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School of Arts and Sciences /
Women and Gender Studies
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About

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES

Through interdisciplinary coursework, Women and Gender Studies explores gender in relation to other identity markers, connects students to social and political realities and promotes critical perspectives on structures of power that have the potential to effect transformation and change.

ABOUT WOMEN AND GENDER STUDIES

Women’s Studies at Hunter College was established in 1975 in response to the women's movement of the 1960s, which asked that higher education integrate the study of women and gender into the curriculum.

After 40 years of providing a rich interdisciplinary curriculum that encourages critical evaluations of social and public issues, the Women and Gender Studies Program at Hunter officially became a department on January 28, 2015, making it a historic moment for the college.

The department is committed to examinations of social and identity formation and how they shape human experience and produce structures of power and domination. With a mission to not only re-examine the historical record to make visible the experiences of disenfranchised groups but also connect feminist theories to current and concrete social and political contexts, the department promotes critical perspectives that have the potential to effect transformation and change.

Our classes focus on the critical examination of gender, class, race, dis/ability, sexuality and nationality as intersecting dynamics of social and identity formation. Through our own and cross-listed courses, our students are able to explore such topics as Bathroom Politics, Women and Film, Gender, Sexuality and History, Masculinities, Gender and Human Rights, Gender and Migration and Transnational Feminism.

"Women and Gender Studies helped propel me into the labor force with impeccable writing, reading comprehension and, most importantly, critical thought. After graduating, I got a job as a disability accommodation specialist with a focus on gender."

Stephen Icaza, Class of 2016

OUR MISSION

The Department of Women and Gender Studies focuses on the critical examination of gender, class, race, dis/ability, sexuality and nationality as intersecting dynamics of social and identity formation.

Our mission is to:

  • Educate students about the principles, theories and concrete applications of critical analyses.
  • Encourage students to examine the complex ways in which the social formations of sexuality, gender, race, class, national origin, dis/ability and sexual orientation shape human experience and produce structures of power and inequality.
  • Re-examine the historical record to make visible the experiences and contributions of disenfranchised groups in a vast range of historical and social locations.
  • Connect academic work with social and political realities outside the university, enhance students’ understanding of and resistance to structures of inequalities, and link research, teaching/learning and activism.

Through its broad interdisciplinary research and curriculum, the Department of Women and Gender Studies promotes transformative practices in research, creative work, pedagogies and local/global partnerships.

More About Program Learning Outcomes

"I have come to embody the feminist theories and methods taught in Women and Gender Studies—ideologies that preclude one-dimensional and positivist claims to the creation of intellectual work—and look forward to carrying these skills on with me in my professional life."

Catherine Detrow, Class of 2011

United Against Racism

The Asian American Studies Program, and the Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies, History, Jewish Studies and Women and Gender Studies departments deplore the horrific shooting in Atlanta on March 16, 2021 that left eight people dead, seven of whom were women and six Asian-American. Since then, some 20 other mass killings have occurred throughout the United States from California to Washington DC.

We come together to speak out against the Atlanta killings and to condemn the ongoing white supremacist, anti-immigrant, anti-sex workers, masculinist ideologies that help produce such acts of violence. The Atlanta shooting must be understood in relation to the anti-Asian hate that we have seen rise across the United States during the Covid pandemic. According to Stop AAPI Hate, between March 19, 2020 to February 28, 2021, there were 3,795 anti-Asian hate incidents – 68% of which were directed at women.

Over the past year, these communities have been subjected to increasing racism and xenophobia. A reminder that anti-Asian discrimination has a long history in this country from the Page Act (1875) that prohibited the immigration of women from Asian nations; to the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943), the first federal legislation to exclude labor migrants by national origins; to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II; to the targeting of Muslims and those racialized as Muslim, including South Asian Americans, in the wake of 9/11 and the 2017 Travel Ban.

Our program and departments stand united against racism. We resist attempts to pit our communities against each other and we embrace the kinds of solidarity and coalitional work that can move us forward in the face of such attacks.

