Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program
A minor in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies gives students a better understanding on how issues of gender, race, class, ethnicity, and ability intersect and influence social movements and personal experiences.
View required courses for the Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies minor.
Students will:
- Analyze gender as it intersects with other relations of power such as race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender expression, class, nationality, religion, geography, ability, and age
- Critically examine those things that they have been told are “common sense” and/or “natural”
- Decenter dominant social, political, and historical narratives
- Understand a range of past and present major issues pertaining to gender
Students will understand how to make social change by:
- Understanding their responsibilities and rights as citizens in local and global contexts
- Recognizing and accessing community networks when working for social change
- Advocating for praxis: bridging theory and action
Students will use:
- written and oral skills to analyze and respond to ways that institutions foster and/or eradicate social inequalities.
- theoretical and scholarly language to critique dominant ideologies
- the ability to develop and sustain a scholarly argument based on diverse evidence and methodologies
Career Opportunities
With a minor in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, you will learn skills and knowledge useful for careers in community organizing, business, government, education, and health care.
Graduates of the WGSS program have continued careers in:
- Nursing in reproductive health care
- Lawyers emphasizing civil rights work
- Scientific researchers
- Supervisor or advocate in an antiviolence center
- Sexual violence prevention coordinators
- Social workers supporting LGBTQ+ youth
Research Opportunities
Winona State University WGSS Program has co-sponsored the UW System Women’s and Gender Studies Consortium since 2014. Students have presented their original research at this academic conference ranging from topics on:
- dismantling a rape culture
- Undocuqueer art
- feminist activism for Palestinian solidarity
- queer youth homelessness
Students have earned research grants for this work.
Gender & Sexuality Studies Programming
Since 1993, WGSS has taken the organization of Women’s History Month events seriously and created a platform for critical feminist scholars and activists to educate the community and inspire action.
WSU has hosted a variety of speakers and events such as:
- “On the Inside” Incarcerated LGBTQ+ Artist Show
- Diane Wilson, author of The Seed Keeper
- Loretta Ross, a renowned activist who helped establish the country’s first rape crisis center and coined the phrase “reproductive justice”
- CeCe McDonald, a Black trans abolitionist
- Colette Ghunim, a world-renowned filmmaker sparking social change through documentaries
- Rosa Clemente, hip hop activist who ran for Green Party Vice President in 2008
Social Justice, Advocacy, & Community Change
The WGSS minor offers students hands-on learning through classroom to community engagement. For instance, WGSS 405 provides students an opportunity to become trained advocates to support victims and survivors of gender-based violence.
WGSS Students also organize Take Back the Night (TBTN), a movement aimed to create community, healing, and solidarity for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. Students can educate and share their stories with other survivors and supporters as well as march in protest on campus and around downtown Winona.
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