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Women's and Gender Studies

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) - View all program options

Learn how to get the most out of your degree and prepare for your future career.

Women’s and Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary program that explores gender and sexual diversity, masculinities and queer studies, practices of representation and cultural production, popular culture, and critical transnational feminisms. Drawing on innovative conceptual frameworks and interdisciplinary methodologies, our undergraduate curriculum addresses intersections of embodiment, identity, community and knowledge politics in arenas that span the intimate and the international.

Not a USask student?

Learn more about studying women's and gender studies at USask and apply for admission.

Explore your major

Learn more about some of the required major-specific courses for this degree. View the course and program catalogue or meet with an academic advisor to understand all program requirements.

Year 1 courses

The courses listed here and in the Course and Program Catalogue are not necessarily offered each year and do not represent the totality of your requirements.

WGST 112.3 | Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies

You choose

Academic tips

Gain relevant experience

Create local and global connections

  • Consider joining AGENTS, the WGST Students group that meets regularly to plan social events, film series, YouTube nights, and generate ideas for improving the WGST program (contact:maggie.fitzgerald@usask.ca)
  • Visit the USask Community Centre to make connections and build community
  • Get involved in your campus community through student groups, USask Rec and USask events
  • Before you register in your first-year courses, sign up to be a part of a Learning Community
  • Get to know your faculty and their research interests
What will I learn?
  • A broad analytical vision of the world, in a wide variety of topics ranging from changing economic and political roles to representations of gender and sexuality in popular culture
  • Examine the changing positions of people of all genders, the experiences of diverse racialized and cultural groups, the ways different abilities, ages, and ethnicities are impacted by social norms
  • Thinking critically about the complex and intersecting nature of gender relations as individuals, as members of diverse communitie, as citizens of a nation-state, and as participants in a transnational world
  • Various feminist methodologies and approaches to the formal construction of knowledge
  • The importance of contextualizing historical shifts in feminist thought

Get career ready

Featured courses
  • WGST 112.3 Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies
  • WGST 201.3 Images of Gender and Sexuality in Popular Culture
  • WGST 210.3 Gendered Perspectives on Current Events
  • WGST 324.3 Rebels with a Cause: Feminism and the Visual Arts
  • WGST 420.3 Challenging Ways of Understanding Sexuality and Gender

Explore your major

Learn more about some of the required major-specific courses for this degree. View the course and program catalogue or meet with an academic advisor to understand all program requirements.

Middle Year(s) courses

The courses listed here and in the Course and Program Catalogue are not necessarily offered each year and do not represent the totality of your requirements.

WGST 311.3 | Contemporary Feminist Theories
WGST 312.3 | Feminist Research Methodologies

You choose

Academic tips

Add to your major

Choose from a variety of minors and certificates to complement your major.

Gain relevant experience

Create local and global connections

Get career ready

USask Student Competencies

USask Student Competencies are the knowledge, skills, and attributes developed and leveraged to achieve success in your learning and work:

  • Engaging in our intercultural society
  • Nurturing successful relationships
  • Leveraging technology
  • Adaptive design and problem solving
  • Communicating meaningfully
  • Cultivating well-being

Explore your major

Learn more about some of the required major-specific courses for this degree. View the course and program catalogue or meet with an academic advisor to understand all program requirements.

Final year courses

The courses listed here and in the Course and Program Catalogue are not necessarily offered each year and do not represent the totality of your requirements.

You choose

Apply to graduate

Academic tips

  • Meet with an academic advisor early in the year to ensure you are on track to graduate
Consider applying to a graduate program
Find a program

Gain relevant experience

Create local and global connections

Get career ready

USask Student Competencies

USask Student Competencies are the knowledge, skills, and attributes developed and leveraged to achieve success in your learning and work:

  • Engaging in our intercultural society
  • Nurturing successful relationships
  • Leveraging technology
  • Adaptive design and problem solving
  • Communicating meaningfully
  • Cultivating well-being

Possible destinations

People with a women's and gender studies degree take their knowledge and skills into many different industries and occupations. Note that some of the career paths listed here require further education and training.

Career paths

  • Adoption Services Worker
  • Community Mobilization Director
  • Community Outreach Coordinator
  • Community Services Director
  • Criminologist
  • Crisis Intervention Specialist
  • Domestic Violence Victim Advocate
  • Election Officer
  • Elementary School Teacher
  • Equal Opportunity Officer 
  • Family Counselor
  • Foster Care Worker
  • Fundraiser
  • Gender Consultant
  • Government Researcher
  • Human Rights Officer
  • International Aid Worker
  • Legal Advisor
  • Multiculturalism Liaison Officer
  • Non-Profit Foundation Manager
  • Political Campaign Manager
  • Program Assistant for a Human Rights Organization
  • Sexual Health Educator
  • Social Services Coordinator
  • Social Worker
  • University Professor
  • Visible Minorities Corporate Policy Officer
  • Witness Protection Program Worker
  • Women's Advocate
  • Women's Shelter Supervisor

The contributions made by Research Assistants who are graduates of the women’s and gender studies program, have been significant... These graduates have proven to be invaluable, particularly given their capacity to contribute in a meaningful and insightful way to address challenging issues related to gender-based violence, and to engaging multiple stakeholders, including community practitioners, government representatives, and academic researchers, in successful collaborations.

—Karen Wood, Director, RESOLVE Saskatchewan, USask alumni, Ph.D. in community health and epidemiology '09 

Where do USask alumni work?

  • Accenture
  • BridgePoint Center for Eating Disorders
  • Canadian Journal of Education
  • Canadian Mental Health Association
  • Dress for Success Saskatoon
  • Forensic Psychiatric Hospital
  • Government of Alberta 
  • Government of Saskatchewan
  • Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
  • Independent Consultant
  • Indspire
  • Provincial Heath Services Authority
  • RESOLVE Saskatchewan
  • Saskatoon Public Schools
  • Saskatoon Sexual Health
  • St. Paul's United Church
  • Thompson Rivers University
  • University of Saskatchewan
  • University of Toronto
  • York University

Explore Canadian salaries for various occupations using the Job Bank Career Planning Tool

 

"Through the program I have had the opportunity to work in community spaces with various not for profit organizers, hear and engage with various feminist scholars, work as a research assistant on projects concering social innovation and human rights, and design my own research projects. Through taking gender studies courses, I have grown in my confidence to advocate, contribute to my community, and problem solve. Most importantly, I have also grown as a person and human being. I know that I would not be the kind of student or feminist that I am today without the learning that took place throughout my degree and time in gender studies."

Emma, fourth-year Women's and Gender Studies student 

"The Women's and Gender Studies program has connected me with so many amazing people who have been instrumental in my time at USask. I have learned skills such as critical thinking and community-based research and ethics that have been highly valubale in other classes, projects, and work that I have done. I know that I will carry the community, experiences, and skills that I found in this degree with me for the rest of my life!"

Wren, fourth-year Women's and Gender Studies student