Women and Gender Studies
The Women’s and Gender Studies Program (WGSP) offers courses about women and gender for all students. The program is designed to explore the experiences and cultural contributions of women and those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community as well as examine the societal implications of gender. Informed by feminist, gender, and sexuality theory, the courses in the WGSP challenge false assumptions and theories about women, gender, sexuality, race, and class; encourage rigorous critical thinking; raise issues of gender bias and the subjective nature of knowledge; support students’ development as individuals and as participating members of their larger communities; and expand options for all beyond traditional gender roles.
Learn more about program outcomes, and opportunities.
Return on Investment for Diversity Efforts
An article published in May 2020 by McKinsey & Company outlines how organizations that tie learning and development programs with diversity efforts, especially those that target women at senior levels, benefit in several key bottom-line areas. According to McKinsey & Co organizations that strategically develop programs to deliver diversity, equity, and inclusion at top leadership levels outperform competitors. The article tracks hundreds of organizations and identifies some as ‘diversity winners’ characterized as having higher profitability, employee engagement, and satisfaction than those who are not achieving the same DEI metrics. Diversity winners adopt systematic business-led approaches through learning and development efforts and have organizational cultures that demonstrate mutual acceptance and respect with employees, and have happier workforces in general, which leads to more loyal and productive workforces. Even more convincing is the finding that organizations that achieve executive-level gender diversity were 27% more likely to outperform their peers on longer-term value creation and profit. The whole article is available here.