Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies offers many exciting opportunities including the Legislative Internship Program. In this program, you get hands-on experience working eight hours a week with a state legislator or advocacy group while earning course credit. Learn how laws are made and what role citizens can have in the process. This is great preparation for a career in public policy or political organizing. To participate, enroll in GWSS 4504 (Fall Semester) which teaches you about the legislative process while GWSS 4505 (Spring Semester) guides you through the internship. This fulfills the CLE Citizenship and Public Ethics requirement. It also fulfills the Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies major requirement of two 4xxx-level courses in junior or senior year.

Accepting applications now. Prerequisites or permission of instructor required.***

For more information about legislative internships, contact the Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at 612-624-6809.
Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies LEGISLATIVE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM -LIFE CHANGING CLASSES WHERE YOU CAN LEARN TO CHANGE THE WORLD

If you want to learn first hand about how state laws are made, and what difference women can or do make in that process, this is a program that will demystify the legislative arena and invite your involvement. By enrolling in GWSS 4504 and GWSS 4505, a year-long program, you will have an opportunity to learn about the power of women as legislators, advocates, and citizens and get direct hands-on experience in the state legislature. Like other students who have taken these classes, you just might go on to an exciting career in public policy, law, or political work.

Women and the Legislative Process (GWSS 4504)and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Legislative Internship (GWSS 4505) are designed to help you learn how to take an idea and turn it into law. Along the way, you’ll learn how to fight sexism, racism, classism and overcome other hurdles at the State Capitol, analyze issues, assess power, lobby, work with the media and organize at the grassroots. And you will work directly with a legislator or advocacy group during the legislative session.

GWSS 4504, Women and the Legislative Process, Fall Semester, 3 credits, Tuesday 5:00-7:30 p.m., (instructor Karen Clark) offers a unique introduction to law-making and the workings of state government, revealing how Minnesota laws are actually made and exploring what difference, if any, women make when they are public officials or lobbyists and advocates. The course examines current and historical roles and particular impacts of women in state and legislative bodies. In this class, you will meet with local women legislators, lobbyists, and citizen/community organizers in the classroom and at the State Capitol. Readings may include selections from: Women and Elective Office: Past, Present and Future by Sue Thomas & Clyde Wilcox; When Women Lead: Integrative Leadership and State Legislatorship by Cindy Simon Rosenthal; and various other publications from the University of Minnesota Center for Women and Public Policy, Rutger’s Center for the American Woman and Politics, and the Center for Policy Alternatives. In GWSS 4505, Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Legislative Internship, Spring Semester, 3 credits students will work as interns at least eight hours per week at the Capitol. In class, students will discuss and analyze their experience, relate their experience to assigned readings, and provide each other with support for their internships. GWSS 4505 has GWSS 4504 as a prerequisite, although students may take the class with the permission of the instructor or substitute GWSS 4502 or an equivalent introduction to lawmaking and the legislature.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

All students majoring or considering a major or minor in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies or a related area are invited to take part in GWSS 4504 and GWSS 4505. Students who want to work as an intern for a legislator during the legislative session must enroll in GWSS 4505. To get into this class, students must have a B or higher grade in GWSS 4504 (or equivalent course preparation, such as GWSS 4502) and apply for a legislative internship during the month of November prior to the internship experience. Applications are due concurrently with registration in GWSS 4505. Application forms can be obtained in the Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Undergraduate Office.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Karen Clark, M.A. in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, has served in the Minnesota House of Representatives for twenty years. She has been recognized for her legislative leadership on economic and social justice issues including affordable housing, gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender civil rights, culturally specific domestic violence and childcare, sexual harassment, living wages, and conversion of military industries.