"We invite you to stop and hold space with us in memory of those who were lost and on behalf of those who feel (like so many of us feel in this country) that their lives do not matter. We invite you to stop and speak their names into the wind, adding them to the long list of names that we have been shouting, whispering, and remembering. We invite you to find ways to heal and to survive, in the spirit of Sister Grace Lee Boggs who reminds us that, "The only way to survive is by taking care of one another." We believe that we do that by standing together, fighting together, and working to dismantle white supremacy together."

- National Women's Studies Association (NWSA )

OUR DEGREE

What Can I Do with a Bachelor's Degree in Women and Gender Studies?

Liberal arts graduates develop critical thinking, writing and presentation skills that make them attractive to a wide range of employers. The Women and Gender Studies curriculum at Hunter College trains students to connect their academic work to social and political realities outside the university. With a strong understanding of structures of privilege and inequality, our students are well equipped to engage the world as informed citizens and to take up work that promotes social change and justice.

Our majors have a high rate of acceptance in professional and graduate schools.

While Women and Gender Studies majors can go on to a wide spectrum of professions or graduate degrees, it is important to note that certain advanced degrees do require specific coursework, which must be completed prior to entering the field.  Readiness and admittance to graduate or professional school entail completing the required pre-requisite courses, not necessarily a specialized major. For better and for worse, bachelor’s degrees are increasingly a stepping stone in one’s training where specialization happens in the next phase of one’s studies. The learning one does as an undergraduate can matter enormously, but more often than not it doesn’t dictate the path or opportunities for ongoing study.

Graduate programs have come to value diversity in the students they admit, with the realization that it is valuable for both their programs and the professions. For example, law schools do not want to see all of their applicants come from pre-law, political science, and government programs. In a similar vein, Women and Gender Studies majors are being accepted without a STEM major to medical programs, having taken the relevant prerequisite courses needed and focused the rest of their undergraduate learning with the broad set of inquiries that the Women and Gender Studies major afforded them.

Jaslin Kaur speaking at an event

Success Story

Jaslin Kaur, Special Assistant to the President of New American Leaders

Jaslin Kaur ’19 earned a degree in women and gender studies with a minor in human rights. Now a candidate for New York City Council, she serves as special assistant to the founder and president of New American Leaders, a group that trains first- and second-generation immigrants to run for office.

Read this Success Story in The Envoy

STUDENT ACTIVITIES GALLERY

Students from WGSA 29004 Attended a Little Amal Walks NYC Event Sponsored by the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street, in the Lower East Side (Fall, 2022)
Students from WGSA 29004 Attended a Little Amal Walks NYC Event Sponsored by the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street, in the Lower East Side. The Over-Size Puppet Represents the Plight of Refugee Children Around the World (Fall, 2022)
Students from WGSA 29004 Attended a Little Amal Walks NYC Event Sponsored by the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street, in the Lower East Side. The Over-Size Puppet Represents the Plight of Refugee Children Around the World (Fall, 2022)
Students from WGSA 29004 Attended a Little Amal Walks NYC Event Sponsored by the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street, in the Lower East Side. The Over-Size Puppet Represents the Plight of Refugee Children Around the World (Fall, 2022)
International Human Rights Day
Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Justice 'Zines—Created by Students from WGS 100/Sections 2, 6 and 20 (Fall, 2021)
Women and Gender Studies Virtual Graduation
Graduating Students and Faculty Members from Women and Gender Studies Gathered Online to Celebrate the Graduating Class of 2020 (Spring, 2020)
Students Protest for Reproductive Rights
Students From Women and Gender Studies Dress as Handmaids on Campus to Advocate for Women's Reproductive Rights (Fall, 2019)
Student Field Trip to Immigration Museum
Women and Gender Studies Students Visit the Immigration Museum on Ellis Island (Spring, 2015)
International Women's Day Celebration
Women and Gender Studies Students Celebrate International Women's Day and the Women's Rights Movement (Spring, 2010)

HUNTER

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695 Park Ave NY, NY 10065
212-772-4000

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