Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies

Here’s how UWL's Women’s Studies program will get you there! 

Students in the WGS program acquire planning and analytical experience through substantial research papers or projects as course requirements that help students become familiar with: 

• Conducting an academic literature review 
• Synthesizing large amounts of information 
• Engaging in qualitative research methods such as interviewing and conducting survey and comparing their independent research findings against the scholarly literature.  

By the time students graduate from the program, they develop: 

• Strong research and writing skills that are easily translatable.  
• Skills on tailoring oral and writing presentations to appropriate audiences 
• Community engagement 

Giving back to the community is an important priority to the WS program. Thus, students are encouraged to gain experience with getting to know the issues in the community in a variety of ways through our program, such as:  

• Course projects that respond to the needs of the community, volunteering with campus and community organizations and doing internships.  
• Work alongside other marketers and content marketers to help distribute content that educates and entertains specific audiences and supports an organization's marketing goals.  

The basis of many of the WGS courses begins with a desire to make the world better, to ensure that people are treated with dignity and respect and can live their lives more fully. We use an intersectional approach to understanding people/groups and students gain a deep understanding of how race, class, gender, sexuality, etc. all contribute to their experience of the world, physically, socially, and emotionally. 

HERE’S HOW UWL’S WOMEN’S STUDIES PROGRAM WILL GET YOU THERE! 

The basis of many of the Women’s Studies (WS) courses begins with a desire to make the world better to ensure that people are treated with dignity and respect and can live their lives more fully. We use an intersectional approach to understanding people/groups and students gain a deep understanding of how race, class, gender, sexuality, etc. all contribute to their experience of the world, physically, socially, and emotionally. 

Being a health care provider requires much more than one's knowledge in science and a degree in Women's Studies can help develop a complementary skillset. 

• Women are the primary health care decision makers in families 
• Health care encounters provide good opportunities to screen for family violence and sexual assault; those trained in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies are well equipped to handle these encounters with sensitivity and care 
• Women’s reproductive care and care related to healthy sexuality are politicized; health care providers have a role to play in empowering women to care well for their sexual and reproductive health 
• Women, girls, and transgender individuals need safe spaces to talk about their health and well-being, including issues with gender identity, sexuality, relationship issues, self-harm, violence, and intimate aspects of health that are often silenced 

Health care providers should know about the following research findings to do their job well  

• Women’s pain tends to be taken less seriously than men’s; implicit bias in treating pain is important.  
• Men are undertreated for depression, even when their screening scores are identical to women’s.  
• Girls and women are at significantly higher risk for eating disorders; good health care providers attend to the social and cultural pressures in the lives of their female patients, and how these pressures are compounded depending upon race, class, sexual orientation, and gender identity.  
• LGBTQ individuals often suffer significant bias and inequities in coverage in the health care system.  
• Racism impacts the health care experiences of people of color, for women and all genders, in many well-studied ways; cultural competency and humility, awareness of implicit bias, and efforts to diversify health care staff, are greatly needed in health care settings.  

Health care policy can and should be informed by an understanding of the ways that gender, race, class, religion, immigrant status, and sexual orientation impact people’s access to quality care 

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department – University of Wisconsin – La Crosse 

INTERESTED IN A CAREER IN LAW? 

HERE’S HOW UWL’S WOMEN’S STUDIES PROGRAM WILL GET YOU THERE! 

The basis of many of the Women’s Studies (WS) courses begins with a desire to make the world better to ensure that people are treated with dignity and respect and can live their lives more fully. We use an intersectional approach to understanding people/groups and students gain a deep understanding of how race, class, gender, sexuality, etc. all contribute to their experience of the world, physically, socially, and emotionally. 

WS helps provide students with the opportunity to develop and strengthen: 

• Research and evidence-building skills  
• Understanding precedent  
• Writing and oral presentation skills  
• Critical and interdisciplinary thinking skills, including the ability to synthesize information from a variety of perspectives  

WS courses also provide students the ability to:  

• Conduct original research  
• Critique laws and policies in terms of their impacts on a range of people and groups 
• Advocate through the law for groups, including women and girls, people of color, and LGBT individuals, who have often been underserved and/or over policed or sentenced 

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department – University of Wisconsin – La Crosse 

INTERESTED IN A CAREER IN  NON-PROFT ADVOCACY? 

