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Women's and Gender Studies

Explore the Role of Gender throughout Society

Women's and Gender Studies (WGS) is an interdisciplinary field that draws ideas, information, and methods from many traditional academic disciplines to explore the important role of gender throughout society.

At Southern Miss, the Women's and Gender Studies (WGS) Program offers both an undergraduate and a graduate minor. In addition to courses specific to the program, we offer classes in a variety of academic areas, from sociology to literature, nursing to human performance, theatre and dance to speech communication, history, and political science. Specific courses are listed under the appropriate program.

Women's and Gender Studies courses are for all students—men, women, genderqueer, cisgender, straight, and LGBTQIA—who are interested in gaining new insight into women, gender, and sexuality issues.

What Will I Learn?

Women’s and Gender Studies seeks to expand students’ understanding of the contributions of women to human cultures while also taking a broader, far-reaching lens to consider the role played by gender as a social category.

Through a variety of courses, students will learn how gender:

• Influences people’s everyday lives, often in ways that are unacknowledged and unrealized;
• Is embedded in our social institutions, including politics, economics, education, religion, and the family;
• Intersects with race, class, sexuality, and other identities;
• Organizes knowledge and people’s understanding of the world;
• Is viewed from different perspectives, including global feminisms and transnationalism.

 

Faculty Affiliates

Meet our Program coordinator and Affiliate Faculty

Do you have a question about the Women's and Gender Studies program? Click above to get the contact information for the WGS Program Coordinator.

 

Faculty Spotlight

In Strategic Sisterhood: The National Council of Negro Women in the Black Freedom Struggle, Dr. Rebecca Tuuri offers a sweeping view of the Council's behind-the-scenes efforts to fight racism, poverty, and sexism in the late twentieth century. Her book examines how the group teamed with U.S. presidents, foundations, and grassroots activists alike to implement a number of important domestic development and international aid projects.  

 

Student Spotlight

Mariam Atobiloye, '20

Growing up in Nigeria as a young girl, society told me to aspire to be great, but not too great since that would hurt the man's ego. I would watch the daily news and see that despite how rich the country was, women were still dying from childbirth. Women were policy makers, yet they were treated like their opinions.Read Mariam's Story

Career Pathways

A minor in Women’s and Gender Studies can be paired with any major, and in many cases, students can get a WGS minor without taking any more credit hours than they would need to take for their major alone.

The WGS minor helps student better understand gender issues that are pertinent to almost every context of life where people of different genders and sexualities interact. In many career fields, understanding gendered issues is increasingly important, including in social services, counseling, human resources, education, healthcare, law, and politics. It is particularly useful for jobs that require managing equity issues such as the wage gap, equal employment opportunities, family leave, sex discrimination, gender or sexual harassment, violence against women, and Title IX.

Some majors that work well with this minor are:

• Social sciences: Sociology, Political Science, Anthropology, Psychology
• Applied social sciences: Social Work, Criminal Justice, Public Health
• Humanities: History, English, Philosophy
• Communication: Public Relations, Media, Communication Studies
• Business: Management, Business Administration
• And many more!

 

Minor Requirements

Availability