What Can I Do With a Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Minor?

A Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies minor does not dictate a career; much better than that, it provides you with many unusual and valuable skills and knowledge that can be applied to many career choices and in nearly every part of your life. It will enhance your work experiences, your involvement with other activities on campus, and your lives and relationships as they evolve after you graduate.

When you graduate with a minor in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, you will have a number of important skills that different kinds of employers will be seeking.

These skills include:

  • Strong critical thinking skills
  • Ability to think creatively to solve problems
  • Research, writing and oral presentation skills
  • Capacity to discuss controversial topics intelligently
  • Proficiency in analytical reasoning

Graduates also have special attributes:

  • Knowledge of wide ranging historical and political events
  • Advanced understanding of issues relevant to women situated in different social and
  • Ability to comprehend the United States from a transnational perspective
  • Understanding of the history and interaction of academic disciplines
  • Comprehension of how new knowledge emerges
  • Wide-ranging curiosity
  • Understanding of popular culture and its relationship to larger social forces

Employers and graduate programs also know that your Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies degree means that you:

  • are well-rounded, with a wide breadth of knowledge
  • are prepared to work in diverse organizations, companies, and communities, and to be successful in our increasingly complex and connected world. 
  • stand out from the crowd, and have the creativity and confidence to minor in an innovative field
  • have expertise on gender, race, sexuality, and class relations, areas for which there is growing demand in a number of fields and professions

All of these qualities make Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies majors attractive candidates for future employers and graduate programs. Graduates with WGSS degrees have gone on to careers in education, health and social services, public service, philanthropy, business and industry, and media, among other things.  They work for government agencies, corporations, non-profit organizations, hospitals, universities, newspapers, and consultancy firms. WGS Studies majors also go on to law school, business school, and graduate school in the humanities and social sciences, ranging from anthropology to the arts, counseling to library science, international studies to history, philosophy to public health, public policy to sociology. A WGSS degree, along with other prerequisite requirements, can make you a desirable candidate for medical school and a growing number of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies graduates are seeking higher degrees in the sciences, engineering, and informatics.