HERE’S HOW UWL’S WOMEN’S STUDIES PROGRAM WILL GET YOU THERE! 

The basis of many of the Women’s Studies (WS) courses begins with a desire to make the world better to ensure that people are treated with dignity and respect and can live their lives more fully. We use an intersectional approach to understanding people/groups and students gain a deep understanding of how race, class, gender, sexuality, etc. all contribute to their experience of the world, physically, socially, and emotionally. 

WS courses help prepare students to be Executive or Program Directors that...  

• Understand and can speak to the disproportionate impacts and intersectional realities of poverty and interpersonal violence, as well political and economic opportunities  
• Know, understand, and can critically assess public policies related to these, and other issues  
• Develop and implement alternative approaches 
• Develop and implement evidence-based programs targeted to specific groups 

WS helps provide students with the opportunity to develop and strengthen...  

• Research, writing, and oral presentation skills  
• Critical and interdisciplinary thinking skills, including the ability to synthesize information from a variety of perspectives  
• Conduct original research 

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department – University of Wisconsin – La Crosse 

INTERESTED IN A CAREER IN  PHYSICAL THERAPY? 

HERE’S HOW UWL’S WOMEN’S STUDIES PROGRAM WILL GET YOU THERE! 

Being a physical therapist requires much more than one's knowledge in science and a degree in Women's Studies can help develop a complementary skillset. 

The basis of many of the Women’s Studies (WS) courses begins with a desire to make the world better to ensure that people are treated with dignity and respect and can live their lives more fully. We use an intersectional approach to understanding people/groups and students gain a deep understanding of how race, class, gender, sexuality, etc. all contribute to their experience of the world, physically, socially, and emotionally. 

For example, physical therapists also need to be able to:  

• Listen to patients prior to and during diagnosis and treatment. Strong listening skills ensure the patient's needs can be met. Many WS courses discuss the importance of listening to marginalized voices and amplifying our understanding of those voices to understand how people experience the world around them, which has direct impacts on their health.  
• Treat a wide variety of physical problems (within a patient) with a more holistic and comprehensive approach, not one that targets symptoms in isolation. Seeing how one symptom of pain may be connected to another and how environments, workplaces, family, daily practices, heredity, etc. may be playing a role and interacting together.  
• Care for their patients and interact effectively with patients, regardless of their race, sex, religion, nationality, age, sexual orientation, or disability.  

Students become aware of the best research evidence related to each client, in terms of treatment, problems, social context, etc. Most of the WGSS courses incorporate research papers or projects as course requirements that help students become familiar with: 

• Conducting an academic literature review 
• Synthesizing large amounts of information 
• Engaging in qualitative research methods such as interviewing and conducting surveys 
• Comparing their independent research findings against the scholarly literature.  

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department – University of Wisconsin – La Crosse 

INTERESTED IN A CAREER IN  STUDENT AFFAIRS & ADMINISTRATION? 

HERE’S HOW UWL’S WOMEN’S STUDIES PROGRAM WILL GET YOU THERE! 

The basis of many of the Women’s Studies (WS) courses begins with a desire to make the world better to ensure that people are treated with dignity and respect and can live their lives more fully. We use an intersectional approach to understanding people/groups and students gain a deep understanding of how race, class, gender, sexuality, etc. all contribute to their experience of the world, physically, socially, and emotionally. 

WS helps provide students with the opportunity to develop and strengthen: 

• Your understanding of how past trends and institutional structures result in excluding, marginalizing, and/or underserving some college students  
• Your writing and oral presentation skills  
• Problem-solving skills 

WS courses also provide students the ability to: 

• Critique institutional policies and structures in terms of their impacts on a range of people and groups 
• Develop and defend policy ideas and programs that might work better for more students 
• Conduct research that evaluates programs aimed at improving the student experience 
• Connect institutions of higher education to communities, especially keeping those institutions accountable to marginalized communities and identities 

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department – University of Wisconsin – La Crosse 

INTERESTED IN A CAREER IN MARKETING? 

