Gender and Women's Studies Program
Le Moyne College, Syracuse, New York

Program Director: Dr. Anca Munteanu, RH308, 445-4390, e-mail munteanu@lemoyne.edu

Women's Studies Librarian: Gretchen E. Pearson, 445-4154, e-mail pearson@lemoyne.edu

This web site is maintained by the Women's Studies Program, for use by Le Moyne College students, staff, and faculty, as well as anyone else who finds her/his way here. This site is currently under construction.

Why minor in Gender and Women’s Studies?

Gender and Women’s Studies (GWS) offers interdisciplinary perspectives on gender and its interaction with race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, religion, and other socially significant variables that condition human consciousness and shape the social, political, and cultural organization of human societies. While beginning from the previously overlooked experiences of women, the field of Gender and Women’s Studies has developed new paradigms of knowing, learning and living that are useful to both women and men. The continuing mission of GWS is to investigate new ways of understanding the diversity of human thought, experience, and interaction.

This lively, on-going discussion of the multiplicity of human experience complements major work in any number of fields. Courses in GWS provide a unique perspective on any major, allowing students to look at the topics they are studying in new ways and to deepen their grasp of many issues. Thus GWS encourages a well-rounded understanding of the major subject area.

The multi-disciplinary focus of GWS helps make students distinctive when they are entering the job market or applying for graduate school. Some specific careers are particularly suited to the job candidate who has a GWS minor: government agencies, social work, counseling centers, women’s shelters, etc. Beyond those careers that focus on women’s issues, businesses of all sorts are interested in hiring employees who work well in a diverse society. More and more women and people of color are in the workplace, many in supervisory positions; students with a minor in GWS are better prepared to work in a diverse workplace. People with an understanding of gender relations and gender issues have skills that make them strong and effective leaders. Further, employees who understand the positive value of diversity are essential to businesses that market products or provide services to a diverse clientele.

A minor in Gender and Women’s Studies promotes the development of a social awareness that enriches the student’s life both professionally and personally. Students learn critical approaches to reality that allow them to see the ordinary world in new ways and inspire self-confidence about one’s possibilities in the social world. The mission of Gender and Women’s Studies dovetails with the mission of Le Moyne College as a Jesuit institution: to provide the critical skills needed to be a responsible social agent in all the various ways we participate in the world.

Requirements for a minor in Gender and Women’s Studies:

In order to complete a minor in GWS, students must take GWS 101, GWS 401, and 9 other credit hours cross-listed with GWS and selected in consultation with the program director. No more than 3 credit hours may normally come from the Allied GWS curriculum and no more than 6 credit hours may normally come from any single department. Please note that the College Catalog provides a complete listing of Primary and Allied GWS courses.

See the college catalog

Updated January 30, 2007