戴顿大学

How does gender affect your sense of self, your success, your social status and what others think of you? What happens when you consider other factors such as race and class? Through women’s and gender studies, you’ll explore the intersections of gender, race and class to see how they affect and shape our lives. By addressing these issues, you’ll work to improve the lives of women, and by extension, the lives of children and men.

Advancing the mission of the University

Since its inception in 1978, the Women's and Gender Studies Program at UD has played a special role in reflecting and advancing the mission of the university, fusing the critical insights and social commitments of feminist scholarship and pedagogy with the holistic, anti-hierarchical, and transformative vision of Marianist education and Catholic social teaching. Through its curriculum, faculty, and special programming, the Women's and Gender Studies Program has modeled this fusion in numerous ways:

• integrating the quest for intellectual understanding with the pursuit of social justice;
• appreciating both the gifts and the challenges of gender, racial, economic, cultural, and religious diversity and fostering the important critical and creative work of collaboration across differences;
• recognizing the intellectual, spiritual, moral, and physical aspects of both students and faculty as whole persons in ways that promote human dignity and the flourishing of the community;
• attending to the needs of the individual learner with concern for the well-being of the broader community and society.

We offer both a major and a minor in women's and gender studies. In addition to core WGS courses, our curriculum includes more than thirty courses offered across the disciplines, with strong representation both in the arts and humanities and in the social sciences. We have special strengths in English, history, philosophy, and sociology.

Program Details

The study of women's and gender studies focuses on the experiences and perspectives of women and considers how gender intersects with other factors, such as race and class, to shape all of our lives.

Program Outcomes

Since 1978, the women’s and gender studies program has fused the critical insights of feminist scholarship with the egalitarian vision of a Marianist education. By combining theory and practice with critique and imagination, our interdisciplinary program brings various fields into conversation with one another to better understand gender and power.

Examining issues of gender equality and dignity contributes to building community and solidarity — both on campus and in the world. Your classes will be interactive and involve you in learning, develop your critical thinking skills, help you appreciate and protect human dignity and diversity, and teach you to lead through service to others.

As a women’s and gender studies major, you’ll take four core courses, as well as 24 semester hours of upper level courses offered through various departments. You’ll be able to tailor the program of study to your interests as you complete nine of the semester hours in one area of concentration, six semester hours in each of two additional areas and three semester hours in a fourth area. To help you better understand how gender interacts with race, culture, ethnicity and other forms of human difference, at least six semester hours will be in approved courses with a global and/or multicultural perspective.

In order to prepare you for work in our global society, you will also complete a language requirement. You may satisfy the requirement by taking a proficiency examination, completing an intermediate-level language course or participating in an approved education abroad experience.