Women’s and Gender Studies
Women’s and Gender Studies
Women’s and Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary program that examines the diversity of women’s and men’s experiences as they are informed by gender, class, race/ethnicity, sexuality, age, ability, social location, and cultural and national identity. The program is shaped by the theoretical and methodological questions and insights of feminist thought and gender scholarship in many fields. The program offers a major and a minor. Graduates of the program have gone on to careers in law, medicine, teaching, community organizing, counseling, business, social work, and many kinds of not-for-profit organizations.
The Women’s Studies program at Drew began as a minor in the College of Liberal Arts in the mid-1970s. The major was established in 1997, celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2017.
After declaring my minor in WGST, a frequent comment I received from anyone who would listen to my excitement for the minor was the following: you’re a woman, what more could you possibly need to learn about? To those people I say, you could not be any more wrong. Over my last 4 years at Drew, the WGST department has provided me with an academic environment that I had not only never experienced before, but that I certainly would not have survived college without. Coming from a heavily science-based background as a biology major, every WGST course I took felt like my safe space. Away from the constant stress of miscalculations and lab errors, WGST has given me a space where I have been able to grow without fear of making mistakes. From the brilliant students who without fail always brought new ideas to conversations that influenced and expanded my ways of thinking, to the professors that challenged me in the best ways possible, I can confidently say I am graduating from Drew as not only a well-rounded student, but as a better version of myself. Specifically, I have to say thank you to Wendy. Serving as my advisor as well as professor for several semesters, you have
taught me what it is to be knowledgeable, compassionate, and most importantly how to shine as an individual. You are not only a gem to the WGST department, but to Drew’s entire community. To those who still have time left at Drew, this may sound cliché but try not to blink, because the time really will fly by before you know it. Enjoy the ride and truly cherish this department; it is a special one. I leave everyone with this quote from Sara Ahmed’s Living a Feminist Life: “To live a feminist life is to make everything into something that is questionable. The question of how to live a feminist life is alive as a question as well as being a life question”. With that, in all your future endeavors, embrace the spirit of questioning everything you do along the way. ”
Studying WGST prepares students to create change. By seeing injustice, by understanding patriarchy, and by studying the many ways feminists have and continue to change the world, WGST majors learn how to join the long march towards a better way of inhabiting the earth. I don’t know where my classmates and I will end up, but without any hesitation, I can tell you that each student who was passionate and brave enough to see the world through the lens of WGST is going to create substantial, positive change in the world. ”
I constantly question the way gender is represented in everything I do. Which might seem too obvious, but before Drew, I really rarely thought about it or cared. ”