Major in Women’s and Gender Studies (B.A.)

At Clark, your education extends beyond the classroom. Visit the Career Connections Center to learn more about internship opportunities that complement your coursework and put your women’s and gender studies knowledge into practice.

The women’s and gender studies major is designed to help you learn outside the classroom. Our program values engaged practice, and you’ll have the opportunity to attend public lectures; participate in networking events with community action organizations and support groups; and organize events to raise awareness about women’s issues and gendered identities, Women’s History Month, LGBT History Month, and related faculty and student research at Clark.

Many students choose to pursue internships during the academic year or over the summer to connect feminist theories with practice while building their professional networks.

Other opportunities include:

Clark is committed to action-based learning, and the women’s and gender studies program has incorporated action research into our program requirements. We encourage you to explore opportunities for joining WGS faculty and graduate students from other departments in their research. As a WGS major or minor, you may take an advanced research seminar, or design a directed study around your area of specialization with a faculty mentor. This research can provide the groundwork for an independent research proposal.

Visit the WGS faculty web pages to select a research mentor closely aligned with your intended area of specialization, or visit our program office for a consultation. Our faculty areas of expertise are intellectually and geographically diverse, each drawing from their own disciplinary practices. WGS faculty may study the representations of various femininities and masculinities in the visual and performing arts, media, and literature; gay and lesbian studies; the histories of women and other marginalized communities in the U.S. and around the world; the gendered dimensions of resource extraction and economic development in the global South; the effects of war, genocide, and oppression on women and children; masculinity and men’s mental health; the psychology of sexual violence; and feminist and queer theories and methodologies across the social sciences.

You may be eligible for funding to support collaborative or independent research during the academic year or during the summer months.

Recent research produced by WGS students includes:

• A presentation by WGS student Margaret E. Foster (’18) on “Beyond Binaries: Queerness as Transcendence.” Sponsored by Jennifer Plante.
• Anna-Louise Noden ’18, submitted her Thesis on “Bad Behavior: Diagnosing and Treating Nymphomania Across the Female Life Cycle at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.”
• A capstone project conducted during a study abroad experience at University of Geneva, which included researching and writing a paper titled “Relationships between Family Leave Policies and Citizens’ Value of Women.”
• A directed study project investigating the roles of women in professional and collegiate athletics, which resulted in a research paper that informed the Clark Athletics Department decision to institute a “National Women and Girls in Sports Day Clinic.”
• A summer LEEP project titled “Sex Work and Storytelling,” which involved conducting oral histories with former sex workers in Worcester; the project became a senior honors thesis that was presented at the Women’s Oral History Conference in Worcester.

Present Your Research

Clark’s annual ClarkFEST is an opportunity to share your research or creative work with the Clark community while you hone your presentation skills. Some projects women’s and gender studies students and recent alumni have presented are:

• Beyond Binaries: Queerness as Transcendence
• National Youth Survey on Youth Perspective of FGM (female genital mutilation) in the United Kingdom
• The Influence of Race and Socioeconomic Status on Altruistic Behavior

Some students are able to develop their research projects into formal papers that they author themselves or co-author with a faculty mentor. You also may have the opportunity to present your research paper at a professional conference and network with other WGS students and professionals. Our students and recent alumni have represented the WGS program at the following conferences:

• National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) Annual Conference
• Annual Feminist Theory Workshop at Duke University
• Worcester Women’s Oral History Conference

You also can submit your research results for publication in our student-run Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal.

At Clark you’ll get more than a great education; you’ll also be prepared for a long, productive career and life of consequence. And once you’ve completed your degree, you can join other Clark alumni who have gone on to work for great organizations and attend some of the best graduate schools in the world.

Graduate schools attended by women’s and gender studies graduates from Clark include:

• Columbia University; MPH (public health)
• Simmons College; MSW (social work)
• Ohio State University; M.A. in higher education/student affairs
• Simmons College; M.S. in nursing
• Clark University; M.A. in community development and planning