Bachelor of Arts in Women Studies Shorelight Group - St. Bonaventure University, USA

The Women’s Studies Program engages the study of women’s issues in an effort to promote the appreciation of human differences. Through the prism of a woman’s perspective, matters of gender, race, ethnicity and class are explored. The program’s aim is to develop interdisciplinary research and critical thinking among students by raising feminist questions regarding the exclusionary functions of existing knowledge.

This will be accomplished by offering a range of courses from a variety of disciplines that address women’s influence and involvement in family, history, literature, politics, religion, psychology, law, business, medicine, philosophy, art, education and the economy.

The larger goal of this program coincides with that of the field of Women's Studies: to restructure our thinking about society at large by developing new perspectives and transforming traditional disciplines.

Why choose women's studies?

Students who take Women's Studies tend to do so for one of two reasons. The first is that they find a perspective available in our courses that is not readily found in others. Our students want to know the side of a story that is at most only hinted at in other courses.

They find it with us, and often express their surprise that more of the female side of the story is not more generally known. So our students are, simply put, curious to know more.

The other reason students tell us they take our courses is that they want more variety of coursework than is found in their traditional major. Because Women's Studies is interdisciplinary, students are encouraged to take courses that center on women, but do so from a wide variety of perspectives.

So they can take a business, journalism, literature or sport course and find those all within our program. It broadens them even while they simultaneously remain focused on one issue - women.

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the Women's Studies program at St. Bonaventure University, graduates:

• Are able to identify major themes in feminist thought;
• Are able to analyze critically how gender interacts with other matrices of power such as race, ethnicity, religion, class, and sexuality in both theory and lived experience;
• Are able to demonstrate skills in applying feminist scholarship to various academic disciplines;
• Are able to describe the experiences and contributions of women in two or more of the following areas: family, history, sociology, literature, politics, religion, law, psychology, business, economics, medicine, philosophy, art, and education.