Reflective Essay My journey through Women’s and Gender Studies has been an eye opening experience. I say experience because this was more than a Quest I class for me, with each new topic we discussed in class, I became more aware of the social justice issues around me. Women’s and Gender Studies has not only made me more aware of social justice issues, but also helped me gain the confidence and knowledge to speak up when I see injustices around me. What every lecture, reading, and website taught me, I hope to take with me in my everyday life beyond college. When I walked into class the first day, I considered myself to be a well informed individual, I was wrong. My sense of Women’s and Gender Studies was that it focused solely on feminism, my only grasp on feminism was ‘equal rights for men and women’. Yes that is sort of true, but I was only skimming the surface. Until now, as I write this essay, I was not able to admit that my view on social justice was narrow. Looking back, I know that I had good intentions but I didn’t understand how in depth all of these issues connect to each other. In no way am I saying that I am completely informed about every social issue the world is facing, but now both my eyes …show more content…
I believe there is hope though, with each generation, there has been more and more acceptance and tolerance of people's life choices and self expression. It was not long ago that homosexualty was considered to be a mental illness and jump forward to 2015, gay marriage is legal. I use this example because I know that LGBTQ issues are far from being over but there is slow change to be inclusive of all people. I believe that the same goes for gender roles, a snap of the fingers can't automatically reverse toxic masculinity and gender ranking but this class taught me that a series of small changes can be a huge step