Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Where understanding drives change. Advance meaningful impact through interdisciplinary study that creates informed leaders and transforms communities worldwide.
What is Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies?
Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies is your pathway to becoming a leader and change-maker through dynamic interdisciplinary study that examines history, social structures and current events while building essential skills for transformative careers across all sectors. Our field empowers you to address pressing community issues through groundbreaking initiatives — from our historic Audre Lorde Chair in Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality Studies to innovative programs like our Women in Entrepreneurship minor that builds business leadership skills.
Whether you're pursuing our bachelor's degrees, our 3+3 track to law school, or our joint degree with the Kent School of Social Work, our distinguished faculty guide you through transformative learning that connects theory with practice through required community internships where you apply research to real-world problems. You'll develop theoretical and empirical perspectives for studying gender and sexuality as crucial categories for understanding the world, learning to apply analysis at both micro and macro levels to inform research and promote understanding.
Here, your commitment to understanding complex social issues transforms into the analytical expertise and advocacy skills that create positive change in communities, organizations and institutions worldwide — where passion meets purpose to build a future where everyone has a voice and opportunity to thrive.
Explore Your Future
Why study Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies?
Annual openings in community and social service occupations
Projected growth for mental health counselors
Of employers say broad analytical and humanistic education is important for career readiness
Recent News from Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Upcoming Events in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Career Prospects
Where Passion for Understanding Becomes Your Power to Transform Lives
Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies trains students in one of the most analytically rigorous and socially urgent frameworks in higher education: the intersectional analysis of power, identity and inequality. Those skills are not niche — they are in active demand in healthcare, law, social work, public health, education, policy, nonprofit leadership, corporate DEI and the arts. WGST graduates aren't just prepared for specific careers; they're prepared to lead in any field that involves people, institutions and the question of who gets access to what.
Community and social service occupations project more than 313,700 annual openings — growing much faster than average. Mental health counselors, one of the strongest graduate-level pathways, are projected to grow 17% through 2034. UofL's WGST program also offers a 3+3 accelerated pathway to law school, recognizing the strong pipeline between gender and sexuality studies and civil rights, family law and public interest legal careers.
Whether you're entering the workforce, heading to law school, pursuing a master's in social work or public health, or continuing in academic research, your WGST degree gives you the analytical training and human perspective that consequential careers require.
Where WGST takes our graduates: Rhodes Scholar Dr. Monica Marks (BA), now Assistant Professor at NYU Abu Dhabi; Erin Herbert (MA), Senior Vice President of Operations at the Muhammad Ali Center; Andrew Tucker (BA), Executive Director of Account Strategy at Kertis; Sarah McGeeney (BA ’14, JD), civil rights employment attorney; Kathryn Hogg (MA ’11, JD), senior immigration attorney at Kentucky Refugee Ministries; Dr. Andrew Cooper (BA, MA), production editor of the Journal of American History; and faculty and doctoral scholars at Iowa State, Illinois State, Oregon State and Michigan State.
Explore Career Pathways in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Turn Social Understanding Into Career Leadership
With the historic Audre Lorde Chair and groundbreaking certificate programs, your interdisciplinary foundation opens doors to transformative careers. Explore Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Louisville — where rigorous interdisciplinary training, a 3+3 accelerated law track, and direct connections to advocacy, healthcare, education, and policy careers prepare graduates to lead in every field that matters.