I was one of the 20 males in the class of 180
Now if I said this is class, I would probably offend someone.
I am a straight male who grew up in a patriarchal culture before I came to America.
I took the class because I heard it was easy.
In my point of view, this class was unbearable.
Yeah it can be easy, but it's so hard to study when opinions and view points are expected to be accepted as facts.

Your grade will HEAVILY depend of your TA. Your TA will grade your midterm and final and your weekly discussions essays (which are 30% of your grade). My TA (L. Reeve) expected all of us to agree with her viewpoints and if I did not my grade would have suffered.

Other TAs, emailed their classes on what the essay will be on so they can prepare what facts to study before.

Juliet's lecture slides are so useless. The lectures are more like an open discussion.

Use your phone or laptop and she will walk up to you and MAKE YOU pay attention to her viewpoints.

If you're not interested in the subject, it's a gamble because your grade depends on your TA

SO BE CAREFUL OUT THERE ALL YOU CISGENDER STRAIGHT MALES WHO KNOW NOTHING ABOUT GENDER STUDIES.
YOU MIGHT WANNA CONSIDER RUNNING AWAY FROM JULIET

I'll be honest, I only went to lecture like 6 times in the entire quarter. What really counts towards your grade is discussion, so it's important to not miss those. My TA made discussion very enjoyable because we would have group/class discussions. There were 3 paper in total ranging from 650-700 words each. It seems like nothing, but TAs expect a lot of connection to the course readings (provided by the professor). Other than that, the only work was weekly responses in discussion. In the beginning, you'll have about 7 minutes to answer the prompt your TA gives you relating to the material.

Weekly readings were sometimes a lot, but considering there were not exams, it was definitely worth it. Weekly graded reading quizzes in section and three 700 word essays, if i remember correctly. Overall really easy to manage and you don't need to be in lecture, since you don't have an exam, and the topic tends to veer off course. You'll only get through maybe 3 slides a lecture. Depends on how strict a grader your TA is, but if you show up to section, you'll get a basic idea of what they're like.

I went to every lecture and every time I regretted it. She posts the slides on CCLE and she goes off topic a lot. When she doesn't go off topic she's just reading off the slides. Of course, she goes over the reading and what not but if you do the reading this is pretty much just a review.
The discussions are very mandatory. They have you answer ONE question based on the readings. You never know which one they'll ask you about so you must read them all. If you participate you'll be guaranteed an A. I never did any of the extra credit and I still passed.
There aren't any exams just essays roughly 750-800 words (your basic 5 paragraph essay) baed on the readings. Not too bad. There are 3 essays in total. One to see where you are, second is your midterm and the third is the final. They don't grade too harshly on the grammar. The way to get a good grade is if they see you improve your writing.
Don't get me wrong Williams is very sweet and approachable, however I don't see the point in going to lecture. You should take this if you want an easy A.

I loved this class! Professor Williams is good. I didn't really know what to expect because I had never taken a class on gender, but I feel like I learned so much about socialized gender roles and the history of feminism. It was definitely eye-opening because now I notice myself starting to see some things in a different light. There were only three short 2-4 page essays and no exams. And the essays were cool because you had three different prompts with three different due dates so you got to choose which prompt/due date you'd want to turn in. My TA was Shondrea Thornton and she was the best. She really built upon the material presented in the readings and lecture and going to discussion never felt like a waste of time. She was super insightful and made the material more interesting. I'm thinking about becoming a Gender Studies minor because of her!!

I'm not sure why there are negative reviews about Prof Williams! I loved her lectures, and found the topics very interesting. If you're closed minded about what gender, sex, and race are, don't take this class. However, you're grade completely depends on your TA. I highly recommend Shondra Thompson. She was amazing and knew what she was talking about. I wish I could take this class again and again.

Your grades totally depend on your TA, with some TAs being really lenient and give perfect grades on your essay(I know this from my friends who had an easier TA); while others being extremely strict and somewhat unfair.
I had a TA who failed to explain the concepts clearly in the discussion and was inconsistent in her grading. Although she is not the most strict to my knowledge, as commented by others earlier, "the unfairness in the class is sickening ".

First of all, I really love the materials in this class. It is really interesting and let me rethink the gender.
HOWEVER, the professor really does not make sense in her class. Barely anyone I know went to the lecture even though she gave extra credit if you go to 15 lectures. I tried going at first, but I just fell asleep because I really cannot follow her.
Besides, this class is SO UNFAIR. I know some of my friends get some 100/100 in their paper. I am like, seriously??? and I know some of the TA, as long as you show up in the discussion, they gave you full credit and they finished the discussion earlier.
My TA, Jennifer, really does not make sense in her discussion. She never talks about her understanding of the materials and she only asks students to have the discussion themselves. Everyone just got more confused after the discussion.
But there are still some good TA.
Anyway, DON'T take this class, instead, ask your friends for the class material cuz it is really interesting!!

The unfairness in this class is sickening

Since this class doesn’t have any exam m, your grade entirely depends on how lenient is your TA. My TA is very picky in terms of everything that she grades and even said during discussion that she absolutely disregard any negotiations.