The Departments of Social Sciences, Human Services and Criminal Justice and Speech, Communications, and Theatre Arts offer an interdisciplinary major in Gender and Women’s Studies leading to an Associate in Arts degree. This major focuses on gender as the object of analysis and addresses the many issues, inequalities, social constructions, and realities that gender presents in our contemporary society and throughout history. It draws on theories and methods from the humanities and social sciences to place women and other marginalized groups at the center of learning and to critically analyze the ways in which gender intersects with race, ethnicity, nationality, class, sexuality, sexual identity, disability, and other social categories.
Career Options
Some of the career options with a background in gender and women’s studies include non-profit, policy, advocacy, government, law and others. Find out where some Gender and Women’s Studies graduates are now working. See some of our resources for finding jobs in this field.
Transfer Options
This program has articulation agreements with Brooklyn College and John Jay College of Criminal Justice to allow you to seamlessly continue your education there without any loss of credits.
Explore Careers
BMCC is committed to students’ long-term success and will help you explore professional opportunities. Undecided? No problem. The college offers Career Coach for salary and employment information, job postings and a self-discovery assessment to help students find their academic and career paths. Visit Career Express to make an appointment with a career advisor, search for jobs or sign-up for professional development activities with the Center for Career Development. Students can also visit the Office of Internships and Experiential Learning to gain real world experience in preparation for a four-year degree and beyond. These opportunities are available to help BMCC students build a foundation for future success.
Contact
- Professor C. Ray Borck
Program Coordinator
cborck@bmcc.cuny.edu - Professor Hollis Glaser
Program Coordinator
hglaser@bmcc.cuny.edu
Related Communities
Requirements
Gender and Women's Studies Academic Program Maps
Required Common Core
| English Composition | 6 |
| Mathematical and Quantitative Reasoning 1 | 3 |
| Life and Physical Sciences 1 | 3 |
| TOTAL REQUIRED COMMON CORE | 12 |
Flexible Common Core2
| Creative Expression | 6 |
| Individual and Society | 3 |
| Scientific World 1 | 3 |
| U.S. Experience in Its Diversity | 3 |
| World Cultures and Global Issues | 3 |
| TOTAL FLEXIBLE COMMON CORE | 18 |
| TOTAL COMMON CORE | 30 |
Curriculum Requirements
- The purpose of this course is to raise students? awareness regarding the ways in which gender is created, maintained, and/or changed through cultural expectations and interaction. Students will gain theoretical insights and develop analytical skills to identify gendered expectations, and to learn how such expectations serve to limit behavior for people of all genders. The course will enhance understanding of how predominant social assumptions and communication norms can devalue and silence women and other non-dominant groups, and how students can become change agents to enhance our collective lives. Prerequisite:SPE 100
- This introductory level, interdisciplinary course explores the basic concepts and perspectives of Gender & Women's Studies from an intersectional angle; that is, examining the ways in which gender intersects with race, ethnicity, nationality, class, sexuality, sexual identity, disability, and other categories. The concepts of gender - the roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a society considers appropriate for men and women - privilege and oppression, intersectionality, and feminist praxis will be at the core of this course. After a background in the history and significance of Gender & Women's Studies as a field of study, you will learn to critically examine how institutionalized privilege and oppression shape individual lives and intersecting identity categories.
- The Gender and Womena??s Studies Capstone course will be a culmination and synthesis of studentsa?? work in the GWS program. Over the course of the semester, students will explore a topic in GWS in-depthI? they will sharpen their analytic abilities and critical thinking skills while engaging in an independent research and/or experiential learning project. Through course readings and individual and/or group work, students will apply interdisciplinary concepts, theories and methods to real life experiences, resulting in a research paper or project and a presentation to the class. Prerequisite: GWS 100 and two GWS electives
- This course examines the role of gender in society, with a focus on gender as a social construction and a system of inequality that shapes contemporary society and its institutions. Topics may include the relationship of biology and gender, gender and sexuality, feminist theory, the influence of gender on institutions such as the family, schools, workplace, media, politics, etc., gender and violence, and the intersection of gender, race and ethnicity, and class. Prerequisite: SOC 100
| XXX xxx | Liberal Arts Electives | 3 |
| XXX xxx | General Electives | 3 |
General Electives (Choose 9 credits from the following)
- The changing status of women in African traditional societies is compared with changes in the status of Black women in the United States, the Caribbean, and Brazil.
- The effects of economic and social factors on socialization, status, and levels of achievement among Black men are analyzed. The impact of institutional racism and underachievement on urbanized populations is explored in terms of access, social status, and economic differentials.
- This course analyzes the status and roles of women in cross-cultural perspective. Particular emphasis is given to the socio-cultural forces underlying the women's rights movements in the 19th century and the present resurgence of feminism.
- The focus of this course is to provide an understanding of the influence and impact on our lives and society by the mass media. The course examines the history, law, technology, economics and politics of the mass media through independent study, field trips, etc. Students are encouraged to be aware of techniques of influence used by the mass media to influence and determine social and political values. In addition, students learn to develop tools for critical analysis of and standards for discriminating consumption of the mass media.
