- is required in all major courses. No more than 51 credits with the WOMS prefix (including crosslisted courses) may be counted toward the total required for the degree.

WOMS 200 - Introduction to Sexualities and Gender Studies Credit(s): 3
WOMS 201 - Introduction to Women and Gender Studies Credit(s): 3
WOMS 313 - Theory and Methods in Feminism Credit(s): 3
WOMS 410 - The Study of Women and Gender Studies Credit(s): 3

Restricted Electives:

Nine credits of WOMS courses at or above 2XX (including active WOMS cross listed courses), and
Nine credits of WOMS courses at or above 3XX (including active WOMS cross listed courses).

Capstone:

Every senior Women and Gender Studies major must enroll in the three-credit capstone course, The Study of Women’s Studies (WOMS 410 ). This course is offered once a year in the spring semester. If a student plans to graduate in the winter, they should arrange to take the capstone course during the preceding spring semester.

Electives:

After required courses are completed, sufficient elective credits must be taken to meet the minimum credit requirement for the degree.