The Gender and Women’s Studies Program invites students to engage in discussions about women and gender. Students are encouraged to expose, challenge, and rewrite prevailing notions about women and men; to learn about gender relations as they have been constructed historically, culturally, institutionally and globally; to explore how traditional and contemporary perceptions of gender influence current generations of women and men; and to think critically and to imagine alternative modes of being. Through theoretical and practical investigation, students develop the critical knowledge and skills conducive to a fuller understanding of women and gender issues.

Our interdisciplinary degree program prepares students to pursue their life goals and dreams. It even gets them jobs! Our students go on to a diverse array of career paths because the program develops students’ skills as critical thinkers and fosters an awareness of the interplay of gender, race and class. Graduates work in fields such as law, communications, media, social work, front-line advocacy, union organizing, ministry, homemaking, journalism, psychotherapy, medicine, politics, health services, community and adult education, school teaching and graduate training across a variety of disciplines.

History

The Brandon University Gender and Women’s Studies Program was founded in 1989 and represents a full complement of courses offered by the Faculty of Arts and Science, as well as the School of Health Studies. September of 2007 marked the expansion of the program; we now offer a 4-Year Honours Major and a 3-Year and 4-Year Major. The program is enriched by the Margaret Lawrence Endowment Fund, and in Association with the Women’s Center in Brandon.