What is Women's Studies?

Power circulates through people's lives, shaping their experiences, their knowledge and their possibilities. In Women’s Studies we examine the complex and fascinating ways power circulates through the lives of individuals and groups.

Both our teaching practice and our research explore the meanings of such categories as gender, race, class, sexual orientation, age, ability, citizenship, and national identity. We analyze the ways these categories dynamically intersect to create a world with complicated systems of inequities both within Canada and across the globe. Using diverse kinds of feminist theory we explore social structures, histories of ideas, and varieties of cultural production.

We invite our students to join us in producing feminist interdisciplinary knowledge that will both transform the circuits of power around us and empower us as socially aware individuals.
Women's Studies is a serious academic discipline and one of the most dynamic new fields of research and scholarship. In Women's Studies courses, you'll develop analytical and critical thinking abilities, excellent organization and communication skills, an understanding of cultural and other differences, and many more tools that will serve you well in any career.
All UVic students, both women and men, are welcome in Women's Studies courses.
Women's Studies participates in the Minor/Diploma Program in Social Justice Studies. Students majoring in Women's Studies can at the same time pursue a Minor in Social Justice Studies.

What can I do with a Women's Studies degree?

The same things you can do with any other university degree! But seriously, you should know that no Bachelor's degree, whether it is in Physics, Business, Economics or History, guarantees you a job or place in graduate/professional school.
When employers or graduate/professional schools admissions committees ask for a BA, they are assuming that you have learned to write and think critically. Since WS curriculum is based on analyzing many aspects of society that are often taken for granted, WS students are ahead of the pack in this respect. Employers also prize leadership and ingenuity in potential employees. A degree in Women's Studies gives you all these skills and more: group facilitation, independent research, public speaking, critical thinking, understanding complex inter/relationships. In Women's Studies classes students are encouraged to analyze, write theoretically, and share their ideas about society in a supportive environment. Plus, in our classes, we focus on gender and women's lives, so you get a perspective that no other degree offers.
Past WS students have gone on to such careers as journalism, film making, teaching, educating about diversity in public and private institutions, and human rights work. Many students have also gone on to post-graduate work in law, politics, sociology and social work. The possibilities are endless!!
The University of Toronto Women's Studies department produced a document called Career Paths for Women's Studies Students. Michigan State University also did a thorough survey a few years ago, and answered this Women's Studies career question in great detail: http://www.msu.edu/~wmstdy/wsmjr1.htm It's well worth having a look at!

UVic Women's Studies Students talk about Women's Studies

These are comments from UVic Women's Studies grads.
Women's Studies courses were life-changing. They made me see the world in a new way and question all of the assumptions I had held. The courses were academically challenging but allowed for a creativity that other disciplines did not foster. The multidisciplinary approach enriched all of my academic life.
Women's Studies has been a life altering experience for me both personally and academically. Academically, Women's Studies not only revealed history and theory, but also, created ways to apply history and theory through projects and group work resulting in action. Personally, the positive and negative experiences I discovered were small examples of what I would encounter outside of university on a larger scale. Women's Studies aided me in taking these positive and negative experiences, exploring them in a theoretical and critical way, applying an action to these, and learning from the outcomes.
Through the various Women's Studies classes I took, my world view was radically changed. I gained knowledge that I otherwise wouldn't have found about the institutionalized systems of oppression that the world operates on. What I learned has provided the foundation for the work I do now. My research and teaching interests now centre on gender and race issues, as do many of my personal activities.
Women's Studies satisfied my intense curiosity about women's lives and experiences in ways that no other discipline could provide. It was this discipline that gave me the ability to think critically about the world around me. Now, as a sessional instructor in other disciplines, I see that Women's Studies students are the ones who ask the hard questions and bring life to the class.