In Gender and Women’s Studies, you’ll get the space to examine issues that are pertinent to women’s lives in the present and the past from an economic, political, social and cultural perspective, with particular attention to how race, ethnicity, class, ability, and sexual orientation have defined their experiences. In fact, every experience can be examined from these intersections, and our interdisciplinary approach, with a particular emphasis on international issues, will allow you to deepen your knowledge as you complete your degree.
Explore what each year of your degree could look like, as well as how you can boost your major and career options.
Wondering what each year of your degree will look like? Check it out here.
Courses
You’ll find an in-depth and balanced approach to the discipline in your courses, about two-thirds of which are taught in English and the other third in French.
All courses in Gender and Women’s Studies are cross-listed with the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies (LAPS). In fact, the Glendon Gender and Women’s Studies and Sexuality Studies programs are also part of the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies — so you can take courses there too.
York University Courses Website – View List
Course Catalogue
Courses showing on the timetable for the Keele Campus are offered by the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at the Keele Campus; for all inquiries and/or course permissions, send an email to, lapsgsws@yorku.ca
GL/GWST 1502 6.00 Sec C Introduction aux études des femmes et de genre
Catégorie: Course de base
Langage d`instruction : Français
Co-inscrit: AP/GWST 1502 6.00, GL/SOSC 1502 6.00
Cours incompatible : AVANT L’AUTOMNE 2014: cours incompatibles: AP/GWST 2510 9.00, GL/GWST 2510 9.00, AP/HUMA 2930 9.00, AP/SOSC 2180 9.00. AVANT L’AUTOMNE 2013: cours incompatibles: AP/WMST 2500 6.00, GL/WMST 2500 6.00, AP/WMST 2510 9.00, GL/WMST 2510 9.00.
Description du Calendrier
Ce cours explore comment l’expérience des individus est marquée par le genre, la race, la sexualité et la classe en référence notamment au vécu des femmes. Dans une démarche multidisciplinaire, les concepts fondamentaux en études des femmes et de genre ainsi que les grands débats féministes sont introduits en vue d’analyser les relations de pouvoir et leurs possibles transformations.
GL/GWST 3540 6.00 Across Borders: Globalization and Women’s Health
Category: Elective
Language of instruction : English
Cross-listed : AP/GWST 3540 6.00.
Calendar Description
Globalization and the spread of Western free market economies have significantly impacted women’s health around the world. This course examines within a comparative, international framework the impact of globalization on women’s health, women’s access to health care services, and women’s health activism.
GL/GWST 1502 6.00 Sec B Introduction to Gender and Women’s Studies
Category : Core course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed : AP/ GWST 1502 6.00 ; GL/ SOSC 1502 6.00
Course credit exclusion: PRIOR TO FALL 2014: AP/GWST 2510 9.00, GL/GWST 2510 9.00, AP/HUMA 2930 9.00, AP/SOSC 2180 9.00, PRIOR TO FALL 2013: Course credit exclusions: AP/WMST 2500 6.00 or GL/WMST 2500 6.00, AP/WMST 2510 9.00, GL/WMST 2510 9.00.
Calendar Description
Using an interdisciplinary approach, this course explores how many aspects of our lives are gendered, racialized, embodied, sexualized, and classed, and the consequences of these intersecting practices for social inequalities. Key debates within feminist scholarship are introduced to analyze issues of power and transformation.
Courses showing on the timetable for the Keele Campus are offered by the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at the Keele Campus; for all inquiries and/or course permissions, send an email to, lapsgsws@yorku.ca
GL/GWST 2400 3.00 Gender, Media, and Communications
Category : Elective
Language of instruction: English, French
Cross-listed : GL/COMS 2400 3.00
Calendar Description
This course introduces students to core concepts for analyzing the relationship between gender and communications media and technologies. We explore gendered power dynamics in diverse communicative texts and communities as well as forms of resistance from an intersectional perspective.
