Women and Gender Studies

The NDSU Women and Gender Studies program is an interdisciplinary academic program that focuses on women and gender issues in society, while integrating the teaching, research, and service goals of our land grant university. The undergraduate program offers a major and minor, and it has internal tracks that allow students to pursue focused studies in areas such as gender and public health. The Women and Gender Studies program requirements also complement various other degrees for students interested in double majoring. 

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

A Women and Gender Studies degree provides students with critical fieldwork experience that helps them find job placement after graduation. As a field committed to fostering justice for all, students are offered opportunities for working with local groups, organizations, and businesses that focus on women, gender, and sexuality. Students majoring in Women and Gender Studies complete an internship that places feminist theory into practice. Student experiences have included work with the YWCA, Rape and Abuse Crisis Center of Fargo-Moorhead, and others.

Upon graduation, our students are well poised to find positions that match their career goals or to pursue graduate programs. Increasingly, employers seek candidates who understand and support diversity and inclusiveness, which is a foundational principle in the Women and Gender Studies program. In NDSU’s 2019 Career Placement Report, Women and Gender Studies graduates had 100% placement. Our graduates regularly find employment as social workers, directors of non-profit organizations, lawyers, lobbyists, counselors, professors, and  librarians.

Program Learning Objectives

Women and Gender Studies examines gender in society and aims to raise students’ aspirations, expand awareness of their capabilities, and widen the knowledge and development of all.

Upon graduation, Women and Gender Studies students will be able to:

1. Analyze how the social construction of gender and sex affects individual experiences

2. Examine how privilege and oppression function in society and culture

3. Explore how feminism and activism are intertwined by studying ways that diverse individuals, groups, and communities can work to affect change

4. Analyze how social categorizations of one’s identity, such as race, gender, socioeconomic class, sexual orientation, and gender identity, intersect and affect a person’s lived experiences

5. Construct evidence-based arguments within their own interdisciplinary fields of inquiry that use a variety of credible sources.

6. Explore the implications of engaged citizenship

The Curriculum

The Women and Gender Studies major consists of a total of 33 approved semester credits. Students must take 7 core courses and 12 approved elective credits in their area of choice.

The Women and Gender Studies minor consists of a total of 18 approved semester credits. Students must take two required courses; then they may take four of any of the courses listed as core courses. Appropriate courses not on either the required or core list must be approved by the program administrators.

GENERAL EDUCATION

Multiple Women and Gender Studies classes--namely WGS 110: Introduction to Women’s Studies, WGS 112: Introduction to Masculinities, and WGS 370: Transnational/Global Women-- fulfill both core requirements for the WGS major/minor as well as North Dakota State University’s cultural diversity general education requirements. This allows students to advance towards a timely completion of their degree.

CONTACT

To begin your academic career in the WGS program, contact the Director, Dr. Ashley Baggett, at ashley.baggett@ndsu.edu.

Sample Program Guide

Please note this is a sample program guide and not an official curriculum.  Actual student schedules for each semester will vary depending on start year, education goals, applicable transfer credit, and course availability. Once admitted, students are encouraged to work with their assigned academic advisor on a regular basis to review degree progress.