Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary major based on the premise that gender is a historical variable that affects the social, economic and political structure of our society as well as the everyday lives of women and men. Employing a wide range of perspectives from disciplines such as history, literature, philosophy, sociology, psychology, art, anthropology and biology, students will explore and examine how these disciplines pertain to women and how women have contributed to the cultural and sociological landscape.

The AA degree provides students with core courses in Women’s Studies. Students may utilize the Women’s Studies curriculum to fulfill transferable general education requirements for CSU and UC systems as well as lower division Women’s Studies courses for transfer to four-year institutions with women’s studies majors. In all cases, students should consult with a counselor for more information on university admission and transfer requirements. Students must fulfill the following major requirements with grades of “C” or better, complete a minimum of 60 degree-applicable semester units (12 of which must be completed at Sierra College) with a grade point average of at least 2.0 and complete one of the following three general education patterns:

✔ Sierra College Associate Degree Requirements;

✔ California State University General Education Breadth pattern;

✔ Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC).

Program Student Learning Outcomes

✔ Differentiate between sex and gender in the context of shifting definitions of woman.

✔ Define and deconstruct explicit and implicit privilege including, but not limited to, white privilege, male privilege and heterosexual privilege.

✔ Evaluate the social construction of gender and explore how it pertains to the particular inquiry of study undertaken (e.g., sexuality; queer theory; anthropology; art history).

✔ Apply cross-cultural, transnational or global awareness to "significant questions" concerning women and gender.

✔ Appraise gendered construction of knowledge and social institutions and how they directly apply to the subject under scrutiny.