25 BEST BACHELOR'S DEGREES IN GENDER AND WOMEN'S STUDIES

Northwestern University's Bachelor of Arts in Gender and Sexuality Studies is an interdisciplinary program drawing from more than 20 departments across campus. Students take all types of courses covering the history and theory of gender, feminism, women's studies, and sexuality studies, from first-year seminars to potential graduate-level courses. Many in the program have opted to write an honors thesis in gender and sexuality studies or conduct research through various offered seminars. Offered courses include Beyond the Binary: Transgender and Race; Language and Sexuality; Transnational Perspectives; Gender and Citizenship; and more. The curriculum emphasizes the importance of placing gender and sexuality in a domestic and global context, using research tools from across disciplines to reach these understandings.

The Bachelor of Arts in Women's and Gender Studies from the University of North Carolina is grounded in a feminist interdisciplinary course of study. Students will graduate well-versed in scholarship on feminist theory as well as the intellectual, political, economic, and artistic contributions of women to greater social contexts. The program emphasizes the importance of research and application of knowledge to create solutions for personal, social, and community issues. Course topics may include Gender, Communication, and Culture; Queer Latina Literature, Performance, and Visual Art; Southern Women Writers; and Feminist Literary Theory. Students will also complete a faculty-supervised internship.

Ohio University's Bachelor of Arts in Women's Gender, & Sexuality Studies utilizes an interdisciplinary curriculum to prepare students with a diverse array of knowledge. Students will graduate with an understanding of gender and sexuality's intersection with race, ethnicity, class, and other elements of identity, all through an interdisciplinary lens. Core topics include Global Feminisms; Sexual Revolutions; The Black Family; The Black Woman; and more. Students may take courses from related departments, like History, Geology, English, and Communications. Graduates of the program have gone onto careers in law, public health, social, work, research, community education, and creative writing. Many have also gone onto graduate school.

Yale University's Bachelor of Arts in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies examines how identities, institutions, and economic, cultural, and political systems are informed by gender and sexuality. All students in the program take core courses and then begin an individualized area of concentration, culminating their studies with a yearlong or single-term senior essay. As the field demands it, this program promotes practice that is transnational, intersectional, and interdisciplinary. Recent concentration areas have included literature and queer aesthetics; transnational feminist practices; AIDS health policies; women's health; and more. Course topics include Neoliberalism and Sexuality; Transnational Approaches; and Bodies and Pleasures, Sex and Genders.

The Bachelor of Arts in Sexuality, Women's & Gender Studies from Amherst College draws from related disciplines to examine sexuality and gender and their intersections with race, class, and nation. As the curriculum is designed interdisciplinary, students will gain knowledge from faculty specialized in literature, history, anthropology, classics, medicine, and more. Offered courses include (Self) Representation of Trans Identities; Queer Theory and Practice; and Bad Black Women. The nine-course degree is made up of three required, and the remaining six electives may be chosen from the SWAGS list or other related departments. All students will submit a portfolio to the department before graduation, showcasing their comprehensive growth and understanding of the discipline.

The Bachelor of Arts in Gender and Women's Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison provides students the tools and knowledge necessary to analyze gender and other sites of inequality through a lens that's historically and culturally informed. Graduates from the program have gone onto work in fields such as health policy, immigration law, social work, reproductive justice, medicine, and more. The curriculum is focused on the interdisciplinary nature of the field, offering courses that cover literature, history, anthropology, education, law, philosophy, and more in relation to feminist thought. The major is a total of 30 credits, but a 15-credit certificate is available to students hoping to pursue complementary disciplines in conjunction with Gender and Women's Studies.

Pomona College's Bachelor of Arts in Gender & Women's Studies is grounded in understanding the sexual difference as a culturally and historically specific phenomena, drawing from feminist research and knowledge of how gender intersects with other social identities. There are two options for students who wish to major in GWS: the first is centered on the theoretical focus of feminist interdisciplinary scholarship. The second is a joint major, linking feminist studies with another related discipline or program such as art history, English, French language, politics, science, and more. The curriculum is made up of four core courses, two courses in feminist theory, and then three electives. Students who pursue the joint major will take courses that are cross-listed between GWS and another department.

