Table 2. Common learning outcomes for Women’s Studies.

1. Baccalaureate candidates (and minors, to a lesser extent; graduate students to a greater extent) should be able to demonstrate knowledge of the following content/vocabulary:

• The difference between sex and gender; shifting definitions of “woman”
  
• Women’s contributions to history, culture, politics, etc.
  
• Variation in women’s experiences across nations, cultures, time, class, race, etc.
  
• Intersectionality of race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality; interlocking oppression
  
• Standpoint theory; importance of location; situated knowledge
  
• Social construction of gender
  
• Gendered construction of knowledge and social institutions
  
• White privilege, male privilege, heterosexual privilege
  
• Feminism/Womanism/mestizaje
  
• Waves of feminism
  
• Major issues or “big questions” pertaining to contemporary women, eg. domestic violence, abortion, redefining motherhood
  
• Key figures and concepts in feminist theory, eg. Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich
  
• The history of women’s activism; strategies for social change.

2. Baccalaureate candidates (and minors, to a lesser extent; graduate students to a greater extent) should be able to demonstrate competence in the following skill areas:

• Applying cross-cultural and global awareness to “big questions” about women and gender
  
• Considering an issue from multiple perspectives
  
• Thinking critically
  
• Constructing arguments with evidence obtained from research
  
• Locating, evaluating and interpreting diverse sources, including statistics
  
• Recognizing sexist/racist writing and thinking
  
• Engaging in critical self-reflection, promoting self-awareness
  
• Connecting knowledge and experience, theory and activism, Women’s Studies and other courses
  
• Communicating effectively in writing and speech
  
• Applying knowledge for social transformation, citizenship
  
• Using gender as a category for analysis

(The assessment plan for ASU-West Campus includes some less common skills—lifelong learning and the use of technology. Both of these skills reflect social changes, and other programs may wish to add them to their goals.)

• Table 3. Common features of Women’s Studies programs.