Founded in 1983, the Women’s and Gender Studies Program is one of the oldest interdisciplinary programs at Boston College and takes an intersectional-based approach to the academic study of women’s and gender-focused issues in the United States and the world.
Our Programs
Undergraduate Minor
Understanding the critical role of women, gender, and identity in society is central to success in every field of knowledge today, from the study of public policy and law to healthcare and the arts. Wherever your academic interests lie, the minor offered by Boston College's Women’s and Gender Studies Program will enable you to push the boundaries of knowledge in traditional fields to address the issues that matter most to you.
Graduate Certificate
The Women’s and Gender Studies graduate certificate provides you with the foundational tools to complete gendered analyses in your respective research endeavors. The program is structured around a group of interdisciplinary courses offered each semester at Boston College, and also provides students with access to the courses, resources, and academic networks offered by the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies (GCWS) housed at MIT.
Every year, the Janet James Award is presented to a Boston College senior in recognition of their research endeavors, academic achievements, and personal commitment to women's and gender issues. The award is given in remembrance of Janet James, a Boston College professor and pioneer in the field of women's history.
Women's and Gender Studies at Boston College
Our mission is to expose the limits of traditional education resulting from the exclusion of women and other marginalized groups in the creation of knowledge. We seek not only to highlight these limits, but to create new knowledge, discourse, areas of research, and values from women’s experience.
Course Spotlight: Introduction to Feminisms
This introductory course offers both an overview and a foundation for understanding the various movements that make up what has come to be called the feminist movement in the U.S. Because systems of privilege and disadvantage shape women's and men's identities and social positions in multiple and unique ways, Introduction to Feminisms analyzes gender from an interdisciplinary approach and applies numerous academic disciplinary methods to the study of gender, including history, literature, psychology, and sociology, and explores women's and men's experiences within various cultural contexts, including socioeconomic class, race and ethnicity, religion and spirituality, nations of citizenship, origin, and generation.