The curriculum of Dartmouth College's Bachelor of Arts in Women's Gender, & Sexuality Studies uses a theoretical base to analyze the systemic construction of gender, with a focused understanding of the historical, economic, political, social, and cultural experiences of women. The program is designed interdisciplinarily, with course offerings from the Social Sciences, Humanities, and Sciences. The major is made up of four core courses and nine additional courses, which give students the option to select electives from another department. Students who decide on the major in Women's Gender, & Sexuality Studies from Dartmouth must meet with the Chair of the department before starting the coursework.

The Bachelor of Arts in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the State University of NY at New Paltz is made up of five core courses and a subsequent 12-credit Cluster. Students may choose from four Clusters: Historical and Political Context; Culture and Representation; Race, Culture, and Nation; and Gender, Sexuality, and Queer Studies. The remaining nine credits in the 39 required will be made up of electives. The department is proudly focused on deconstructing gender and sexuality concerning local and global structures of power, privilege, and oppression. Faculty members utilize interdisciplinary knowledge in their commitment to a feminist pedagogy built upon social justice.

The Women's Gender, and Sexuality Studies Bachelor of Arts' at Williams College encourages a critical and intensive analysis on gender and sexuality, and how they influence social and political structures alongside different yet related disciplines. The use of intersectional lenses is vital to succeeding in the program. Students will constantly be analyzing topics with an understanding of the relationship between race, ethnicity, class, ability, nationality, and religion. Courses focus on queer and feminist theories and their historical development, laying the foundation for students to develop criticism against current issues. Students at Williams' can also research alongside faculty members with related research interests during their senior year.

Georgetown University designed their Bachelor of Arts in Women's and Gender Studies to prepare students for work in a variety of fields dedicated to women's rights, gender justice, and the cultivation of healthy of sexualities across the globe. Students may decide on a concentration area from four options, including Globalization and Poverty. The curriculum takes an interdisciplinary approach in its understanding of the intersections between race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. Specific topics include women's lives, labor, and arts; the politics of sexuality; the structural, institutional, legal, and historical meanings of gender; and the gendered formation of knowledge. The major consists of 11 courses, of which only three are foundational, and the rest are electives.

Swarthmore College's Bachelor of Arts in Gender & Sexuality Studies studies social relations of power interdisciplinary, using a variety of disciplines and their texts as well as a wide array of cultural and historical contexts. The curriculum is designed to focus on feminist and queer theory but puts it alongside research in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. The program is open to students at Swarthmore so long as they meet with the Program Coordinator. Otherwise, students typically utilize the program's course of study to earn a minor. Courses are derived from several departments at Swarthmore, including English and French. Course topics can cover Economic of the Family; Dance and Diaspora; and Love and Sex in Russian Literature.

Carthage College's Women's and Gender Studies department offers only a five-course minor to students, to be earned alongside a related major. The minor examines the study of women and gender and how it's transformed other disciplines. The program is designed to cover not only the influence of gender on the world, but also the effects of race, class, ethnicity, and culture. Students take courses that cover information of many generations and social, cultural, political, and economic phenomena, such as Race, Gender, and Sex in Ancient Greece and Rome; Women and the Bible; Women of Africa; and Women and Politics.

The Bachelor of Arts in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies from Bowdoin College intensely examines the social constructions of gender and sexuality, and rather using these concepts as modes of inquiry and analysis. There is an emphasis on how gendered ideologies are related to race, class, ability, geography, and other forms of identity and experience. As the discourse of these topics is multi and interdisciplinary, students may take courses in humanities, social sciences, and the natural sciences. Middlebury's 10-course program consists of only five core courses, so students benefit from the ability to focus on topics that suit their ambitions or prospective research. Graduates build a strong understanding of how feminism is a historical activist movement that is fueled by a tradition of thought.

The Bachelor of Arts in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies from Bowdoin College is designed to shape social identities and experiences at multiple levels while giving students the tools to interrogate gender expression and social norms. The curriculum asks the necessary questions of who is privileged in certain hierarchies and what the political and social implications of that privilege are. Graduates are prepared for a variety of post-graduate pursuits, as the program is interdisciplinarily focused in its teaching of the intersection of gender, sexuality, race, and class. Course topics may also be multidisciplinary, such as those focused on Jane Austen, Black Women's Lives as the History of Africana Studies, and Gender, Islam, and Politics in Contemporary Pakistan.