Bachelor of Arts in Women and Gender Studies

Students wishing to declare Women and Gender Studies as their major can now do so online, via Campus Solutions. A follow-up email will be sent from the Department Chair. Students can also make an appointment with one of the undergraduate advisers and fill out an advising form before the appointment. 

Students majoring in Women and Gender Studies may enroll in WGS courses and courses focusing on women, gender, and sexuality in any other department. The choice of electives is flexible, and your advisor will assist you in devising a program appropriate to your own needs and interests. With the consent of your academic adviser, you may also use courses with a focus on women taken at other colleges and universities as part of the Women and Gender Studies major.

Program Learning Outcomes

  1. Students will be able to define and describe contesting theories, methods, histories, and representations of women, gender, and feminism.
  2. Students will identify the politics of knowledge production across multiple disciplines in relation to Women and Gender Studies.
  3. Students will be able to compare and distinguish historical understandings of gender in relation to structural inequality, social movements, and labor struggles.
  4. Students will be able to explain and situate the ways citizenship is shaped through both the institutional foundations of governance and ideological mechanisms of politics.
  5. Students will be able to examine women and gender in relation of race, class, sexuality, colonialism, multiculturalism, and/or globalization.
  6. Students will be able to conceptualize and analyze gender and feminism in a transnational framework and from an interdisciplinary perspective, using a range of methodological tools while also demonstrating writing proficiency.
  7. Students will be able to integrate their academic studies in Women and Gender Studies into their professional goals and be able to formulate and implement theoretically informed political, cultural, and community action.

General Education

Students may double-count a maximum of 12 units for both General Education and the Women and Gender Studies major.

Credit/No credit

A maximum of 9 units within the major can be taken credit/no credit, but students are strongly urged to take all courses within the major for letter grades.

Women and Gender Studies (B.A.) — 30 units

Women and Gender Studies majors who have completed WGS 300GW will have satisfied the University Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR).

Core Courses (12 units)

Select Two:6
Introduction to Women and Gender Studies
Introduction to Feminism and the State
Introduction to Feminist Disability Studies
WGS 280
WGS 300GWGender, Race, and Nation - GWAR3
WGS 690Senior Seminar3

Praxis (3 units)

Select one:

WGS 105Feminism and Self-Care: Perspectives and Practices1
WGS 303Women as Creative Agents3
WGS 305Women and Gender Studies Lecture Series3
WGS 400That's Not What I Said: Feminism, Oral History, and Research Methods in Women and Gender Studies3
WGS 602Feminist Cultural Activism3
WGS 6203
WGS 698Feminist Praxis and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex3

Body Politics (3 units)

Select One:

WGS 5523
WGS 554Gender and Global Migration3
WGS 563Gender, Sexuality, and the Politics of Disability3
WGS 591Critical Approaches to Transgender Health, Science, and Medicine3
WGS 593Gender, Health, and the Environment3
WGS 6013
WGS 612Queer Theory3
WGS/AIS 6813

Power and Violence (3 units)

Select One:

WGS 160Gender, Politics, and Citizenship3
WGS 511Women and Violence3
WGS 513Gender, War, and Militarism3
WGS 514Women and the Prison Industrial Complex3
WGS 5343
WGS 536Gender, Globalization, and Women's Human Rights3
WGS 5713

Culture, Media, and Art (3 units)

Select One:

WGS 304Gender and Popular Culture3
WGS 5163
WGS 542Gender and Popular Music3
WGS 5483
WGS/SXS 551Queer Literatures and Media3
WGS 580Feminism and the Speculative: Another World is Possible3

Social Movements (3 units)

Select One:

WGS 515Gender, Race, and Reproductive Justice3
WGS 541Women Writers and Social Change3
WGS 561Women, Ethnicity, and Social Movements3
WGS 562History of African American Women3
WGS 5643
WGS 565Muslim Feminisms3
WGS 578Women, Globalization, and Ecology3
WGS 621Feminist Theories3

Elective (3 units)

Select One:

WGS 150Women and Gender in U.S. History and Society3
WGS 3013
WGS/HIST 355/LTNS 533History of Women in Latin America3
WGS/AIS 420Native Genders and Feminism3
WGS/GEOG 423Geographic Perspectives on Gender3
WGS/AIS/SXS 440Native Sexualities and Queer Discourse3
WGS/LTNS 445Gendered Borders: Latinas and Globalization3
WGS/PLSI/SXS 470The Politics of Sex and Reproduction4
WGS/BECA 485Women and Media3
WGS/LTNS 505Gender, Sexuality, and Latino Communities3
WGS 5303
WGS/ENG/JS 54620th Century American Jewish Women Writers3
WGS/RRS 566Gender and Modernity in the Muslim and Arab Worlds3
WGS 595/ANTH 590/CST 590Feminist Anthropology3
WGS 6113
WGS/RRS/SXS 640Race and Sexual Migration3
WGS/RRS/SXS 645Sex, Race, Lies, and Love in San Francisco3

Note: A minimum of 30 upper-division units must be completed for the degree (including upper-division units required for the major, general education, electives, etc.). A student can complete this major yet not attain the necessary number of upper-division units required for graduation. In this case, additional upper-division courses will be needed to reach the required total.

Complementary Studies

Students completing a Bachelor of Arts in Women and Gender Studies are required to complete 12 units in Complementary Studies. Complementary Studies provides students with the opportunity to make connections across disparate forms of knowledge and inquiry. These units must come from courses bearing a prefix other than WGS and not cross-listed with WGS, and may be lower or upper-division units, as well as resident or transfer units. Students who complete two majors or a major and minor automatically complete the complementary studies requirement. Otherwise, WGS majors can fulfill this requirement through one of six pathways:

  1. 12 units through the study of a single language and/or literature other than English;
  2. 12 units taken in the College of Ethnic Studies;
  3. 12 units from partial completion of a minor or certificate;
  4. 12 units taken in an approved study abroad program (e.g., CSU Study Abroad); or,
  5. 12 units from a coherent group of courses approved by a major advisor as complementary to the major.

General Education Requirements

Requirement Course Level Units Area Designation
Oral Communication LD 3 A1
Written English Communication LD 3 A2
Critical Thinking LD 3 A3
Physical Science LD 3 B1
Life Science LD 3 B2
Lab Science LD 1 B3
Mathematics/Quantitative Reasoning LD 3 B4
Arts LD 3 C1
Humanities LD 3 C2
Arts or Humanities LD 3 C1 or C2
Social Sciences LD 3 D1
Social Sciences: US History LD 3 D2
Lifelong Learning and Self-Development (LLD) LD 3 E
Ethnic Studies LD 3 F
Physical and/or Life Science UD 3 UD-B
Arts and/or Humanities UD 3 UD-C
Social Sciences UD 3 UD-D
SF State Studies
Courses certified as meeting the SF State Studies requirements may be upper or lower division in General Education (GE), a major or minor, or an elective.
American Ethnic and Racial Minorities LD or UD 3 AERM
Environmental Sustainability LD or UD 3 ES
Global Perspectives LD or UD 3 GP
Social Justice LD or UD 3 SJ

Note: LD = Lower-Division; UD = Upper-Division.

First-Time Student Roadmap (4 Year)

  1. The roadmaps presented in this Bulletin are intended as suggested plans of study and do not replace meeting with an advisor. For a more personalized roadmap, please use the Degree Planner tool found in your Student Center.
  2. In order to choose your English Composition A2 course and your QR/Math B4 course, please complete the online advising activities at writingadvising.sfsu.edu and mathadvising.sfsu.edu. Questions? Contact Gator Smart Start.

First-Time Student Roadmap

SF State Scholars

The San Francisco State Scholars program provides undergraduate students with an accelerated pathway to a graduate degree. Students in this program pursue a bachelor’s and master’s degree simultaneously. This program allows students to earn graduate credit while in their junior and/or senior year, reducing the number of semesters required for completion of a master’s degree.

SF State Scholars Roadmap

Transfer Student Roadmap (2 Years)

For students with an AA-T in Social Justice Studies.
SJS ADT Roadmap

This degree program is an approved pathway (“similar” major) for students earning the ADT in Social Justice Studies

California legislation SB 1440 (2009) mandated the creation of the Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) to be awarded by the California Community Colleges. Two types of ADTs are awarded: Associate in Arts for Transfer (AA-T) and Associate in Science for Transfer (AS-T). 

