Chair: Dr. Ellen Riggle
The Department of Gender and Women's Studies aims to serve the university and the Commonwealth through promotion of equity and commitment to excellence.
We are committed to research and teaching about the lives, cultures, perspectives, and activities of women globally. We believe that what are commonly referred to as "women's issues" are societal issues that affect all individuals, regardless of gender.
While understanding women’s experiences, resources, strategies and contributions to society is central to the GWS mission, equally important is the exploration of gender as a construct that permeates human experience, thought, and history. We recognize that men’s lives are gendered and that gender relations occur simultaneously with other hierarchical social relations and inequalities of power including those based on ability, age, class, ethnicity, family composition, race, region, religion, sex, sexual orientation and the inequitable distribution of resources in and among countries and groups globally.
