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Women's Studies Program

Degrees Offered
  • Bachelor of Arts
  • Bachelor of Arts (Honours)

 

The Women's Studies Program is designed to provide students with knowledge of the rapidly developing disciplinary and interdisciplinary literature in the field, while providing them with an understanding of the reasons for the development of a feminist scholarship.

From its activist and academic perspective, the program will help prepare students for careers in government, social work, and business, while also providing them with a mode of analysis applicable to related fields, and to their own lives.

 

What is Women's Studies and why is it important?

In the 1970s and 1980s, Women’s Studies programs and departments were developed across North America (and elsewhere) to balance university curricula’s traditional focus on men and on men’s lives, literature, history, thought, experiences and achievements.

Arising from the feminist conviction that University students have the right to access information about women’s lives, literature, history, thought, experiences and achievements, Women’s Studies has grown from early attempts to “include women” to a multifaceted, interdisciplinary academic field in its own right.

Women’s Studies is concerned not just about women but about what it means to be gendered in society. An initial concern with sexual inequality has expanded to include an analysis of various dimensions of social life that serve to stratify people; these include race and ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, and ability/disability.

At the University of Calgary, a core set of Women’s Studies classes (including Introduction to Women’s Studies, Contemporary Issues in Feminism, Gender in Popular Culture and Women and Health) is supplemented by a diverse set of courses offered by many of the faculties and departments across campus.

This vital and valuable program offers courses both to those who want to sample one or two Women’s Studies courses and to those who wish to build a minor or major area of study out of Women’s Studies.

As in the beginning, Women’s Studies continues the essential work of placing women at the centre of academic inquiry, alongside the men who have always been there.

 

Is Women's Studies just for women?
No, not at all.

Women’s Studies classes are open, and relevant, to any student who is interested in courses that challenge and redress the traditional academic marginalization of numerous groups of people including women, people of colour, sexual-identity minorities, and financially disadvantaged people.

Women’s Studies classes are generally quite diverse in their composition, containing both women and men, students of all ages and backgrounds, and students who enter identifying themselves as feminist and those who do not.
 
 

Can I major in Women's Studies?
Yes, students can choose Women’s Studies as a minor or major area of study.

In both instances, core Women’s Studies courses are combined with relevant courses offered by a large number of departments and faculties across campus.
 
 

Why minor in Women's Studies?
A Women’s Studies minor is compatible with any major area of study!

  • It will provide you with an interdisciplinary component to your degree and is flexible enough to be tailored to any set of interests.
  • It will contribute to your training as a critical thinker and will offer a counter-balance to major areas of study that might not place women at the centre of academic inquiry.
  • It will help to prepare you for graduate or professional school and will contribute to your employability by offering you the opportunities to develop your analytical, research and communication skills.
 
 

What can you do with a Women's Studies Degree?

Graduates are equipped to go on and do graduate work in any of a number of fields, including, but not limited to:

  • Women’s Studies and other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences
  • graduate professional training (such as law, medicine, education or social work)
  • employment that requires a person who has had a diverse and interdisciplinary education
 
 

Have more questions?
If you have any questions, not answered by this page or the University Calendar, then direct inquiries to the Undergraduate Programs Office or the Women's Studies Program Coordinator

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