Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies (AP) – Gender and Women's Studies

Gender and Women’s Studies Program

The Gender and Women’s Studies Program offers interdisciplinary courses on women and gender that encourage students to develop the practical, theoretical, communication and organizational skills to think, write and act critically and creatively. Students will gain the skills necessary to conduct research and transform the knowledge gained into any future career they may choose, including an ongoing career as a graduate student. Our interdisciplinary courses explore relations of power in the lives of individuals, groups and cultures in a multiplicity of settings and sites locally and transnationally. The rich, interdisciplinary feminist scholarship in women’s and gender studies pushes students to interrogate constructions and intersections of gender, race, class, age, ability and sexuality in daily life, popular culture, the arts, the sciences, politics, society, the economy etc. We encourage students to engage individually and collectively in the transformative processes of feminist scholarship, practices and politics.

The School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies unites academic resources at York University in gender and women’s studies and sexuality studies, bringing together the undergraduate and graduate programs, the non-credit Bridging Program for Women and the Centre for Feminist Research. Courses may be taken at Glendon college in English or in French and in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies.

For purposes of meeting program requirements, all nine-credit general education (foundation) courses will count as six credits towards the major, minor or certificate.

All approved general education courses may count for general education credits; some may count for major credits; none may count as both.

Please consult the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies website for further information, available at http://www.yorku.ca/laps/gsws/ or contact the School’s main office, 206 Founders College, 416-650-8144 (press 1).

Required Courses

AP/GL/GWST 1501 9.00 or AP/GL/GWST 1502 6.00: required for all gender and women’s studies majors;
AP/GL/GWST 3555 6.00 or AP/GL/GWST 3556 6.00: required for all gender and women’s studies majors;
AP/GL/GWST 4555 6.00: required for all gender and women’s studies majors in an Honours BA program.

Core Courses

The core courses are offered by the Gender and Women’s Studies program and, like the required courses, have the second digit five (5) in the course number, e.g. GWST 1502 6.00. Students are required to select between 12 and 24 credits of core courses depending on their degree program. Core courses cover themes deemed essential to gender and women's studies courses and will explicitly aim to develop critical reading, writing and oral presentation skills, research skills and more advanced research and theoretical skills as appropriate to the course and year level. The required and core courses will:

focus primarily on gender and women;
be taught from feminist perspectives;
be interdisciplinary;
address the intersections of race, ethnicity, disability, sexual identity and gender;
acknowledge the different perspectives on gender and women in a global context;
explicitly identify the critical skills to be developed in the course.

Non-Core Courses

Non-core courses are courses offered by other teaching units that may be accepted for program credit or cross-listed with the Gender and Women’s Studies program. These courses will count towards the major requirements in gender and women’s studies. For those available in a given year, please consult the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies website.

Specialized Honours BA: 120 Credits

Residency requirement: a minimum of 30 course credits and at least half (50 per cent) of the course credits required in each undergraduate degree program major/minor must be taken at York University.

Graduation requirement: students must successfully complete (pass) at least 120 credits which meet the Faculty's degree and program requirements with a cumulative grade point average of at least 5.00.

General education: a minimum of 21 general education credits as follows:

6.00 credits in natural science (NATS)
a 9.00 credit approved general education course in the social science or humanities categories
a 6.00 credit approved general education course in the opposite category to the 9.00 credit course in social science or humanities already taken

Major credits: 54 credits including:

AP/GL/GWST 1501 9.00 or AP/GL/GWST 1502 6.00;
AP/GL/GWST 3555 6.00 or AP/GL/GWST 3556 6.00;
AP/GL/GWST 4555 6.00;
at least 24 additional credits from gender and women's studies course offerings; of these 24 credits at least 18 credits from the core gender and women’s studies course offerings;
at least 12 credits in gender and women’s studies at the 4000 level, in addition to AP/GL/GWST 4555 6.00.

Upper-level credits: at least 36 credits at the 3000 or 4000 level, including at least 18 credits at the 4000 level.

Credits outside the major: at least 18 credits.