Ce cours présente aux étudiant.e.s des concepts pour analyser la relation entre le genre, média et communication. Nous explorons les dynamiques de pouvoir genrées dans la communication et les formes de résistance d’un point de vue intersection.
Note: administered by the Communications department at the Glendon Campus, coms@glendon.yorku.ca
GL/GWST 2513 6.00 Mothering and Motherhood
Category : Elective
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed : AP/GWST/SOCS 2513 6.00
Course credit exclusion: PRIOR TO FALL 2015: Course credit exclusion: GL/GWST 3508 6.00. PRIOR TO FALL 2014: Course credit exclusion: AP/GWST 3508 6.00. PRIOR TO FALL 2013: Course credit exclusions: GL/WMST 3508 6.00, AP/WMST 3508 6.00.
Location : Keele Campus
Calendar Description
Examines motherhood as it is theorized and analyzed in interdisciplinary feminist scholarship and as it is portrayed in women’s fictional and autobiographical writings. The history, sociology, psychology and politics of motherhood with emphasis on class, cultural and racial differences are investigated.
GL/GWST 2514 6.00 Feminism and Consumerism
Category : Elective
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed : AP/GWST/ 2514 6.00
Course credit exclusion: None
Calendar Description
Explores the relationship between feminism and consumerism. Themes include the commodification of feminist political struggles and values, the constitution of female desire, and the question of reclaiming feminist struggles from marketers and economic interests. Overall, the course will encourage an understanding of the contradictory and difficult relationship between capitalism, identity politics and real possibilities for social transformation.
GL/GWST 2600 6.00 Critical Foundations in Sexuality Studies
Category : Elective
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed : AP/SXST/GWST 2600 6.00.
Course credit exclusion: Previously offered as: AP/WMST 2600 6.00, GL/WMST 2600 6.00.
Location: Keele Campus
Calendar Description
This course is an interdisciplinary and transnational introduction to theories, methods, themes, debates and issues that constitute the field of critical sexuality studies. The course will examine how sexuality intersects with other lines and relations of power including gender, race, class, dis/ability, family among others. It will also examine key theoretical innovations within the field of sexuality studies, as well as how theoretical directions pioneered in other fields have shaped sexuality studies.
GL/GWST 2685 3.00 La Famille
Catégorie: Course au choix
Langage d`instruction : Français
Co-inscrit : GL/SOCI 2685 3.00; GL/SOSC 2685 3.00; administré par le département de sociologie, sociology@glendon.yorku.ca
Description du Calendrier
Étude de la famille en tant qu’unité du système social et domaine d’interaction sociale. Étude, en particulier, des variations de formes familiales et de leurs relations avec les différents systèmes sociaux; étude des changements actuels dans la vie familiale et des attitudes envers la famille, des rôles et des comportements familiaux.
Courses showing on the timetable for the Keele Campus are offered by the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at the Keele Campus; for all inquiries and/or course permissions, send an email to, lapsgsws@yorku.ca
GL/GWST 3503 6.00 Femmes et mondialisation
Catégorie: Cours au choix
Langage d`instruction : Français
Co-inscrit : AP/GWST 3503 6.00, GL/ILST 3665 6.00, GL/SOSC 3665 6.00, GL/SOCI 3665 6.00
Cours incompatible : Offert précédemment comme suit: AP/WMST 3503 6.00, GL/WMST 3503 6.00.
Description du Calendrier
Le cours porte sur la situation des femmes dans un contexte de mondialisation. Il traite de l’impact de la mondialisation sur les conditions de vie des femmes aux niveaux local et international et analyse leur capacité à s’auto-organiser economiquement et politiquement.
GL/GWST 3504 6.00 Women and Aging
Category : Elective
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed : AP/GWST 3504 6.00, GL/HUMA 3604 6.00
Course credit exclusion: AP/SOCI 4680 3.00. Previously offered as: AP/WMST 3504 6.00, GL/WMST 3504 6.00.
