The Program for the Study of Women and Gender examines gender, race, class and sexuality as important and simultaneous aspects of social worlds and human lives. This examination requires inquiry into the construction and operation of power relations, social inequalities and resistances to them in both national and transnational contexts.
We understand that the terms "women," "gender", "feminism," "queer," "masculinity" and "transgender" are politicized. As categories of analysis, they help reveal how subjects become racialized, sexualized, gendered and class-located.
Building on its origins in women's studies, our program continues to examine the experiences, ideologies, works and actions of women in a variety of national, cultural, historical and political contexts. As an interdisciplinary endeavor, the Program for the Study of Women and Gender shows students how different academic disciplines view the operation of gender in the labor market, the family, political systems and cultural production. Research and theory emerge from these everyday realities and feminist theory, in turn, informs our analysis of political choices. The study of women and gender is joined to an understanding of the forms of activism around the globe.