Northern Illinois University Plans to Launch a New Degree Program in Women’s Studies

Pending final approval by the Illinois Board of Higher Education, Northern Illinois Univerity in DeKalb plans to debut a bachelor’s degree program in women, gender and sexuality studies this coming fall. According to the university, the proposed program will be “an interdisciplinary program which emphasizes the application of feminist and queer research and theory to find solutions to social conflict, systemic oppression, and marginalization, and promotes the necessity for diversity and inclusion in American and global communities.”

Kathryn Cady, acting director of the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality and an associate professor of communication at the university, stated that “the major is designed to help people learn a lot about intersectionality, about social justice, diversity and how to make positive changes in those ways in your world, in your work life, in your civic life as a citizen and in your personal life.”

Northern Illinois University enrolls nearly 13,000 undergraduate students and more than 4,300 graduate students, according to the U.S. Department of Education data. Women make up half of the undergraduate student body.