About

Women's Studies has a proud and long history in the United States, and the Women's Studies Program at William & Mary is approaching its twentieth anniversary. It was established in 1990 as an undergraduate, interdisciplinary academic unit within the School of the Arts and Sciences. We have core and affiliated faculty in almost every department in the College, and our courses emphasize interdisciplinary methods and approaches. Students in the program learn about current scholarship on women and gender, explore feminist theory and research, engage in feminist activism, and many of them also complete internships in the community and feminist research projects. We welcome majors and non-majors in our courses and at our events.

Women's Studies courses are designed to:

• foster open and vigorous inquiry about feminist scholarship
• challenge perspectives in which women are absent or peripheral
• critically examine cultural assumptions about gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation in light of information made available by new theories and research
• equip students with a thorough knowledge of this field of study as well as to provide them with opportunities to apply that knowledge both in and out of the classroom

Around twenty students each year graduate from William & Mary with a BA in Women's Studies, and they go on to careers in non-profits, law, government, teaching, and academia.