HERE’S HOW UWL’S WOMEN’S STUDIES PROGRAM WILL GET YOU THERE! 

The basis of many of the Women’s Studies (WS) courses begins with a desire to make the world better to ensure that people are treated with dignity and respect and can live their lives more fully. We use an intersectional approach to understanding people/groups and students gain a deep understanding of how race, class, gender, sexuality, etc. all contribute to their experience of the world, physically, socially, and emotionally. 

WS helps provide students with the opportunity to develop and strengthen:  

• Media literacy skills  
• Research, writing, and oral presentation skills  

• Critical and interdisciplinary thinking skills, including the ability to synthesize information from a variety of perspectives  

WS courses also provide students the ability to: 

• Conduct original research  
• Develop and implement evidence-based programs targeted to specific groups 
• Critically examine how marketing is perceived by multiple perspectives 

• Improve marketing practices  

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department – University of Wisconsin – La Crosse 

INTERESTED IN A CAREER IN COUNSELING AND THERAPY? 

HERE’S HOW UWL’S WOMEN’S STUDIES PROGRAM WILL GET YOU THERE! 

Good therapists/counselors need to be aware of the client’s identities and context (ie. culture, race, ethnicity, spirituality, sexual orientation, age, physical health, motivation for change). 

The Women’s Studies (WS) program through its courses, the internships that it recommends, student orgs, etc. offer students with a range of opportunities to learn about the experiences of non-dominant groups in society based on gender, sexual orientation, race, class, religion, etc. By learning about, interacting with and supporting members from various communities, students learn to identify power differentials in society and between individuals and work to decentralize these dynamics. The relationship between a provider and a client requires trust and solid communication, which necessitates respect and understanding for the client (not just the provider).  

• Many WS courses discuss the importance of listening to marginalized voices and amplifying those communities' voices in order to alleviate the impact that social inequalities have on the most vulnerable among us, one of which is people's emotional well-being. 

Most of the WGSS courses incorporate research papers or projects as course requirements that help students become familiar with: 

• Conducting an academic literature review 
• Synthesizing large amounts of information 
• Engaging in qualitative research methods such as interviewing and conducting surveys 
• Comparing their independent research findings against the scholarly literature.  

By the time students graduate from the program, they develop strong research and writing skills that are easily translatable and Exhibit a solid set of interpersonal skills, including: verbal fluency, interpersonal perception, warmth and acceptance, empathy, and focus on others/collaboration.  

The basis of many of the WS courses begins with a desire to make the world better to ensure that people are treated with dignity and respect and can live their lives more fully. We use an intersectional approach to understanding people/groups and students gain a deep understanding of how race, class, gender, sexuality, etc. all contribute to their experience of the world, physically, socially, and emotionally. 

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department – University of Wisconsin – La Crosse 

INTERESTED IN A CAREER IN  HUMAN RESOURCES? 

HERE’S HOW UWL’S WOMEN’S STUDIES PROGRAM WILL GET YOU THERE! 

 Human Resources professionals have significant opportunity to create more diverse, inclusive, gender equitable environments. With knowledge of how gender and other systems of privilege and inequality work, HR professionals can improve guiding policy and practice on: 

• Strengthening organizational leadership by identifying barriers to the advancement of women, people of color, LGBT people, individuals with disabilities, religious minorities, and other groups that are often under-represented in organizational leadership 
• Designing family leave and other work-life policies in ways that are equitable and help keep talented staff connected to the organization 
• Advocating for health insurance coverage that serves women's needs with respect to family health, and the needs of groups who may need health insurance coverage not available in all plans 
• Ensuring equitable procedures in hiring, evaluation, pay, promotion, and leadership opportunities 
• Conducting employee surveys to assess and improve the inclusivity of an organization and its opportunities for advancement for all, and for leveraging the strengths of diversity 
• Communicating with employees in ways that promote equality and fairness in hiring, evaluation, pay, promotion, and leadership opportunities in an organization/industry 
• Serving as advocates for employees, especially those historically underrepresented in an organization or industry  
• Recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce 

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department – University of Wisconsin – La Crosse