Calendar Description
This course analyzes the experience of women as they move into old age. We analyze myths that surround the concept of old woman using story, biography, poetry and film. Topics include: sexuality beyond menopause; isolation and poverty; relationships between women; anger and creative energy; patterns of language and the effects of self-imposed silencing; the re-evaluation of the crone. Course credit exclusions: AP/SOCI 4680 3.00.
GL/GWST 3507 6.00 Les femmes et la santé
Catégorie: Cours au choix
Langage d`instruction : Français
Co-inscrit :AP/GWST 3507 6.00, GL/NATS 3995 6.00, GL/SOSC 3995 6.00
Cours incompatible : AP/GL/WMST 3507 6.00. AVANT AUTOMNE 2009: Cours incompatible: AK/AS/WMST 3507 6.00
Description du Calendrier
Sous une perspective historique et sociologique, ce cours aborde ces sujets: la santé physique et mentale des femmes, les traitements qu’elles reçoivent au sein de la profession médicale, leurs rôles en tant que guérisseuses au sein de cette profession.
GL/GWST 3509 6.00 Women Organizing
Category : Elective
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed : AP/GWST 3509 6.00 ; AP/SOSC 3125 6.00
Course credit exclusion: AP/GL/WMST 3507 6.00. AVANT AUTOMNE 2009: Cours incompatible: AK/AS/WMST 3507 6.00
Calendar Description
Women have a long tradition of organizing to expand their rights, resist oppression, challenge and defend traditional values and to change their societies. This course documents and analyzes the patterns of women’s activism using historical, cross-cultural and contemporary sources.
GL/GWST 3510 6.00 Women & Work: Production & Reproduction
Category: Elective Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: AP /GWST 3510 6.00 ; GL/WKST 3610 6.00; AP/SOSC 3130 6.00
Course credit exclusion: AP/WMST 3510 6.00, GL/WMST 3510 6.00.
Calendar Description
Location: Keele Campus
Explores the conditions of women’s work, paid and unpaid. The historical development of a sexual division of labour and the roles played by the family, employers, trade unions and government policy in the gendering of jobs is examined.
GL/GWST 3511 3.00 Femmes, sexualités, pouvoir
Catégorie : Cours aux choix
Langage d`instruction: Français
Co-inscrits : AP/GWST 3511 3.00, GL/SOSC 3990 3.00.
Description du calendrier
Ce cours examine les différents débats féministes actuels qui encadrent, et, à la fois, définissent la sexualité des femmes dans le milieu canadien d’aujourd’hui. Les lectures proposent d’analyser les structures socio-politique et économique qui influencent l’idéologie étatique à propos de la sexualité féminine.
GL/GWST 3538 3.00 Black Feminist Thoughts
Category : Elective
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: AP/GWST 3538 3.00
Calendar Description
Globalization and the spread of Western free-market economies have significantly impacted women’s health around the world. This course examines within a comparative, international framework the impact of globalization on women’s health, women’s access to health care services, and women’s health activism.
GL/GWST 3552 6.00 Critical Feminist Approaches to Development
Category : Elective
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: AP/GL/ILST/SOCIO 3552 6.00.
Calendar Description
This course uses an anti-racist feminist lens to critically analyze the historical construction of the contested, Western-imposed development paradigm. Using feminist and postcolonial theory, as well as an analysis of political economy, the course examines the paradigm’s history, theories, and discursive practices, and its current state of play, exploring structural relations of power and dynamics of agency and resistanc
GL/GWST 3554 3.00 Women and Madness
Category: Elective Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: AP/GWST 3554 3.00
Calendar Description
Critically analyzes conceptualizations of women, mental health normalcy, mental illness and madness using intersectional and critical feminist frameworks. Draws on scholarly literature from a range of disciplines as well as first-person analyses of women and madness. Note: An introductory course in Gender and Women’s Studies is recommended.
