Women's Studies Certificate

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The Women's Studies Certificate Program brings together faculty and students from a variety of disciplines to investigate the status and position of women as participants in and creators of culture. This interdisciplinary certificate program is an adjunct to a student's academic major. Students will explore in-depth gender-based issues from an historical, literary, and multi-cultural perspective.

The mission of the Women's Studies Certificate Program is to provide a multidisciplinary consideration of women's lives and to uncover aspects of the human experience that have hitherto been ignored, neglected and overlooked. The program provides both female and male students the opportunity to explore issues related to women and gender across a variety of disciplines and cultures. The program attempts to eliminate gender discrimination in academics by examining cultural assumptions about women, the validity of research on women, and the impacts of various political, economic, and social systems on women.

The structure of the 21-credit program reflects faculty sensitivity to the range of interests that motivate student participation in a Women's Studies curriculum. The required introductory course (WS 151) and the capstone senior seminar in Women's Studies (WS 495) facilitate inquiry into theoretical and applied aspects of questions important to each student.

Goals for Student Learning

Students completing the Women's Studies Certificate Program will have a firm understanding of the role of gender and sexual identity in a variety of areas including history, health, culture, politics, literature, and language. Furthermore, the certificate will enhance preparation for a number of professional areas including government, law, industrial relations, social services, politics, medicine, and education.

Students receiving a Women's Studies Certificate will be expected to:

  • Understand how females and males are affected by cultural definitions of gender roles and interrogate cultural constructions of gender including binary gender assumptions.
  • Study and reflect on the underlying assumptions of historical, literary, rhetorical and/or health models of women and how they have affected women cross-culturally.
  • Identify women’s activities and accomplishments across a variety of cultures and historical contexts and recognize contributions that have conventionally been neglected.
  • Understand how discrimination, stereotyping, and prejudice affect people’s expectations of themselves and others in families, intimate relationships, careers, and society.
  • Become familiar with feminist literature and current scholarship on gender, sexuality, race, and class.

Women's Studies Certificate Faculty and Staff