What Can I Do With a Women’s Studies Major?

Employers welcome the useful array of skills that graduates of women's studies programs offer: they are good at abstract thinking, analyzing situations, organizing material, writing well, and making oral presentations. Graduates of women's studies programs nationally hold positions in business, government, the non-profit sector, and the professions, where they are effecting social change. Our majors are well prepared to enter their chosen careers with open minds about the challenges of the workplace. They are equally well prepared to rear the next generation with a better understanding of our diverse and multicultural world.

The Women's Studies Major leads to many jobs.....

With a background in women's and minorities' histories, graduates are poised to work with advocacy groups, human rights organizations, environmental and consumer groups, health care, and youth, elderly, and social services.

Because their major emphasized understanding differences and discovering the intersections between racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, and other forms of oppression, women's studies graduates are well suited for entry-level positions in a wide variety of settings, including policy and lobbying organizations, research centers, trade and international associations, and unions.

Women's studies graduates' knowledge about power relationships and injustice often leads them to choose careers in government and politics, because they are determined to use their skills to change the world, starting in their own communities.

The interdisciplinary nature of women's studies is an excellent preparation for careers in education and librarianship that require expertise in finding and using information on contemporary social issues.

The integration of race, class, and gender issues makes women's studies programs especially appropriate as preparation for many graduate degrees.

Majors feel well prepared to enter the medical professions, where their expanded insight and sensitivity to social concerns prove useful.

Others have found that their degree is increasingly relevant and at the cutting edge in issues facing the legal profession.

Among students who have graduated from UNLV with a BA in Women's Studies in the last five years, one is an attorney working for civil rightss attorney, whose practice focuses primarily upon employment law; another is a paralegal in Las Vegas; another serves as a court representative for Legal Rehabilitation Services in Las Vegas. One owns his own web development company; another is Human Resources Development Manager for Sega Virtualand; another is starting her own catalog company; yet another is a Project Manager for the Nevada Institute for Children, a research institute that suggest policy changes to the state legislatures. One is a journalist with KVBC, Channel 3, Las Vegas, and another works full time as a political fundraiser.

For further information:

Women's Studies Graduates: The First Generation, by Barbara F. Luebke and Mary Ellen Reilly (New York: Teachers College Press, 1995) contains interviews with women's studies graduates.