Women's & Gender Studies

Graduates find employment in the fields of law, government and public administration, social services, education, media, science, psychology, criminal justice, politics, advocacy, social work, academia, health services, human services, business, and other areas.  Examples of occupations include: advocate for hate-crime victims, director of a battered women’s centre or rape crisis program, staff at a human rights organization, coordinator of a resource centre, HIV educator, cultural worker, human resources administrator, policy analyst, union leader, community development worker.  Some students continue their education into graduate school.

Introduction to Women’s & Gender Studies* is a required course that explores the historical and current development of cultural, social, and political structures and ideas about women and gender, with particular emphasis on experiences in North America. It addresses the ways in which sexed and gendered lives are culturally configured, and how we can act to counter those structures. Our feminist and critical perspectives seek equity with respect to race, gender identity, ethnicity, class, sexuality, nationality/nationhood, Indigenous peoples, and ability.

Girls, Women, and Popular Culture examines some of the myths, theories, and images of girls and women that shape how they are represented and how they represent themselves in popular culture. This course examines North American popular culture, including issues relating to sex, gender, race, class, age, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, and ability.

Indigenous & Critical Race Feminisms acquaints students with Indigenous, critical race and anti-racist feminist theories that resist colonial violence, gendered, and racialized representations of ethnicity. The theoretical frameworks of Indigenous women and women of colour are central to this course, and we examine and locate our understanding of our feminist practices through these theoretical frameworks.

• Urban & Community Planning
• Introduction to Community Advocacy
• Colonization & Indigenous Peoples
• Immigration & the Inner City
• History of Indigenous Institutional Development in Winnipeg

*Required courses for a major or minor in Women’s and Gender Studies

WGS-1232(6) Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies
RHET-1102(3) Academic Writing: Social Sciences or other section of Academic Writing (if required)
WGS-2256(3) New Media, Culture Jamming, and the Third Wave
WGS-2260(3) Girls, Women and Popular Culture
WGS-2270(3) Food Cultures, Sex, and Gender
12 credit hours electives
NOTE: This sample first year is representative of the courses you may take. For many of our programs, you may choose another set of courses and still be well on your way to a degree. Also, for most programs you do not have to take 30 credit hours (five full courses) in your first year.