Prerequisite: SPE 100 or permission of department - This course is designed to provide an understanding of intercultural principles and perspectives when communicating with people from diverse cultures. Consideration will be given to both verbal and nonverbal communication processes in the "American" culture, co-cultures, contact cultures, and popular culture. Through readings, lectures, response papers, and interviews, as well as through in-class discussion and exercises, this course will explore how culture shapes communication, how situations are framed through cultural lenses, and how histories, perceptions, values, contexts, aspects of stereotypes, and ethnocentrism all contribute to the complexity of intercultural communication. Prerequisite: SPE 100 or SPE 102
- This course engages students in critical inquiry through the lenses of queer theories (e.g., theories related to the LGBTQI + spectra). Emphasizing how queer theories help thinkers across disciplines engage in observing, viewing/positioning, examining, analyzing, and constructing queer subjects, this course asks students to examine how, within and between disciplines, a) thinkers' perceptions and investigations are influenced by ideologies related to queerness and b) thinkers employ queer theories to create diverse ways of seeing/thinking, constructing/creating about the body, gender, sex/sexuality/sexual identities. Particular attention will be paid to how queer subjects have been pathologized and marginalized and how ideologies about queer populations affect reception of creative, scholarly, and professional works.
- Feminist economics critically analyzes both economic theory and economic life through the lens of gender, and advocates various forms of feminist economic transformation. The objective is to retain and improve economic analysis by ridding the discipline of the biases created by the centrality of distinctively masculine concerns. We will look at feminist critiques of, and alternatives to, mainstream economics methodology and view and "economic man" the firm, and the economy itself. Other themes in the course will be racial-ethnic, class, and country differences among women. Prerequisite: ECO 201 or ECO 202
- This course focuses on 20th and 21st century texts within the area of Queer literature and by Queer literary artists. It covers a variety of literary and critical texts in order to introduce students to classics of Queer Literature as well as lesser-known masterpieces. The aim of this class is to expand students??A?A? conceptions about literature, sexuality, and gender and lead them to critically investigate socially-constructed ideas about gender and sexuality. Students will examine and analyze the manner in which the authors and texts subvert and challenge sexual and cultural norms. Prerequisite: ENG 101 and ENG 201 or ENG 121
- This course focuses on the contributions of women literary artists from a variety of cultures and ethnic groups. It examines how some writers have both reflected the prevailing female stereotypes of their age and background, and also imagined the "New Woman." Enrollment is open to both women and men.
- This health course is aimed to be a practical course for students and to affect their lives in a positive way. It provides an opportunity to gain information and insight into the physical, psychological, and social aspects of women's health concerns.
- This course in social and intellectual history examines ideas about women and women?s status in society in selected periods of history. Emphasis is placed on t'e reading and interpretation of primary source material. Topics included are: the historiography of women's history; examples of matriarchy; women in the Ancient Near East; Greece and Rome in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; the role of women in the American slave and plantation society; women in the modern capitalist and socialist worlds.
Prerequisite: Any history course or GWS 100 - This course uses gender as a lens of analysis for studying politics, with an emphasis on the United States. It will explore how participation, including voting, campaigning, office holding, and activism, has been gendered and how ideals of citizenship have differed for men and women, taking into account the ways that gender intersects with other categories such as race and ethnicity. The course will cover the historical development of men'A?s and women's political roles, the ways gender inequality has been sustained and contested in various political contexts, and selected current issues and debates.
- This course involves the interpersonal and institutional socialization of women in contemporary American society and the effect of these processes on individual personality through an examination of existing roles and exploration of alternatives. Prerequisite: PSY 100
- This course introduces students to a representative sampling of Latin American women writers from the colonial period to the twentieth century. The course will disseminate a body of literature, which is represented minimally in Hispanic literature courses. Feminism, machismo, motherhood, sexual and political activism and the role of women as writers are some of the issues that will be explored and discussed during the semester.
Prerequisite: SPN 300 or any SPN 400 level course (except SPN 476) or departmental approval - This course explores, analyzes, and examines women??A?A?s contribution to US-American theater, beginning with Colonial women up to contemporary women. The course will investigate how omen have contributed and continue to contribute as playwrights, actors, directors, managers, producers, and through women??A?A?s collectives to the evolution of US-American theater. Most materials are available to students without costs, through open source material, e-resources, or on reserve in the BMCC library.
Prerequisite: ENG 201
| GWS xxx | Gender and Women’s Studies Electives | 3 |
30
Total Curriculum Requirements
60
Total Program Requirements
Footnotes
- These credits can be satisfied by taking STEM variants in the Common Core.
- No more than two courses in any discipline or interdisciplinary field can be used to satisfy Flexible Core requirements.
- Students must select specific sections of this course.
Notes
Please note, these requirements are effective the 2019-2020 catalog year. Please check your DegreeWorks account for your specific degree requirements as when you began at BMCC will determine your program requirements.