GL/GWST 3555 6.00 GWST Genealogies of Feminist Theorizing
Category: Core Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: AP/GWST 3555 6.00
Prerequisites: AP/GWST 2500 6.00 or GL/GWST 2500 6.00 or AP/GWST 2500 6.00 or GL/GWST 2510 9.00. Course credit exclusions: AP/GWST 4500 6.00, GL/GWST 4500 6.00. Previously offered as: AP/WMST 3555 6.00 , GL/WMST 3555 6.00. PRIOR TO FALL 2013: Prequisites: AP/WMST 2500 6.00, GL/WMST 2500 6.00, AP/WMST 2510 9.00, GL/WMST 2510 9.00.
Course credit exclusions: AP/WMST 4500 6.00, GL/WMST 4500 6.00, AP/WMST4500 6.00, GL/WMST 4500 6.00.
Calendar Description
Examines major feminist theoretical approaches, both historical and contemporary, in women’s and gender studies. Students will develop their analytic skills by engaging in rigorous critique and debate of feminist theorizing. Students will write detailed assessments of specific theoretical feminist approaches that take into consideration difference and intersectionality.
GL/GWST 3558 6.00 Afrique noire, genre et mondialisation
Catégorie: Cours au choix
Langage d`instruction: Français
Cours incompatible : Cours incompatible: AP/GL/WMST 3558 6.00 (avant l’automne 2013).
Conditions préalables: Cours incompatible: AP/GL/WMST 3558 6.00 (avant l’automne 2013).
Description du calendrier
Ce cours traite de l’impact de la colonisation et des politiques néolibérales sur la situation de l’Afrique et sur celle des femmes en considérant l’intersection de genre, classe, race, religion et ethnicité. Quelques thèmes sont abordés en suivant une grille d’analyse féministe/postcoloniale.
GL/GWST 3570 3.00 Gender and Islamophobia
Category: Elective Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: AP/GWST 3570 3.00; AP/RLST 3580 3.00
Calendar Description
This course investigates current debates and issues related to gender and Islamophobia in Canadian and international contexts. The course takes an intersectional analytic approach that brings together seminal and emerging scholarship on the topic in anti-racist feminism, critical Muslim studies, critical race studies, critical studies on anti-blackness, transnational and postcolonial feminism and critical sexuality studies.
GL/GWST 3603 3.00 Sexual Activism, Movements and Politics
Category: Elective Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: AP/SXST 3603 3.00
Calendar Description
Examines 20th and 21st century sexual activism, movements, and politics, focusing on everyday resistance, organized protest, and mobilizations for reform and revolution. Prerequisite: six credits in AP/SXST core or primary courses.
GL/GWST 3609 3.00 Women and Religion
Category: Elective Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: GL/SOCI/HUMA 3609 3.00; AP/RLST 3609 3.00; administered by the Sociology at the Glendon Campus, sociology@glendon.yorku.ca
Calendar Description
Course credit exclusion: PRIOR TO FALL 2014: course credit exclusion: GL/SOCI 3600 3.00.
This course uses sociological theories on religion to study the main issues, gains and struggles faced by women in religious traditions around the world. Students study women in religion at the macro and micro levels of spirituality and femininity.
GL/GWST 3652 3.00 Politiques féministes africaines I
Catégorie: Cours au choix
Langage d`instruction: Français
Conditions préalables: GL/HIST 3652 3.00, GL/SOCI 3652 3.00; ; administré par le département d`histoire au Campus Glendon, history@glendon.yorku.ca
Description du calendrier
Ce cours éclaire les trajectoires et experiences personnelles des ‘femmes’ noires africaines et de la diaspora, en contexte colonial et postcolonial, à partir des luttes intersectionnelles (anticolonialisme, antiracisme, antisexisme, anti-impérialisme) et qu’elles mènent.
