Women's Studies

The Women’s Studies program is based on the principles of social justice established by the founding organization of Webster University, the Sisters of Loretto. Courses in Women’s Studies (WOMN) are informed by feminist learning and research, and focus on the physical, psychological, social, political, and economic factors that oppress and empower women.

The learning goals for the Women’s Studies program reflect recommendations from the National Women’s Studies Association. Upon completion of the program, students should:

• Distinguish between sex and gender, including shifting definitions of “woman” and the social construction of gender;
• Explain feminist theories, including standpoint theory, intersectionality, and womanism and demonstrate knowledge of key feminist theorists, such as Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich;
• Analyze the role of men in the oppression and empowerment of women;
• Identify women’s contributions to history, activism, waves of feminism, culture, politics, science, religion, and the arts and the variation in women’s experiences across nations, cultures, time, class, race/ethnicity, ability and other social statuses, identifying strategies for social change;
• Demonstrate critical thinking about major cross-cultural and global issues or “big questions” pertaining to contemporary women, such as domestic violence, reproductive rights, the shifting definition of motherhood, white privilege, male privilege, heterosexual privilege, the gendered construction of knowledge and social institutions, and the potential for interlocking oppression at the intersections of multiple social statuses (e.g., race/ethnicity, social class, gender, sexuality);
• Produce independent research reflecting competency in one or more of the content areas, constructing arguments with evidence obtained from research that demonstrate competency locating, evaluating, and interpreting diverse sources, including statistics;
• Apply research and knowledge for individual transformation, social transformation, and global citizenship.
  
  
  

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Danielle MacCartney, Chair
Women's Studies Program
Behavioral and Social Sciences
Phone: 314-246-7016
Email: dmaccartney12@webster.edu