Women’s and Gender Studies, BA

See the World Anew

• Learn how to conduct research and gain skills that can influence policymaking.
• Earn a great living while changing the world with our unique focus on career credentials and nonprofit careers.
• Use mini grants to design your own creative, practitioner, or academic senior capstone.
• Network with advocates and changemakers to create a more inclusive world, with freedom, visibility, joy, and justice for all.

Take Courses Like…

• WS 180 Nonprofit Skills for Social Justice
• WS 297X Gender and Human Rights
• WS 297S Inclusive Sex Education and Reproductive Health in the Nonprofit Sector

Add Opportunities and Experiences

As a student, you will be welcomed into a department with outstanding faculty who are invested in your success. By the time you graduate, you will join a new generation of leaders, visionaries, and thinkers who will address our world's problems.

• Gain a working relationship with a variety of nonprofits that advocate for women’s and girls’ rights and issues facing LGBTQA+ and marginalized communities.
• Network with immigration rights advocates, sexual and reproductive health industry leaders, and the United Nations.
• Easily create a double major with: psychology, English, political science, history, peace and justice studies, sociology/anthropology, economics, and more.
• Gain career-ready skills that will set you apart.
• Work on independent projects and conduct research with faculty. Recent examples include:
  • Sydney Tisch and Natalia Villarreal’s work with Professor Nayak on feminist activism published in International Feminist Journal of Politics
  • Duke Huang’s work with Professor Bent on girls’ activism in climate justice

Getting Involved

• Health Promotion Career Credential:
  Against the backdrop of Pace's signing of the Okanagan Charter for wellness and our Campus Pride-ranking as the most queer-friendly campus in the country, our department has pioneered an inclusive sex education and reproductive health course that teaches you how to advocate for your own health and that of your family and community. When you take the course, you have the option to receive further training to earn a career credential for your resume.
• Human Rights Advocacy Badge:
  A credit-bearing sequence of three classes (WS 115C Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies; WS 297F Geographies of Girlhood; WS 297X Gender and Human Rights) that provide an experiential practicum for students to learn first-hand how youth activists advance human rights priorities with world leaders at two key global events at the United Nations: International Day of the Girl and the Commission on the Status of Women. Students also conduct collaborative research and present findings to the United Nations and key nongovernmental organizations. This “badge” is a digital credential on LinkedIn and other career-oriented platforms.
• LGBTQA+ and Social Justice Center:
  The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Asexual, and Ally (LGBTQA+) Social Justice Center exists to create campus environments that are inclusive and supportive of students, faculty, and staff diversity in the areas of sexuality and gender identity and expression. The office promotes identity expression, self-determination, and exploration on all levels for all members of Pace University through advocacy, education, activism, programming, and a commitment to social justice.
• Center for Community Action and Research:
  For more than a decade, the Center for Community Action and Research (CCAR) has supported civic engagement, social responsibility, and reciprocal partnerships with the community, resulting in enriched learning for positive change. Housed within the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, the CCAR’s programs serve the entire University through curricular and co-curricular initiatives, coordination of national civic engagement programs, and support of ongoing community partnerships.

The Women’s and Gender Studies major gave me the tools I have been using since graduation to fearlessly advocate for the equal, fair, and just world that I desire to live in.

—Annamaria Santamaria ’12, Community Engagement Manager, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

Choose Your Career

Where Our Graduates are Employed

• Law firms and legal advocacy organizations
• LGBTQIA+ nonprofits
• Migrant advocacy organizations, such as Al Otro Lado
• NYC Mayor’s Office
• Safe Horizon and other anti-violence organizations
• Sexual and reproductive health nonprofits
• United Nations
• Vera Institute for Justice
• Self-employed as consultants or founders of nonprofits

Stats

• The nonprofit sector is the third largest workforce in the US (Source: Zippia)
• Knowledge about inclusion, gender diversity, and social change will be increasingly critical in the workforce (Source: Forbes Human Resources and Nonprofit Councils)