Hostos Community College proudly offers its students the opportunity to undertake a concentration
in Women’s Studies as part of the Liberal Arts Curriculum leading to an Associate of Arts Degree.
Women’s Studies teaches us about women’s experiences, struggles and contributions from a multitude of perspectives.
Such interdisciplinary course work enhances and broadens our understanding of women’s diverse lives. Additionally,
Women’s Studies classes attend to books, topics, and points of view often neglected or devalued in the traditional,
white male-dominated curriculum. Women’s Studies also exposes more fully the impact of gender on men’s lives. According to
the Hunter College Women’s Studies Collective, “…women’s studies places women’s experiences in the center of the [learning] process.
It examines the world and the human beings who inhabit it through questions, analyses and theories built directly from women’s experiences.”
Thus, taking an Option in Women’s Studies while pursuing a liberal arts curriculum for an A.A. degree provides students with a unique
interdisciplinary program of study. The three courses currently offered within the Women’s Studies Option are designed to promote understanding
of gender role socialization, women’s accomplishments and problems in masculinity and femininity that affect girls and boys, and women and men
in our world today. Knowing how to discuss and analyze these topics, Women’s Studies students find challenging job opportunities in fields where
such a specialization in gender issues can prove particularly marketable: health services, business/management, the legal profession, the political
arena, social work and education, as examples.