Honours BA: 120 Credits

General education: a minimum of 21 general education credits as follows:

6.00 credits in natural science (NATS)
a 9.00 credit approved general education course in the social science or humanities categories
a 6.00 credit approved general education course in the opposite category to the 9.00 credit course in social science or humanities already taken

Major credits: 42 credits including:

AP/GL/GWST 1501 9.00 or AP/GL/GWST 1502 6.00;
AP/GL/GWST 3555 6.00 or AP/GL/GWST 3556 6.00;
AP/GL/GWST 4555 6.00;
at least 18 additional credits from gender and women’s studies course offerings; of these 18 credits at least 12 credits from the core gender and women's studies offerings;
additional six credits in gender and women’s studies at the 4000 level.

Upper-level credits: at least 36 credits at the 3000 or 4000 level, including at least 18 credits at the 4000 level.

Credits outside the major: at least 18 credits. (Note: students who are completing a double major or major/minor are deemed to have fulfilled this requirement.)

Honours Double Major BA

The Honours BA program described above may be pursued jointly with approved Honours Double Major degree programs in the Faculties of Environmental Studies, Health, Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, or Science, the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design, or the Lassonde School of Engineering. For further details on requirements, refer to the listings for specific Honours programs that may be pursued jointly with other Faculties.

Note: in a double major program, a course may count only once toward major credit.

Honours Double Major Interdisciplinary (Linked) BA

Gender and Women's Studies may be linked with any Honours Double Major Interdisciplinary BA program in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies. Students must take at least 36 credits in gender and women's studies and at least 36 credits in the interdisciplinary program. Courses taken to meet gender and women's studies requirements cannot also be used to meet the requirements of the interdisciplinary program. Students in these interdisciplinary programs must take a total of at least 18 credits at the 4000 level, including at least 12 credits in gender and women's studies and six credits in the interdisciplinary program. For further details of requirements, refer to the listings for specific Honours Double Major Interdisciplinary BA programs.

Note: in a double major program, a course may count only once toward major credit.

Major credits: 36 credits in gender and women's studies including:

AP/GL/GWST 1501 9.00 or AP/GL/GWST 1502 6.00;
AP/GL/GWST 3555 6.00 or AP/GL/GWST 3556 6.00;
AP/GL/GWST 4555 6.00;
at least 12 additional credits from the core gender and women’s studies course offerings;
an additional six credits at the 4000 level.

Honours Major/Minor BA

The Honours BA program described above may be pursued jointly with approved Honours Minor degree programs in the Faculties of Environmental Studies, Health, Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, or Science, the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design, or the Lassonde School of Engineering. For further details on requirements, refer to the listings for specific Honours programs that may be pursued jointly with other Faculties.

Note: in a major/minor program, a course may count only once toward major credit or minor credit.

Honours Minor BA

The Honours Minor BA program described may be combined with any approved Honours BA program that offers a major/minor option in the Faculties of Environmental Studies, Health, Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, or Science, the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design, or the Lassonde School of Engineering. For further details on requirements, refer to the listings for specific Honours programs that may be pursued jointly with other Faculties.

Note: in a major/minor program, a course may count only once toward major credit or minor credit.

Minor credits: 30 credits including:

AP/GL/GWST 1501 9.00 or AP/GL/GWST 1502 6.00;
at least 12 additional credits from the core gender and women's studies course offerings;
at least 12 credits in the minor must be at the 3000 level or above including at least six credits at the 4000 level.

BA: 90 Credits

Graduation requirement: students must successfully complete (pass) at least 90 credits that meet the Faculty's degree and program requirements with a cumulative grade point average of at least 4.00.

General education: a minimum of 21 general education credits as follows:

6.00 credits in natural science (NATS)
a 9.00 credit approved general education course in the social science or humanities categories
a 6.00 credit approved general education course in the opposite category to the 9.00 credit course in social science or humanities already taken

Major credits: 30 credits including:

AP/GL/GWST 1501 9.00 or AP/GL/GWST 1502 6.00;
AP/GL/GWST 3555 6.00 or AP/GL/GWST 3556 6.00;
at least 12 additional credits from the core gender and women's studies course offerings;
at least six credits in the major must be at the 3000 or 4000 level.

Note: at least 12 credits in the major at the 3000 level or above.

Upper-level credits: at least 18 credits at the 3000 or 4000 level.

Credits outside the major: at least 18 credits.

Core Courses

Non-Core Courses

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