GL/GWST 3654 3.00 Politiques féministes africaines II
Catégorie: Cours au choix
Langage d`instruction: Français
Conditions préalables: GL/HIST 3654 3.00, GL/SOCI 3654 3.00; administré par le département d`histoire au Campus Glendon, history@glendon.yorku.ca
Description du calendrier
Ce cours examine les sites de mobilisations féministes/féminines noires africaines et de la diaspora, la manière dont elles s’inscrivent dans les luttes globales d’émancipation, ainsi que les enjeux soulevés en terme de rapports de pouvoir et de transformations sociales.
Courses showing on the timetable for the Keele Campus are offered by the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at the Keele Campus; for all inquiries and/or course permissions, send an email to, lapsgsws@yorku.ca
GL/GWST 4502 6.00 Violence Against Women
Category: Elective Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: AP/GWST 4502 6.00; GL/SOCS 4602 6.00
Course credit exclusion: Previously offered as: AP/WMST 4502 6.00, GL/WMST 4502 6.00.
Calendar Description
Examines gender-based violence in its many forms, such as domestic violence, state violence, legal violence (punishment) and cultural violence (rituals) and analyzes the global context in which gender and power are constructed and violence against women is perpetuated and tolerated.
GL/GWST 4502 3.00 La femme et la violence
Catégorie : Cours aux choix
Langage d`instruction : Français
Co-inscrits: AP/GWST 4502 3.00; GL/SOSC 4602 3.00
Description du calendrier
Ce cours examine la violence faite à la femme, les différentes formes dans lesquelles cette violence s’exprime et les diverses analyses féministes qui essaient de comprendre du point de vue théorique, socio-politique et psychologique les causes et les effets de cette violence.
Offert précédemment comme suit
GL/GWST 4503 3.00 Politics of Women’s Movements in Canada
Category: Elective Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: AP/GWST 4503 3.00; GL/POLS 4603 3.00; AP/POLS 4155 3.00
Course credit exclusion: Previously offered as: AP/WMST 4503 3.00, GL/WMST 4503 3.00
Calendar Description
Examines the politics of the women’s movements in Canada, emphasizing their historical and contemporary developments. We examine women’s organising initiatives from the mid 19th century to the present in light of Canada’s unique political structures and current challenges to feminism.
GL/GWST 4510 6.00 Life Narrative in Feminism
Category: Elective Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: AP/GWST 4510 6.00
Course credit exclusion: AP/GL/WMST 4510 6.00 (prior to Fall 2013). PRIOR TO FALL 2009: Course credit exclusion: AK/AS/WMST 4510 6.00.
Calendar Description
This course introduces theoretical and methodological issues concerning the use of life narrative in feminist research, including examples of life narratives in feminist oral history, qualitative life cycle research, trauma studies, feminist ethnography, archival work, personal criticism and performance arts.
GL/GWST 4516 6.00 Gender, Globalization and Militarization
Category: Elective Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: AP/GWST 4516 6.00.
Course credit exclusion: PRIOR TO FALL 2013: AP/WMST 4516 6.00, GL/WMST 4516 6.00.
Calendar Description
This course uses a feminist anti-racist lens to explore the increasing intersection of processes of globalization and militarization in what many refer to as ‘the new age of Empire,’ examining in particular the emergence of the security paradigm post 9/11.
GL/GWST 4518 6.00 Women, Ethnicity, Race
Category: Elective Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: AP/GWST 4518 6.00
Course credit exclusion: Previously offered as: AP/WMST 4518 6.00, GL/WMST 4518 6.00.
Calendar Description
Examines migration from a global, feminist perspective. It pays particular attention to government policies and to the ways women in immigrant and racialized communities shape their own lives and those of their communities.
GL/GWST 4600 6.00 Advanced Seminar in Sexuality Studies
Category: Core Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: AP/SXST 4600 6.00, AP/GWST 4600 6.00
Prerequisites: AP/GWST 2500 6.0 or GL/GWST 2500 6.00 or AP/WMST 2510 9.00 or GL/WMST 2510 9.00 ; and AP/GWST 3555 6.00 or GL/GWST 3555 6.00 or AP/GWST 3556 6.00 or GL/GWST 3556 6.00.
