The size of the Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies (GWSS) department at Grinnell College has been relatively steady in declared major numbers, as the field navigates broader political scrutiny in today’s higher education landscape.
A federal report published on April 9, 2026 titled “Victories for Higher Education: Ending Gender Extremism and Cutting Underused Programs” identified Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as an elimination target. University of Iowa is closing their GWSS program, citing low enrollment numbers below the threshold established by the Workplace Alignment Initiative.
At Grinnell, closing of the major is not a threat. The class of 2027 has seven declared GWSS majors, consistent with historical variation in the department, and the potential of students declaring their second major later in the school year. The class of 2026 will have 20 majors, while the class of 2028 has 10 declared so far.
Lakesia Johnson, associate professor of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies and English along with her colleagues, worked to create the GWSS major during the 2008-2009 school year. Before 2009, Grinnell offered a Gender and Women’s Studies concentration instead.
GWSS Student Educational Policy Committee (SEPC) members said they feel there is still a strong level of student interest in the GWSS department at Grinnell.
“Gender studies departments, across the country have been, more and more underfunded, and more and more undervalued, and been, pressured into, ‘are you attracting the majors,’ but I don’t think that necessarily reflects an actual decline and interest or excitement from the students themselves,” SEPC member André Vital Pardue `26 said.
SEPC member Abby Harris `28 said that studying GWSS fits with her plan to go to law school after Grinnell and pursue Title IX or constitutional law.
“When you have gender studies or GWSS as one of the majors, you’re making a statement, one way or another, and, personally, I’ve always been like, I want it to say gender studies on my resume,” Harris said. “It makes me more marketable to the right people, the people that I want to work for.”
“Ideologies of gender, sexuality, impact all of us,” Pardue said. “Dealing with those personal experiences, and listening to the personal experiences of all my colleagues, is by far, the most impactful thing I’ve been confronted with in this college. Whether you’re a major, whether you just did intro, whether you did something that was cross-sectioned, you’ll have a similar experience of a memorable self reflection.”
“I have been fortunate to teach students from a variety of backgrounds and academic fields, who find their way to this discipline,” Johnson wrote in an email to The S&B. “Some of these students are passionate feminist activists, while others are simply curious about a field that has often been dismissed and maligned. No matter how they find their way to us, students quickly learn that GWSS will not only challenge them academically. It will also challenge them to reconsider their own lived experiences and the world around them.”
National trends may make Grinnell’s GWSS major stand out.
“I’m curious how long term our department will be impacted by other schools decreasing their department, if we’ll end up actually drawing people in because of the fact that we still have it as a major,” Harris said. “I could imagine it being kind of a draw for certain people from the Midwest.”
Bethany said they chose Grinnell over other colleges because Grinnell would allow them to pursue GWSS as a major, rather than a minor.
“While the number of students and/or majors from year to year may fluctuate given many complex factors, what has not changed is the transformational nature of our work and Grinnell’s commitment to that endeavor,” Johnson wrote. “Given the dismantling of other programs in Iowa, I am especially appreciative of that support.”
This article has been updated to correct the number of declared GWSS majors in the class of 2027 to seven. Updated 4/20/26 at 12:34 p.m. This article has been updated to correctly attribute a quote to Abby Harris `28. Updated 4/20/26 at 8:43 p.m.
