Honours BA in Women and Gender Studies (Specialist) - St. George in Toronto Canada | University of Toronto

For fifty years, our program has educated students to critically examine gender and sexuality across personal, social, institutional, and worldwide contexts. As an interdisciplinary department, we bring together faculty specialists from diverse areas such as historical and literary studies, legal and sociological research, cultural analysis and queer theory, along with African, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, East Asian, and Equity studies. We empower students to tackle pressing contemporary issues - from how militarization limits male life choices to persistent wage disparities, from societal sexual norms to unexpected parallels between pop culture icons and classical playwrights. Our curriculum teaches students to examine everything from music videos to policy documents with equal rigor, while emphasizing analytical perspective: knowing when to generalize and when to recognize crucial differences, how to make meaningful comparisons across cultures and historical periods.
What sets the Women & Gender Studies Institute (WGSI) at the University of Toronto apart is our global perspective. We challenge how national boundaries and patriotic narratives shape understandings of gender, race, class, indigenous identity, sexuality, disability, and other key social categories. Our research explores how migration, diaspora, and displacement transform concepts of belonging, ancestry, relationships, sexuality, and personal identity. We equip students with frameworks to link colonial histories and global integration with new economic systems, work patterns, and consumer behaviors. Importantly, we guide students to consider feminist traditions when shaping their contemporary social engagement. Our alumni pursue groundbreaking careers across government, arts, business, and academia - as documentary creators, community organizers, economic policy experts, and university faculty. They consistently apply the analytical approaches honed in our program, joining an active network of graduates who sustain connections with each other and frequently return to our dynamic classrooms to inspire new generations of students.