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The University of New South Wales

Majoring in Women's and Gender Studies

Major Sequence

Women's and Gender Studies may be taken as a major sequence. This requires the completion of a total of 42 units of credit in Women's and Gender Studies approved courses. Students must complete the program's introductory core course at Level 1, WOMS1001, as well as two further core courses. The remaining 24 units of credit (or 4 courses) may be selected either from other core offerings or from the list of electives.

There are good social, pedagogic and professional reasons to study WGS.  Socially, it will extend students’ awareness of feminism, and of women in Australia and around the world, in the past and still today.  It will also illustrate how gender has combined with racism, heteronormativity and other discriminatory categories of difference to sustain unequal social relations. 

Pedagogically, it will ensure that the studies of ‘humanity’ that students undertake have an adequate gender component; that the perspectives on the world they develop are not built upon the exclusion of women and other marginalized groups. 

As for career options, WGS can be done as a single major or profitably combined with other majors. To cite the example of women’s issues, a sound understanding of social problems such as the high rates of violence against women, or women’s greater dependence upon welfare and their high representation in poverty statistics, would stand graduates in good stead with prospective employers in a range of areas. Apart from the Commonwealth Office for the Status of Women and state government equivalents, there are also many non-government organizations centrally or vitally concerned with women’s and gender issues. It therefore makes sense for the student of social studies to combine WGS with a major in Social Work, Sociology, Law or Criminology. WGS and Political Science, Philosophy or History are also good combinations.  For the student with an interest more in cultural studies, including popular culture, a major in English, Media or the Performing Arts can be supplemented with Women’s and Gender Studies.