Women's Studies
What is Women's Studies?
LMU's Women's Studies major a new field focusing on women's accomplishments and situations across the globe and throughout history. It is not simply the study of women, but rather the study of women that places women's own experiences in the center of the process.
Women's Studies calls attention to the androcentric nature of society, proposes alternatives and strategies that honor women's human rights, and promotes a vision of society where gender hierarchy, as well as other forms of social injustice, are eliminated. Grounded in feminist pedagogy, Women's Studies courses provide students with a broad understanding of the asymmetry of gender relations within diverse historical and cultural contexts.
The Women's Studies major offers the opportunity to engage in a critical review of society, deriving a vision of social justice that is basic to feminist thought. Program graduates go into law, medicine, government service, community organizations, as well as many other fields.
What do Women's Studies majors do?
Women's Studies majors participate in a vibrant interdisciplinary program of study that places women at the center of traditional disciplines in which they have been historically marginalized. It encourages the critical examination of academic fields such as the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and the arts, together with the gendered assumptions that underwrite them.
Women's Studies students acquire a critical understanding of the complex ways gender shapes the world, particularly in relation to race, sexuality, class, and other social factors. They gain a strong commitment to social justice for women of all ethnicities; learn new methodologies and theoretical tools, and learn to express themselves well both orally and in writing.
Is this major right for you?
You might be a Women's Studies major if you:
- Are interested in gender issues
- Seek social change
- Have interdisciplinary interests
- Enjoy both service and research
- Enjoy being taught by professors in small classes
About our faculty
Our faculty members are experts in topics such as women in the Middle East, Asian Americans, colonial America, and women in the history of medicine. Our affiliated faculty come from departments such as Classics and Archeology, History, Film History, African American Studies, Sociology, Biology, Mathematics, Chicana/o Studies, and Communication Studies.
Women's Studies faculty members serve on boards, work with specific communities, and write books and articles such as, "Globalization and Christian Practice in Lebanon's Biqa Valley" and "Violence and Belonging: The Faultlines of Identity."
About our students and graduates
Our students have the opportunity to directly work for social justice via the Service Learning in Women's Studies program, a collaboration with LMU's Center for Service and Action.
LMU students majoring or minoring in Women's Studies are prepared for studies in law, medicine, nursing, counseling, education, business, management, and many other fields in which an understanding of people is essential. Career options for Women's Studies graduates include writing, teaching, and working for community organizations.
Representative courses
Our offered courses have included:
- Introduction to Women's Studies
- Women of Color in the U.S.
- Women in global communities
- Women's Bodies, Health, and Sexuality
- Mathematics: Contributions by Women
- Women in the Middle East
- Angels and Demons: Women and Literary Stereotypes
- Genders and Sexualities
- Women in Early American History
- Hip Hop Culture
- Chicanas and Other Latinas in the U.S.
- Sociology of Marriage and Families
- Women and Politics
- Women in Film
- Independent Studies