I have a confession to make: Before college, I thought Women’s Studies was a joke major. I didn’t understand how you could spend all of college just talking about women and I didn’t see it as a major with a lot of related jobs. Now, I’m wishing I had at least minored in it, if not majored. Women’s Studies courses are some of my favorite classes that I’ve taken in college and they’ve had some of the biggest impact on me.

The first reason you should take a women’s studies course is that it will ignite the feminist in you. And some of you may be thinking, “but I don’t want to be a feminist.” But guess what: Everybody should be a feminist, because feminism is not a dirty word. It simply means that you think all people should be equal in all playing fields regardless of their gender. Before I took my first women’s studies course, I would not have referred to myself as a feminist. I didn’t really understand the word and I thought you had to be a radical activist to take on the title. In any and every women’s studies class, you will learn about the true meaning of feminism and why it’s important.

The second reason is that before you take a women’s studies course, you don’t know what you don’t know. With most classes, it is pretty obvious what is unknown going in. If you’ve never taken calculus, you probably don’t know how to do calculus. If you’ve never taken a class that discusses American history, you might not know a lot about the history of the United States. And even if you do know about these subjects without taking a class, you know what the class entails and that you already know the content from another source. I didn’t know a lot of the vocabulary and concepts that we discuss in women’s studies courses and I may have never been exposed to them. The issues talked about in these courses exist whether we like it or not and it is important to gain a fuller understanding of them and their causes if we want to have any hope of making a change for the better.

The third reason is that nothing is holding you back. At San Diego State and many other schools, women’s studies courses can meet a variety of general requirements and sometimes even apply to your major as an advantageous elective. My first was "Women in American History," which I took to meet the American Institutions requirement. I have never been into history, but I loved that class and I valued everything I learned. I am now taking a "Women in Literature" class to satisfy an upper division humanities requirement. It is one of my favorite classes and I love attending for the rich discussion. GEs can be one of the biggest struggles of college, so why not take one that will give you more than just a check on your graduation checklist?

The fourth reason is that these courses are not something you can get in high school. A lot of other electives and GEs offered in college are just extensions or reviews of what you learned in high school. Women’s studies courses take things that you thought you knew and shows them to you in a whole new light; you see old material with a new lens. Also, women’s studies courses are the most likely to be taught in new and fresh ways. My "Women in American History" class allowed me to volunteer with a local high school’s Young Women’s Studies Club as a replacement for a research paper. My "Women in Literature" class allows students to control the testing by having us create possible questions and working on the answers in groups. The point of college is to expand your knowledge and taking innovative courses allows you to do that on a level much deeper than reading textbooks.

Now let’s look at the reasons you may be saying no to women’s studies courses. You might be thinking, “But I’m a dude, I can’t take a women’s studies course.” Don’t think that. Feminists value equality so we like to see all genders present in our classes. We also value the opinion and viewpoint that young men have on the issues facing women today. It’s important to acknowledge the experiences and insights of all people when you are fighting for equality. If only women are feminists, progress is still far away. We also don’t shun people from our classes just because they have a penis and/or identify as a man. I have never seen somebody put down or ignored in a women’s studies classroom.

Another reason I hear of people avoiding women’s studies classes is that they think it’s pointless because there are no jobs for that field. Even if that were true (spoiler alert, it’s not), let’s not pretend people always go into the field they study in college. In fact, the large majority of recent grads I know with full-time jobs are working in an area far from their major. For those that choose to pursue the field as a career, they can find jobs as social workers, advocates for various issues, health clinic coordinators, non-profit workers, college professors, and so many others. So by taking a women’s studies course, you might just find something new that you’re passionate about and want to pursue. I can at least guarantee that you’ll gain knowledge that will help you as a human being to excel in any job in any field.

My hope is that more and more people take women’s studies course every year. They are more enlightening and empowering than most courses in college. Some of my greatest role models and inspirations have come from my women’s studies courses. I felt incredibly fulfilled while taking these classes and I was driven to excel for more than just a letter grade. Next time you’re registering for classes, take a look at what women’s studies courses are offered at your school and sign up for at least one of them. I promise you won’t regret it and it may just be the best decision you’ve made in your entire life.