Course credit exclusion: Previously offered as: AP/WMST 4600 6.00, GL/WMST 4600 6.00.
Calendar Description
Investigates a range of methodologies and methods in feminist research. Students will engage in a research project that requires the application of research methods and strategies of inquiry relevant to feminist scholarship. The course will offer hands-on experience in doing research and will broaden students’ knowledge of various feminist approaches in the social sciences and humanities.
GL/GWST 4604 3.00 Gender, Politics and Culure
Category: Elective Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: GL/SOCI 4604 3.00, GL/POLS 4604 3.00) administered by the Political Science department, polsci@glendon.yorku.ca
Calendar Description
This course develops students’ understanding of the theoretical and empirical foundations that constitute the sociological study of gender. Using an intersectional lens, it examines the structuring role that gender plays in various societal domains, including everyday social interactions, culture and media, production and reproduction, nationhood and citizenship, and politics and diversity.
GL/GWST 4605 3.00 Sociology of Masculinities: From Iron John to Buck Angel
Category: Elective Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: AP/GWST 4605 3.00; GL/SOCI 4605 3.00; administered by the department of Sociology department, sociology@glendon.yorku.ca
Calendar Description
Students examine the core concepts, themes, methodologies, and debates in the dynamic field of masculinity studies, specifically the crisis of masculinity thesis and hegemonic masculinity. Students formulate their own research projects to deepen their understanding of the sociology of gender. Experience and familiarity with gender analysis is strongly recommended.
GL/GWST 4631 3.00 Gender in Modern Latin American History
Category: Elective Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: Cross-listed: GL/HIST 4631 3.00; administered by the History department at the Glendon Campus, history@glendon.yorku.ca
Prerequisite: six credits in AP/HIST or AP/GWST or permission of the Department.
Course credit exclusion: PRIOR TO FALL 2017: course credit exclusion: GL/HIST 4221 3.00.
Calendar Description
This seminar engages the history of women, gender and sexuality studies in modern Latin America from colonial society, through the Age of Revolution, to the modernization of patriarchy in the twentieth century.
GL/GWST 4646 3.00 The Lives of Girls and Women: Feminist Writing in Canada
Category: Elective Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: GL/EN 4646 3.00; administered by the English department at the Glendon Campus, english@glendon.yorku.ca
Calendar Description
This course studies the ways Canadian literature has shaped-and been shaped by-feminist discourse, with a special emphasis on the developments that have taken place in the 20th and 21st centuries.
GL/GWST 4801 3.00/6.00 Directed Reading
Category: Elective Course
Language of instruction: English
Cross-listed: AP/GWST 4801 6.00
Course credit exclusion: AP/WMST 4801 6.00, GL/WMST 4801 6.00.
Offered at the Glendon and Keele Campus
Calendar Description
This course is designed to enable Honours students to undertake a detailed independent study of their own choosing. The student will undertake intensive reading and writing in one or two selected areas. Permission of the department.
Degree Types & Program Requirements
Gender & Women’s studies offers the following degree types and certificates:
- Specialized Honours BA/iBA
- Honours BA/iBA
- Honours Double Major BA/iBA
- Honours Major/Minor BA/iBA
- Bachelor BA/iBA
Gender & Women’s Studies is also available as a bilingual or trilingual international Bachelor of Arts. You can also choose to combine your degree with our Certificate in Sexuality Studies.
This program is also available as a Glendon BA, with flexible language requirements.
Certificate in Sexuality Studies
In this flexible certificate, you’ll gain important insights on sexuality from numerous disciplines, such as history, literature, philosophy, political science and sociology.
Other Program Details
Student Awards
We want to recognize your academic success and commitment to excellence in the Gender & Women’s Studies program. Not just a financial boost, awards and scholarships are a great way to show your hard work on your resumé and university transcript. Check out the awards, which include the annual Lorraine Gauthier scholarship, a Departmental Book Prize Award, and the annual Gertrude Mianda Prize for Excellence in Essay Writing.
