Minor in Women’s & Gender Studies

Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies
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Our courses offer deeper insight into issues of oppression and create awareness of sexism, racism, and other biases. Our faculty teach you to expand your way of thinking, broaden your perspective, analyze difficult material, build convincing arguments and understand how gender interactions affect the business environment, as well as the cultural, emotional, familial, institutional and political impact.

Women’s and Gender Studies minor courses can be taken in partial fulfillment of the Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies degree.

Curriculum & Requirements

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What You'll Learn

The following information comes from the official EWU catalog, which outlines all degree requirements and serves as the guide to earning a degree. Courses are designed to provide a well-rounded and versatile degree, covering a wide range of subject areas.

Women’s & Gender Studies Minor

Notes:

  • No more than 8 credits from the Applied Emphasis of the distribution list will count toward the minor;
  • No more than 3 credits of summer workshops may be counted toward the minor;
  • Students should consult with the Women’s and Gender Studies director on choice of electives–see distribution list;
  • Students who are completing a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies, as well as a Gender Studies Certificate, may only count one course for both the certificate and the minor: WMST 101 or WMST 310.
Required Courses
GWSS/HUMN 101INTRODUCTION TO GENDER, WOMEN'S AND SEXUALITY STUDIES5
GWSS 150GENDER, SEXUALITY AND POWER5
GWSS/HUMN/PHIL 415FEMINIST THEORIES5
Intermediate Courses–choose one5
INTRODUCTION TO LGBTQ+STUDIES
GENDER, REPRESENTATION AND POPULAR CULTURE
GENDER, HEALTH AND MARGINALIZATION
BODIES, SOCIALIZATION AND CULTURE
TOPICS: ISSUES IN GENDER
TRANSNATIONAL FEMINISMS
Total Credits20

Sample Courses

GWSS 150. GENDER, SEXUALITY AND POWER. 5 Credits.

Pre-requisites: GWSS 101.
This course focuses on sex, gender and sexuality in our lives and within social institutions. It builds on GWSS 101 delving deeper into intersectional feminist analyses in areas such as: health and reproductive justice, family systems, paid and unpaid labor, state law and social policy, and collective action.

Catalog Listing

GWSS 326. BODIES, SOCIALIZATION AND CULTURE. 5 Credits.

Cross-listed: CDST 326, DSST 326.
Notes: CDST students only: CDST 300.
Pre-requisites: ENGL 201 or equivalent.
Satisfies: a university graduation requirement–diversity.
This course examines cultural beliefs about gender, sex, sexuality, and the body. Experiences throughout our lifetimes impact ways that we learn to embody gender, express sexuality, and live in our bodies. We use intersectional feminist approaches to consider the variety of lived, embodied experiences and social effects of categorizing bodies.

Catalog Listing

GWSS 250. GENDER, REPRESENTATION AND POPULAR CULTURE. 5 Credits.

Satisfies: a BACR for humanities and arts.
Students will apply a critical lens on the representation of gender in popular cultural mediums including film, TV, music, the Internet, social media, video games, and magazines. Employing intersectional theory, other social categories are considered including but not limited to, sexuality, race, ability, and class.

Catalog Listing

GWSS 415. FEMINIST THEORIES. 5 Credits.

Cross-listed: HUMN 415, PHIL 415.
Pre-requisites: GWSS 101 or upper level GWSS or PHIL course.
Feminist theories developed to explain women’s subordinate position in society and current trends in feminist thought. Includes psychoanalytic feminism, feminist literary criticism and cross-cultural views of feminism.

Catalog Listing