Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Minor
Personal empowerment. Social change. Growth. GSWS minors at Southern Oregon University graduate with excellent leadership tools to inspire positive change in their careers and communities.
GSWS – Minor
Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, Minor
Offered as a Secondary Discipline Minor
GSWS is a dynamic, inter- and multi-disciplinary program. The curriculum draws from the social sciences, humanities, arts, and sciences. Students cultivate a critical perspective which factors in gender, sex, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, (dis)ability, and embodiment that will add depth to any major field of study.
Students minoring in GSWS actively engage in social justice activism by developing their skills with advocacy, community engagement, and theory-informed praxis. The GSWS program provides students with the conceptual tools to explore and understand our world through an intersectional framework and encourages students to make connections between macro social structures and individual lives. GSWS minors discover many pathways into innovative work in a variety of fields.
Degree Fit
Program Preparation
Students taking GSWS courses learn about themselves and the world through critical thinking and personal and social empowerment. GSWS minors develop powerful social activist skills while learning learn how to integrate feminist and queer theories and methodologies into their home disciplines.
Degree Roadmap
GSWS minors complete 24 credits. Introduction to Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies and Feminist and Queer Theory in Action make up the minor’s core courses. Students connect with GSWS faculty to select four electives in our interdisciplinary program that would meet their interests.
Capstone and Degree Integration
GSWS minors participate in a unique capstone course providing them with opportunities to turn theory into action. Students develop their activist and leadership skills that benefit them in a variety of professional fields such as policy, law, government, media, education, art, and health and social services.
Career Path
Become a Professional
Career opportunities for a GSWS degree:
- Advocate
- Community Education Coordinator
- Community Health Outreach Worker
- Counselor/Psychologist
- Crisis Center Coordinator
- Health Care Provider
- Health Services Administrator
- Housing Coordinator
- Human Resources Manager
- Journalist
- Teacher – Early Childhood and/or K-12
- Midwife/Doula
- Non-Profit Program Director
- Public Relations Manager
- Resource Center Coordinator
- Social Worker
- University/College Professor
- Youth Programs Specialist
Salary Range
$30,000 – $200,000
*Based on National Average
Future Success
SOU GSWS Alumni
Eaen Goss - 2014
BS in Communication, Minors in GSWS & Sociology
Administrative Associate - Basic Rights Oregon
Continued education: MEd in Student Development Administration, Seattle University, 2016
Brenda Shelton - 2015
BA in English, Minor in GSWS
Youth Services Reference Assistant - Beaverton City Library
Continued education: Masters of Library and Information Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2017
Section Contents: GSWS Programs
*The Ethnic & Racial Studies Minor degree is housed within the ERS program website.
Contact the GSWS Program
SOU Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program
1250 Siskiyou Blvd.
Ashland, OR 97520
541.552.6759
– Questions About GSWS? –