Gender Studies
With a gender studies minor, you will gain a background in gender analysis and feminism, offering you opportunities to engage with classics of the field. Plus, our location in Portland—a city known for its dynamic feminist and LGBTQ+ communities—provides easy access to internships and employment.
Why Choose a Minor in Gender Studies?
Our program will engage you in the political and philosophical exploration of strategies for transforming coercive and unequal gender systems. Minoring in gender studies will not only provide you with an expanded range of resources for understanding self and society, but also help you cultivate a love for lifelong learning—the best preparation for your life after Lewis & Clark.
What You’ll Study
Our courses in the gender studies minor examine the formation of racialized ideas of gender, explore constructions of sexuality, and analyze gender systems through historical perspectives as well as groundbreaking, emerging work. Lewis & Clark’s global curriculum and overseas study programs encourage you to examine the intersections of gender, race, class, and other axes of power and identity in a variety of cultures. You will also analyze images and vocabularies of gender expression that shape cultural representations, and explore how art both conforms to and resists categories of gender and sexuality.
Outside the classroom, the annual Gender Studies Symposium is organized by a committee of students with support from faculty and staff. This multiday, interdisciplinary event addresses complex topics through a focus on gender and sexuality, including care, security, power, space, law, religion, science, and more. Scholars, students, public figures, writers, artists, and community members come together for a series of workshops, lectures, performances, panel discussions, and a student-curated art exhibit. Our program also develops critical workshops that respond to current issues as a way to facilitate discussion between the larger student body and Portland, and we regularly engage in critical dialogue featuring speakers who are experts in their field.
Students may satisfy a gender studies elective with an internship. Past internship sites include Girls Inc., Sexual & Gender Minority Youth Resource Center (SMYRC), Cascade AIDS Project, and NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Connect With Lewis & Clark
Complement Your Education With One of These Majors
Students from nearly every major across the arts, humanities, social sciences, and math/natural sciences have minored in gender studies. The most popular majors for our gender studies minors are biology, English, psychology, and sociology and anthropology.
What Students Are Saying About Lewis & Clark
Grace Marchant BA ’25More about GraceThe gender studies minor has truly led me to think about the world through a different, more caring perspective. I really appreciate how the disciple of gender studies has evolved and how the department aims to capture as many of these angles as possible.
August van Nieuwenhuysen BA ’25More about AugustI love that gender studies is an interdisciplinary program because you get to work with lots of professors from different departments. It gives you this fantastic opportunity to collaborate with people you otherwise may never have taken a class with.
Meilin Beloney BA ’26More about MeilinOne of my favorite aspects about the gender studies minor is that it is interdisciplinary,
meaning that I get a variety of lenses through which to view questions of sex, gender,
and sexuality. I have been able to take classes in disciplines that I would otherwise
have not had the opportunity to engage in.
What Can You Do With a Minor in Gender Studies?
Our alumni use their minor in gender studies in a variety of careers in nonprofit organizations, academia, and advocacy work. Many go on to pursue advanced degrees in anthropology, law, public health, and other disciplines.
Dedicated Faculty
Our expert professors are your expert mentors. You will learn directly from faculty (no graduate assistants here!) that are nationally recognized in their fields of study and who love to work with and learn from their students. Your professors will inspire you to be a thoughtful and passionate participant in a diverse world. Your small classes will support you as you explore new ideas, find your voice, and speak your truth.
Invest in Yourself
A private liberal arts education is often more affordable than you think. Last year, Lewis & Clark distributed over $74 million in assistance from institutional, federal, state, and private sources. Additionally, we’re so confident that our first-year students will graduate in four years with their bachelor of arts degree that if you don’t, we’ll cover the extra semester of tuition.
Find Your People
Students can join a variety of student-run organizations that relate to their gender studies minor, like the Feminist Student Union, Gender Studies Symposium, and Queer Student Union. Many of our minors also work with the Office of Health Promotion and Wellness as peer sexual health educators. Don’t see what you’re looking for on the club list? Start something new and build your own community of peers!
Where Lewis & Clark Will Take You
Smith “S.” Yarberry BA ’16More about Smith “S.”The most important thing I learned while at L&C was how to communicate my ideas and questions most articulately. By that I mean not only how to write clearly, but also how to speak in class and engage with my peers.
Featured News
Reiko Hillyer, 2025 Oregon Book Award Finalist
Congratulations to Reiko Hillyer whose book A WALL IS JUST A WALL: THE PERMEABILITY OF THE PRISON IN THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY UNITED STATES (Duke University Press, 2024) is a finalist for the 2025 Oregon Book Awards in the category of General Nonfiction.
