Women's Studies (B.A.)
At-a-Glance
Admission to the major: Requires good academic standing in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
Minimum hours required for the major: 38 distributed in three fields
Minimum hours required for the minor: 16 distributed in three fields
Awards: WEAL Scholarship
Advising: Director of Women’s Studies, Individual faculty adviser, CLASS Advising , CB 279.
For Information: Contact the Women's Studies Program. Phone: 216-687-4675
For the first time in history, individuals must be prepared to pursue sequential careers. To thrive in the 21st century students need academic credentials, transferable skills, critical & analytical thinking abilities, and the ability to comprehend information from a global perspective. A degree in Women’s Studies prepares women and men for the sequence of careers that will be the hallmark of personal success in the 21st century. Women’s Studies provides academic credentials and transferrable skills that will serve students for a lifetime.
Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary field offering academic preparation in liberal arts and social sciences.Students earn a B.A. having majored, double-majored or minored in WST.Transferable skills enable students to enter the workforce immediately, or to pursue graduate studies in dozens of disciplines.
Transferable Skills: WST students learn the critical writing, speaking & research skills of many academic disciplines. Students identify, find & interpret information from fields as diverse as philosophy, sociology, psychology, religion & anthropology.
Critical & Analytical Thinking: WST teaches students to discover and communicate new knowledge about women. WST students reinterpret existing knowledge about women’s abilities, values and interests. WST students develop balanced interpretations of gender differences & similarities as they arise outside academia. Students learn to evaluate information presented about women in science, literature, art, marketing, politics & other fields. In the WST Practicum students integrate learning with workplace and/or volunteer experience.
Global Perspectives: WST students understand how gender roles shaped human societies. Because gender differences transcend race, religion, nationality & species, WST students recognize gender issues arising in international trade, migration, law & the environment.
Major-Field Requirements
To earn a Women's Studies major, students must take a minimum of 38 semester hours in Women's Studies courses. Courses are to be distributed over three departments with at least 6 credits in the humanities and 6 credits in the social sciences. Independent study (WST 496) may be included as part of the major. A grade of C or better must be earned in courses used to fulfill requirements for the major. Students are encouraged to use this framework to develop a more specialized Women's Studies curriculum based upon their particular career interests.
Required Courses
- WST 151 Introduction to Women's Studies
- WST 351 Practicum in Women's Studies
- WST 495 Advanced Seminar in Women's Studies
Additional Women's Studies Courses
In addition to courses listed below,certain special-topics courses may apply to the major if approved by the Women's Studies Faculty Curriculum Committee. See individual departmental listing for course descriptions and prerequisites.
WOMEN’S STUDIES COURSES FROM THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
- ANT 243 Language and Gender
- ANT 324 Anthropology of Gender
- COM 331 Gender and Communication
- EDB 455 Women and Education
- HSC 346 Women’s Health
- NUR 493: Special Topics : when offered as Women's Health
- PSY 255 Psychology of Women
- PSY 352 Human Sexuality
- SOC 201 Race, Class, Gender
- SOC 302 Women in Corporate America
- SOC 310 Sociology of Marriage and Family
- SOC 317 Sociology of Gender
- SOC 349 Women and Crime
- UST 455 Gender and Leadership(cross-listed as NAD 455)
- WST 393 Special Topics in Women's Studies
- WST 496 Independent Study
WOMEN’S STUDIES COURSES FROM THE HUMANITIES
- ARB 380 Women in the Arab World
- ENF 214 Women Writers in English Translation
- ENF 215 Women Writers in English Translation
- ENG 207 African American Literature when offered by WST faculty
- ENG 208 Womanism/Feminism
- ENG 330 Studies in Ancient Literature when offered as Feminist Approaches to Classical Literature
- ENG 333 Studies in Restoration and 18th-Century British Literature when offered as Feminist Approaches to 18th Century Fiction
- ENG 334 Studies in 19th Century British Literature when offered as Feminist Approaches to 19th Century Fiction
- ENG 335 Studies in 20th Century British and Anglophone Literature when offered as Feminist Approaches to 20th Century Fiction
- ENG 363 Gender Issues in Literature
- ENG 375 Major Authors when offered as Jane Austen,orthe Bronte sisters,or Emily Dickinson, or Toni Morrison.or Virginia Woolf
- FRN 365 Readings in French Literature when offered as French Decadence: Literature & Sexuality
- FRN 493 Special Topics in French when offered as French Women Writers: From the Middle Ages to the Present
- HIS 284 History of Women
- HIS 327 American Sexual Communities and Politics
- HIS 354 European Women's History
- HIS 381 Class, Gender and Sexuality in China: 1700-present
- HIS 393 Special Topics in History: when offered as History of Women in America, History of African-American Women
- MLA280 Women in the Arab World
- PHL 253 Philosophy of Feminism
- PHL 410 Studies in the History of Philosophy when offered as Women Philosophers
- PHL 446 Ethics of Human Reproduction
- REL 260 Women and Religion
- REL 370 Sexual Ethics
- REL 376 Women in Early Christianity
- SPN 484 Studies in Spanish American Literature: when offered as Latin American Women Writers in the 20th Century
Women's Studies Minor
A minor in Women's Studies is an excellent complement to majors in many other disciplines. To earn a Women's Studies minor, students must take a minimum of 16 semester credits in designated Women's Studies courses, 8 credits of which must be at the 300/400 level. Courses must be selected from at least three different academic areas, and include at least one humanities course and one social-science course.
The Advanced Seminar in Women's Studies (WST 495) is required for the minor in Women's Studies.
