Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
UW-Eau Claire’s women's, gender, and sexuality studies (WGSS) bachelor’s degree program will encourage you to think critically about how systems such as colonialism and patriarchy produce unequal power dynamics that shape how race, class, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity, among other social categories, are understood and experienced. The WGSS major equips students with theories and research methods for advancing equity, diversity, inclusivity, and creating a more socially just world.
Explore Women's Experiences in Our Society
The WGSS degree at UWEC is the only of its kind in Northwestern Wisconsin. Its diverse offerings are rooted in social justice advocacy and introduce students to research on women’s activism and feminist theories, LGBTQ+ identities and experiences and Hmong histories and communities. During coursework, you may learn about LGBTQ+ activist movements. Domestic immersion programs include studying the achievements of women leaders involved in the American Civil Rights Movement through a 10-day excursion to historically significant locations in the U.S. South. Additional opportunities include a winterim study abroad trip to India, where you will learn about gender in relation to Indian law and public policy.
To further prepare you for your chosen career, all WGSS majors are required to do an internship before graduating. You may work collaboratively with community nonprofits or campus organizations such as the Black and Brown Womyn Power Coalition, the Chippewa Valley LGBTQ+ Community Center, the Community Table, the Eau Claire City-County Health Department, the Family Support Center/Center for Awareness of Sexual Assault (CASA), Western Wisconsin Dairyland, the Intersectional Women’s Center, and the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center while conducting critical research along the way.
The interdisciplinary and critical perspectives learned in WGSS courses enrich all fields of study, so graduates are well-prepared to do work in a variety of fields. Graduates of the program have gone on to pursue careers ranging from writing for feminist and LGBTQ publications to owning small businesses to organizing community outreach programs for diverse and marginalized populations to pursuing a graduate degree in a variety of fields. No matter your path, you’ll find that a degree in WGSS benefits both you and your community.
Program Details
While pursuing your studies, you’ll participate as a leader in advancing equity, diversity, and inclusivity initiatives. Your interdisciplinary education will include learning about women’s history, LGBTQ+ history/community/politics, global and transnational feminist perspectives, cross-cultural dynamics and social justice activism. This first-hand experience not only leads to real change but also gives you an inside look at what you’ll be doing with your degree.
Courses throughout the major are socially and personally relevant, preparing you for meaningful work following graduation. Through projects, discussions, and presentations, you’ll explore the intersections among sexism, racism, classism, heterosexism, cisgenderism, ableism, ageism, and other forms of oppression, as well strategies for resisting oppressions, fostering diverse and conscientious communities, and developing sustainable and equitable social, political, and economic resources. The WGSS degree is known for shaping engaged citizens and producing successful agents of change.
Blugold Stories
UWEC faculty empowered us to fight for what we believe in and to make a difference in our community. They helped me find my voice and value. I would not be the activist I am in an industry I love without the encouragement and support of a team of experienced and passionate professors.
Justthe
facts
Where can the women's, gender, and sexuality studies program lead me after graduation?
The WGSS program is a site of social change and activism as much as theory. The goal of the field is to develop critical feminist methodologies and theories, providing students with the resources to employ intersectional and transnational analyses effectively while also integrating theory with activism whenever possible and advocating for social justice.
The interdisciplinary and critical perspectives learned in the program enrich all fields of study, so graduates are well-prepared to do work in a variety of fields. With a WGSS degree, you can pursue career in education, women’s rights organizations, gender, and sexuality institutes, LGBTQIA+ resource centers, universities, non-profit organizations, women, and international development, health and social services, public service, philanthropy, business, media, government agencies, hospitals, newspapers and more.
Example Careers
- Human rights advocate
- Multicultural students’ services centers
- EDI (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion)-related positions
- Sexual violence victims' and survivors’ advocate
- Refugee crisis center worker
- Health clinic coordinator
- Journalist
- Archivist
- Union organizer
Recent Graduates
Adolescent Reproductive Health Educator
Deschutes County Health Services
Assistant Director
Hoard Historical Museum
Associate Director
UWEC's Gender and Sexuality Resource Center
Associate Professor
Winona State University
City Council Member
City of Eau Claire
Domestic Violence Program Director
Family Support Center
Prevention Specialist
AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin
Youth Advocate
Rainbow House
Women's, gender, and sexuality studies is an interdisciplinary major that draws from the humanities, social sciences, arts and natural sciences. Curriculum within the program will help you to make important connections between your learning, your own life and the globally interconnected world. Coursework will encourage you to advocate for racial, gender, and other forms of social justice — both on campus and in the larger community — and examine the lived experiences of marginalized groups impacted by systems of power.
Most WGSS courses incorporate small and/or large group discussions as well as opportunities for critical reflection and self-assessment. Classes also allow for the collection of interviews and oral histories with community activists and members of elder generations. Through individual and group presentations, you will help lead the facilitation of course materials, learning, and teaching alongside your classmates.
Here are a few courses in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at UW-Eau Claire.
WGSS 100
Introduction to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
This course examines how feminist scholarship offers critical tools for understanding how lived experiences of gender, race, class, sex, and sexuality intersect with colonial, capitalist, and other systems of power.
WGSS 206
Perspectives in LGBTQ Studies
Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural examination of heterosexism, LGBTQ social movements, and social policies that affect LGBTQ rights through the lenses of feminist and queer theories. Exposure to LGBTQ representations in literature, media, film, and popular culture.
WGSS 300
Introduction to Feminist Theories
Explore a range of feminist intellectual traditions in their original contexts and develop theoretical analyses of contemporary issues.
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