About Women and Gender Studies

As a department, we seek — in our research, teaching and community building — to explore both gender’s embeddedness in current forms of injustice as well as its past and emergent potential for transformative politics. We offer Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts programs, as well as courses for general electives and for those minoring in Women and Gender Studies.

Our students and faculty study the power relationships between gender and politics, particularly the politics of knowledge, culture, economy, medicine, science, citizenship, immigration, militarization and the body. We examine how gender is constituted with race, sexuality and nation. In developing and communicating our understanding of gender and power, we pay particular attention to insights from critical race and postcolonial studies.

Although San Francisco State has offered classes relating to women's studies since 1971, it wasn't until 1976 that the Department of Women and Gender Studies was founded, becoming one of the first such departments in the United States. Forged out of transformative activism and scholarship, we center transnational and intersectional analyses of gender, race, sexuality, nation, labor and ability. Our students engage in challenging academics, work closely with professors and lead community initiatives.