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Women and Gender Studies (BA)
Experience and Career Guide

Make the most out of your university career by taking advantage of all that Laurier has to offer you and learning about the many ways you can extend your classroom experience into the real world. There are so many opportunities to learn, lead, and embrace new opportunities all while having an exceptional student experience.

In this Guide

Learn the many ways you can extend your classroom experience to the real world.

Year-to-Year Academic Experience Co-Curricular Opportunities Knowledge and Skills Career Options and Graduate Outcomes

Your Year-to-Year Experience

Enhance your academic experience by learning about the opportunities available in your program.

Explore Co-Curricular Experiences

Participate in co-curricular experiences to complement your Laurier
academic journey and gain meaningful learning opportunities.

As a Women and Gender Studies student, you can: 

Outside of your program, there are many co-curricular opportunities for you to participate in. 

Design Your Degree

These are a few popular academic opportunities which allow you to dive deeper into your major area of study or broaden your knowledge. See undergraduate options, minors and courses for more information.
  • Community Engagement option
  • Social Entrepreneurship option
  • Practical Ethics and Society option

The BA in Women and Gender Studies can be studied as a stand-alone major or you can take it in combination with another program in the Faculty of Arts, such as Cultural Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science, Communication Studies or Global Studies.

Develop Your Knowledge and Skills

As a Laurier student, you will develop the following competencies through your curricular and co-curricular experiences.

Competency Framework

Competencies are categories of transferrable skills that appear on your online Experience Record to help you reflect on what you've learned from your experiences. The competencies include: 

  • Adaptability and Resiliency
  • Collaboration and Teamwork
  • Communication
  • Creativity and Innovation
  • Critical Thinking
  • Digital Literacy
  • Diversity and Intercultural Understanding
  • Functional Knowledge
  • Leadership
  • Problem Solving
  • Professional Attributes
  • Self-Awareness

Functional Knowledge

The functional knowledge you will develop in your program will help you:

  • Conduct analyses of gender in relationship to power that recognize the intersectionality of privilege and oppression rooted in race, class, age, ability, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, and Indigeneity.
  • Engage in interdisciplinary approaches to knowledge that allow for both creative thinking and the synthesis of these various approaches for productive debates.
  • Locate feminist movements and their histories socially and politically as they pertain to a national and international context.
  • Utilize key research methodologies, including textual and cultural analyses, to understand and apply both historical and contemporary theories relevant to feminist scholarship.
  • Use feminist concepts, methodological skills and theory to understand and analyze both your own life and the world around you.
  • Develop self-reflexivity about the politics and ethics of knowledge production, including the significance of social and political locations, and identify the inevitable gaps and partiality of knowledge.

Discover Career Options

All your experiences at Laurier can help you prepare for your future. Attend Career Centre events and workshops or book a career consulting appointment to explore career and further education options.
%
Pursuing Further Education
%
Employed
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Other

572 Faculty of Arts respondents from the 2023 Laurier Graduate Survey conducted by the Career Centre. Graduates were surveyed within 12 months of graduation.

Alumni Careers and Pathways

Sample Further Education Programs Within the First Year After Graduation

  • Master’s Degree - Cultural Analysis & Social Theory, Political Science
  • College Program - Human Resources, Marketing, Public Relations
  • Bachelor’s Degree - Education

Sample Jobs Within the First Year After Graduation

  • community manager
  • direct source recruiter
  • film mentor
  • insurance claims advisor
  • marketing and fleet coordinator
  • youth program facilitator

Careers Of Alumni Two to Five Years After Graduation

  • adult education facilitator
  • data governance manager
  • integrated media senior associate
  • manager, equity, diversity and inclusion
  • partnership manager
  • senior credential specialist

Career Options and Resources

Recent changes in policies and practices in the public and private sectors have led to an increasing number of job possibilities for people knowledgeable about women and gender issues. Personnel offices, human resources, public policy, government, police forces, social services agencies and educational institutions are all interested in employees with such knowledge, especially for positions dealing with employment equity and sexual harassment.

Women and Gender Studies courses can also help to prepare you for careers in areas such as law, medicine, business, politics, community action, social policy and planning, fine arts, teaching and research. 

Need some guidance on what you can do with your degree? Discover some career options and find resources to help guide you. 

Career and Industry Options

  • counselling/social work
  • criminal justice
  • digital media/social media/communication
  • education/teaching
  • equity, diversity and inclusion
  • gender advocacy
  • gender research
  • government
  • healthcare
  • human resources
  • journalism/writing
  • law/legal field
  • negotiation and dispute resolution
  • non-profit/advocacy
  • public policy
  • public relations
  • social services

Career Resources

Your Experiences Tell Your Story

Share your story through your Laurier Experience Record. An interactive, shareable and official record of your hands-on experiences and learning opportunities at Laurier – the first of its kind in Canada!



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