Benefits of a WGSS Minor
A WGSS minor is a good fit to pair with most majors. As an interdisciplinary minor, students are free to "choose their own adventure" or "chart their own course" by chasing their interests.
Business/Public Relations/Marketing
Success in business depends on knowing your customer and knowing your team inside and out. Adding a WGSS minor to a business major means that you can bring awareness and sensitivity to both the workplace and to customers. You will know about the experiences of marginalized communities, their histories, and what needs they have. You will better understand how to serve and market to these populations. This also makes you a positive force in the workplace so that you can influence office culture and future hiring practices.
History/ Social Studies Education
Everything has a history, including the systems and policies that govern the lives of women and LGBTQ+ people to this very day. Pairing WGSS with History will make you a better historian, because you will understand how other fields, such as communications, sociology, anthropology, and politics, address Women, Gender, and Sexuality - which makes you a stronger researcher and expands your specialty in this field. As a teacher, you will understand how to expand the curriculum to be more inclusive and to reflect the students you are teaching. This will keep them engaged. In museums and public history, this knowledge will help you connect more with patrons and create more creative exhibits.
Politics, Government, and Pre-Law
A match made in heaven! Diversifying your knowledge and understanding of how women and people of various sexualities and genders have navigated political systems that were not always designed with them in mind will help you to engage with and reform those systems whether at the local, state, or national level. Also, women and people of different genders and sexualities all move through society in different ways. To understand these groups helps you to better understand the world and groups of people around you.
Psychology
The reasons why people struggle with their mental health and wellbeing can often have a lot to do with their experiences of their own gender and sexuality. People can also often struggle with the way the rest of the world sees them and their identities. By studying Women, Gender, and Sexuality, you will be more attuned to these struggles and understand where in history and society they come from, how they reveal themselves in our everyday lives, and what solutions can help people make a return to health and strength.
Business/Hospitality and Tourism
Knowing and understanding how to market to people of different backgrounds means you have to understand their needs and wants, but it also means you need to be able to identify underserved populations and fill that gap. Whether you are in the business of banking, selling cars, serving food, or booking flights, Understanding the needs of different populations can lead to better results, happier customers, and more success!
Education
Historically, educational and professional opportunities for women have been severally limited. Additionally, people of different genders or with various sexualities and identities have not seen themselves reflected in either the material being taught or in the places where decisions on education are being made. With a Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies minor, you as a future educator can understand how to better serve these populations both with the material being taught and when decisions are being made for the benefit of all.
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of human societies and cultures, so the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies minor is a natural fit! As an Anthropology major, your task is to understand how different cultures from around the world and across time have defined themselves by studying the cultural clues they left us, or if they are still active, to examine them in the present. Every culture has its own definitions of womanhood, gender, and sexuality, so these two academic groups enable students to better understand humanity, and ourselves.