Note: no specific degree is required for admission as an upper-division student. However, the ADT includes specific guarantees related to admission and graduation and is designed to clarify the transfer process and strengthen lower-division preparation for the major.

An ADT totals 60 units and in most cases includes completion of all lower-division General Education requirements and at least 18 units in a specific major. (The Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Science AS-T degrees defer 3 units in lower-division GE area C and 3 units in lower-division GE area D until after transfer.) Students pursuing an ADT are guaranteed admission to the CSU if minimum eligibility requirements are met, though not necessarily to the CSU campus of primary choice.

Upon verification that the ADT has been awarded prior to matriculation at SF State, students are guaranteed B.A. or B.S. completion in 60 units if pursuing a “similar” major after transfer. Determinations about “similar” majors at SF State are made by faculty in the discipline.

Degree completion in 60 units cannot be guaranteed when a student simultaneously pursues an additional major, a minor, certificate, or credential.

A sample advising roadmap for students who have earned an ADT and continue in a "similar" major at SF State is available on the Roadmaps tab on the degree requirements page for the major. The roadmap displays:

  • How many lower-division units required for the major have been completed upon entry based on the award of a specific ADT;
  • Which lower-division requirements are considered complete upon entry based on the award of a specific ADT;
  • How to complete the remaining 60 units for the degree in four semesters.

Students who have earned an ADT should seek advising in the major department during the first semester of attendance.

General Advising Information for Transfer Students

  1. Before transfer, complete as many lower-division requirements or electives for this major as possible.
  2. The following courses are not required for admission but are required for graduation. Students are strongly encouraged to complete these units before transfer; doing so will provide more flexibility in course selection after transfer.
    • a course in U.S. History
    • a course in U.S. & California Government

For information about satisfying the requirements described in (1) and (2) above at a California Community College (CCC), please visit http://www.assist.org. Check any geographically accessible CCCs; sometimes options include more than one college. Use ASSIST to determine:

  • Which courses at a CCC satisfy any lower-division major requirements for this major;
  • Which courses at a CCC satisfy CSU GE, US History, and US & CA Government requirements.

Remedial courses are not transferable and do not apply to the minimum 60 semester units/90 quarter units required for admission.

Additional units for courses that are repeated do not apply to the minimum 60 units required for upper-division transfer (for example, if a course was not passed on the first attempt or was taken to earn a better grade).

Before leaving the last California Community College of attendance, obtain a summary of completion of lower-division General Education units (IGETC or CSU GE Breadth). This is often referred to as a GE certification worksheet. SF State does not require delivery of this certification to Admissions, but students should retain this document for verifying degree progress after transfer.

Credit for Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or College-Level Examination Program courses: AP/IB/CLEP credit is not automatically transferred from the previous institution. Units are transferred only when an official score report is delivered to SF State. Credit is based on the academic year during which exams were taken. Refer to the University Bulletin in effect during the year of AP/IB/CLEP examination(s) for details regarding the award of credit for AP/IB/CLEP.

Students pursuing majors in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines often defer 6-9 units of lower-division General Education in Areas C and D until after transfer to focus on preparation courses for the major. This advice does not apply to students pursuing associate degree completion before transfer.

Transferring From Institutions Other Than CCCs or CSUs

Review SF State's lower-division General Education requirements. Note that, as described below, the four basic skills courses required for admission meet A1, A2, A3, and B4 in the SF State GE pattern. Courses that fulfill the remaining areas of SF State’s lower-division GE pattern are available at most two-year and four-year colleges and universities.

Of the four required basic skills courses, a course in critical thinking (A3) may not be widely offered outside the CCC and CSU systems. Students should attempt to identify and take an appropriate course no later than the term of application to the CSU. To review more information about the A3 requirement, please visit bulletin.sfsu.edu/undergraduate-education/general-education/lower-division/#AAEL.

Waiting until after transfer to take a single course at SF State that meets both US and CA/local government requirements may be an appropriate option, particularly if transferring from outside of California.