Women's and Gender Studies

We're a Department!

Women's and Gender Studies was founded as a certificate program at Santa Clara in 1981. Over the years we added a minor, a companion major, and then a stand-alone major. WGST is now a full department in the College of Arts and Sciences, granting a Bachelor of Arts Degree.

Welcome to Women's and Gender Studies!

The Women’s and Gender Studies (WGST) Program is a multidisciplinary program that provides an integrated approach to understanding the social and cultural constructions of gender that shape the experiences of women and men in society. With its roots in social justice movements of the last three decades, the methods and goals of Women’s and Gender Studies support the University’s mission of education informed by both ethical and intellectual values. In addition to educating undergraduates in traditional classroom environments, the program pursues its goals by providing opportunities for civic engagement through internships, supporting faculty scholarship on gender issues across the disciplines, and presenting diverse co-curricular programming for the university.