Women's and Gender Studies at Aquinas College
Discover Women's and Gender Studies
Feminism isn’t a gender. It’s an idea—an idea that anyone is free to explore and share. With a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies at Aquinas College, you can become a catalyst for positive change within your communities and around the world.
You will learn how to confidently use your voice to effectively bring an awareness of women’s historical and contemporary roles, experiences, and contributions into our cultural and political conversations. You will study the creation and perpetuation of gender in human societies, alongside the intersections of gender with other categories of difference and identity such as race, class, nation, and sexuality.
It's Time to Deepen Your Knowledge
Career Preparation based on leadership
Women's and Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary academic curriculum that exposes students to women's historical and contemporary roles, experiences, and contributions across cultures; the creation and perpetuation of gender in human societies; and the intersections of gender with other categories of difference and identity, such as race, class, nation, and sexuality. In doing so, WGS courses also explore feminism as historical activist movement and as critical inquiry.
- Students will identify and explain the historic and contemporary contributions of feminist thought to make women and gender visible in our society and across global cultures.
- Students will understand the role of gender and gender norms and expectations in shaping many spheres of life (e.g., family, workplace, science, religion, politics, arts, and education).
- Students will demonstrate an awareness of the cultural and social construction of gender and its intersections with other categories of difference and identity, such as race, ethnicity, nationality, class, sexuality, and ability, and how these conditions shape human experience.
- Students will use feminist intellectual frameworks to think critically about the world, challenge stereotypes and intersecting systems of privilege and inequality, and advocate for social change.
Gender, Identity, and Sexualities Symposium
This academic conference showcases undergraduate student work from any discipline related to gender, identity, and/or sexuality.
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Jane Hibbard Idema Women's and Gender Studies Center
The Jane Hibbard Idema Women's and Gender Studies Center prepares students to become catalysts for change and voices for feminist ideals, both in our society and around the globe.
Student Clubs
Student-driven programs identify, discuss, and respond to issues surrounding gender from students’ perspectives. Join a community of students who share your interests.
Events and Opportunities
Women's and Gender Studies partners with many departments across campus to bring you opportunities to get involved and learn more.View the event calendar
Imagine the POSSIBILITIES
Women’s and Gender Studies prepares students for leadership and careers. Our alumni work for the Illinois Housing Council, Team Detroit, the Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians, Priority Health, and other diverse organizations.
In Women’s and Gender Studies, students creatively combine academics and their passions. Students have combined Women's and Gender Studies, Spanish, and English to create a tutoring program for Spanish-speaking women in Grand Rapids and go on to work for the Literacy Center of West Michigan, and they have combined Psychology, Art, and Women's and Gender Studies to work in child and family counseling settings.
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Common Career Paths
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Employers
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To learn more about careers like this, make an appointment with the Advantage Center.
Internships and Externships
Learn about the experiences other Women's and Gender Studies minors, who interned at orgnizations like Artists Creating Together and the Great Grand Rapids Women's History Council or shadowed alums in their workplaces.
Alumni Profiles
Hear what students in the Women's and Gender Studies Program have to say about their experiences in their own words and see where they landed post graduation.
Hear more from the Women & Gender Studies Department
This semester, Aquinas students in Dr. Satya Lendrum’s Intro to Women’s and Gender Studies course were paired with teenagers in Kent County who had previously been displaced from their home country. The grant comes from the Office on Violence Against Women and will be used to reduce domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking on campus.
Aquinas Students and Refugee Teens Build Community Through Treetops Collective
Aquinas College awarded nearly $300,000 to keep campus community safe