Gender & Women's Studies (GWS) at Pomona College focuses on the culturally and historically specific production of sexual difference, on the wide-ranging impact of feminist research both inside the academy and in the larger society, and on the intersections of gender with other social forces such as race, sexuality, class and colonialism. The program fosters rigorous critical inquiry into these multiple forms of difference, challenging conventional cultural assumptions about women, sexuality and gender roles, and promotes the development of new ideas and research in feminist scholarship within an open, supportive environment.

Gender & Women's Studies offers two kinds of majors. One stands alone and emphasizes the theoretical focus of recent feminist interdisciplinary scholarship. The other is a joint major that links feminist research and theory with a discipline or other interdisciplinary program. Both forms of the major prepare a student for a variety of careers and for graduate study. The joint major enables students whose career plans or plans for graduate study might not have a direct link with gender studies to explore disciplinary and interdisciplinary constructions of knowledge in ways richly informed by feminist scholarship.