Why take Women's Studies Courses?

Many students identify Women?s Studies courses as among the most exciting and life-changing of their undergraduate experiences. The 100-odd students who enroll each semester in Women?s Studies courses gain the opportunity

o to explore how social, historical, cultural, and psychological forces have shaped them as individual, gendered beings;

o to become more aware of the diversity of social experience by exploring how the interactions of race, ethnicity, class, age, disability, religion, national origin, and sexuality inform our knowledge of history and culture;

o to develop critical and analytical thinking skills, and to transfer these to other classes, to off-campus activities, and eventually into their professional careers.

Students may take Women?s Studies Courses to fulfill Minorities or other Program Requirements, or as electives. Students may also elect to pursue a Concentration in Women?s Studies by Completing 9 hours of any combination of Women?s Studies courses.^*

Women?s Studies courses complement and enhance the training that students receive in the liberal arts and in such fields as Education, Law, Social Work, and Management. Specializations in Women?s Studies are therefore of increasing social, political and vocational relevance. Prospective employers welcome employees who are sensitive to issues of gender and cultural diversity, and students with Women?s Studies training have been employed in a wide range of fields: from non-profit organizing to business, journalism to counseling, health-care to marketing. Students interested in Women?s Studies have also gone on to complete graduate degrees either in Women?s Studies or in one of several fields associated with Women?s Studies (for example: Art, Anthropology, Education, History, Humanities, International Studies, Law, Library Sciences, Literature, Philosophy, Psychology, Public Policy, Sociology).

^*If you are interested in completing a concentration in Women?s Studies, you must contact either your advisor or the Program Convener for Women?s Studies, to complete the requisite paperwork. See http://hsh.uhcl.edu/womensstudies for further information.

REDDY/ March 5, 2003

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