Gender & Women's Studies

Career Portal

You can do a lot with a degree in GWS!

Gender & Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary (and always timely) field that develops and disseminates knowledge about how gender shapes people’s lives including the lives of women (cis and trans), men (cis and trans), nonbinary & two spirit people, and people with other gender-expansive identities. This is done through the analysis of texts, social and cultural practices, and social institutions, both local and global, historical and contemporary. We explore the diverse empirical realities, embodiments, and creative meanings of gender, including in the arts, culture, medicine and health care, politics, and history in local and global perspective. We examine the structures of inequality and movements for social change, especially attuned to the intersections of gender and gender diversity with other dimensions of difference and inequality such as race, class, sexuality, disability, religion, and national origin.

GWS/LGBTQ+-specific

General Nonprofit

Location/Government

  • Advertising/Sales
  • Copy Writer
  • Diversity Trainer
  • Doctor
  • Equal Opportunity Officer
  • Health Educator
  • Lawyer
  • Librarian
  • Professor
  • Public Health Worker
  • Public Policy
  • Public Relations
  • Retail Management
  • Social & Community Service Manager
  • Social Worker
  • Victim Advocate
  • Writer

Testimonials from our Graduates

Sydney Copus, 2020

Associate Knowledge Manager
Macrae
New York, NY

“My gender and women’s studies major taught me a lot of skills that have transferred to all the jobs that I’ve had since graduation. The most notable ones are my open mindedness, my student mentality/growth mindset, communication skills, my writing/editing skills, and my ability to receive and give feedback in a productive/positive way.”

Mahima Bhattar, 2021

Epidemiology Consultant
Public Health Madison & Dane County
Madison, WI

"Getting a GWS certificate taught me how to frame the information I learned in my other classes through a gender-based and feminist lens. Now, as a public health professional, I find myself benefiting from the intersectional perspective that I gained through my GWS classes. I am happy that I was able to get a GWS certificate because I gained the contextual knowledge of history and systems to help me make equitable and effective change."

Nyesha Shabazz, 2017

Social & Content Marketing Strategist
Red Door Interactive
Austin, TX

"My background in GWS informs the way that I see the world, so it does figure into my work daily. I find that because I have a background in GWS (and HDFS), I am better able to understand how various forms of discrimination are layered into the structure of college campuses and the ways in which they manifest.

Dean Dvorak, 2022

Counselor in Training
Madison, WI

"GWS gave me the vocabulary to describe the systems I am a part of and taught me how to be critical and notice experiences of marginalization and oppression, which I intend to use in my practice as a therapist. Privilege and power directly impact our mental health and this should be an explicit conversation between therapists and their clients in order to engage in equitable and respectful care."

Liv Estrella Yang, 2015

Founder/CEO
FacetedBeauty
Boston, MA

"At Faceted Beauty™ we envision an inclusive world where people’s multifacetedness is embraced and celebrated. Beauty goes beyond one-size-fits-all. Beauty transcends one gender identity, one body type, one ethnicity, one age group, and one pronoun. GWS enabled me to learn different frameworks such as intersectionality that continue to challenge how I see and receive the world. GWS provided me with the tools to challenge how the world sees and receives people, especially in the beauty industry."

Peter Zook, 2010

Clinical Social Worker/Psychotherapist
Peter Zook Psychotherapy
Philadelphia, PA

"As a queer therapist who works mostly with queer and trans clients there is a not a day that goes by where I do not incorporate something I’ve learned from, or the ethos of, LGBT+ studies. From language and concepts to an entire framework for understanding people, my GWS courses influence me daily both personally and professionally. The program truly helped me figure out myself, giving me more confidence to unapologetically be who I am."