This is an archived copy of the 2021-2022 catalog. To access the most recent version of the catalog, please visit http://coursecatalog.bucknell.edu.

Women’s & Gender Studies (WMST)

Women’s & Gender Studies is distinguished by its interdisciplinary nature. The two central goals of Women’s & Gender Studies at Bucknell University are the examination of history, society, science and culture from feminist theoretical perspectives, and the strengthening of analytical thinking and inquiry through special attention to women’s experiences, the construction of femininity and masculinity, the relations between women and men, and the differential power structures that create these social categories. The major and minor in Women’s & Gender Studies are designed to provide the breadth of exposure, critical perspective and research tools necessary for understanding the social construction of gender in its relation to race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, disability and age in the past and present. The program of study frames questions of gender and feminisms in ways that connect the local to the global and promote an understanding of the relations of power among nations and cultural constituencies.

A major in Women’s & Gender Studies at Bucknell University may provide the first stage for graduate work in a number of disciplines. (Some departments at Bucknell offer courses at the graduate level in Women’s & Gender Studies.) It also offers a background for careers in local and state agencies addressing the needs of girls and women, and in fields such as journalism, law, medicine, international affairs, teaching and personnel management, as well as in public and private corporations.