11 Women's Studies Degree Programs in Canada

Women's and Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary program that studies social, cultural, economic, and political power using gender as a central focus.The Women's and Gender Studies program teaches with a focus on anti-racism, feminist theory, queer and trans studies, and social justice.

Women's and Gender Studies promotes an intersectional approach to understanding social problems and phenomena. It pays special attention to the ways sex, gender, and sexuality are shaped by colonialism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and transphobia, as well as by constructions of difference based on class, (dis)ability, religion, ethnicity, and culture.

The Mount has a unique historical connection to the education and advancement of women. To this day, we remain committed to the education of women and have a well-established Women’s Studies Department. Students can declare an honours, a major, or a minor in the undergraduate Women’s Studies program. The Women’s Studies program places women’s experiences and knowledge at the centre of critical inquiry, by learning about how women’s societal position can be transformed.

This course critically examines issues facing women in Canadian society, such as gender inequality and discrimination, gender-based violence, reproductive health and reproductive rights, the construction of motherhood and work, and other aspects of female status in patriarchy. Students will explore the work of prominent feminist scholars, the role of feminist movements in social change, and recent social research on gender, sexuality, and intersectional theories of oppression. In this introductory course, we will also discuss gender-non-conforming identities, masculinity, and men’s issues.

Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary field dedicated to studying the historical, cultural, literary, and societal role of women and gender. UNBC’s program has strengths in areas such as women’s and gender history; gender, literature, and literary theory; gender, colonialism, and post colonialism; gender and globalization; feminism, justice, and ethics; gender and health; and gender and international studies.

Women's Studies is an interdisciplinary field dedicated to studying the historical, cultural, literary, and societal role of women and gender. UNBC's program has strengths in areas such as women's and gender history; gender, literature, and literary theory; gender, colonialism, and postcolonialism; gender and globalization; feminism, justice, and ethics; gender and health; and gender and international studies.

The Gender Studies MA program at UNBC offers the opportunity to work with scholars in a variety of disciplines who share a focus on women and/or gender as a category of analysis.

GESJ is an interdisciplinary program with courses in the areas of Culture and Criticism, Power and Inequality, and Human Rights and Social Justice. We ask how race, class, colonialism, ability, sex, and gender intersect in everyday acts of power, oppression, activism, and resistance. This program will provide you with highly transferrable skills in critical thinking, research, writing, argumentation, analysis, and communication.

The Department of Gender and Women's Studies at Lakehead University is dedicated to furthering an understanding of the importance of gender as a category of analysis in scholarly inquiry. Through interdisciplinary instruction students will critically assess the relevance of existing models of knowledge in reflecting gendered experience and scholarship.

Gender and Women’s Studies (GWS) invites students to challenge prevailing notions of gender and sexualities, and to learn about gender relations as they have been constructed culturally, globally, historically, and institutionally. Through theoretical and practical investigation, students develop the critical knowledge and skills to explore the intersections of gender, sex, race, class, sexuality, (dis)ability, colonialism, imperialism, citizenship, and transnational identity while paying attention to power, oppression, and resistance. Students engage in dialogue about such topics as: feminist and queer activisms, transnational poverty and precarity, diverse masculinities, popular culture and media, reproductive justice, racial politics across borders, and war and violence.

The goal of this course is to help develop students’ critical thinking abilities with anthropological theory and methodology so they can ask and answer why/how certain gender roles develop in a particular culture and not another and how sexuality reflects a culture’s understanding and expression of a natural drive.