Women, Culture and Society is an interdisciplinary program for an undergraduate minor or a graduate concentration at the Master of Liberal Arts level.

The WCS Program is unique nationally in its focus on deepening historical understanding and advancing contemporary discourse on the Roman Catholic tradition (both its intellectual and contemplative dimensions) in relation to the women’s revolution, begun in late modern times.  The Program is inspired by the call of Pope John Paul II to fulfill this revolution in a way that models collaboration between women and men. This Pope clarified that male domination and exploitation is an effect of original sin that, like poverty, needs to be remedied, in order to restore to woman as fully human, in his words, “the richness of the femininity which she received on the day of creation.” 

The required introductory course, “Introduction to Theories and Practice of Women’s Studies,” gives primacy to philosophy and theology as integrating, in historical context, concerns that are interdisciplinary in nature. The course includes guest speakers from representative fields of inquiry and readings of selections from classic authors (including at least two women Doctor of the Church) that are especially relevant to women’s studies.  

The program as a whole aims to increase awareness of women’s particular situation in culture and society; to address social justice, accordingly, in consonance  with Church teaching; and, in so doing, to provide students with appropriate service in the community. 

Pictured above: St. Teresa of Avila and Mary Wollstonecraft