WGS EXAM 1 2026/2027 | WOMEN'S & GENDER STUDIES STUDY GUIDE,
PRACTICE QUESTIONS, ANSWERS & EXAM REVIEW
Androgyny - ANS ✔✔combination of masculine and feminine characteristics
Cisgender - ANS ✔✔people whose gender identity or expression matches their assigned gender at birth
gender expression - ANS ✔✔the way in which a person expresses their gender identity, typically through
their appearance, dress, and behavior.
gender identity - ANS ✔✔how people see themselves, as male or female, or something else
hegemonic masculinity - ANS ✔✔Masculine gender role that encourages competition for power,
subordination of women, control over fears and emotions, and heterosexual behavior
Heteronormativity - ANS ✔✔presumption that heterosexuality is ideal & normal, desirable, inherently
right & should be rewarded
Heteropatriarchy - ANS ✔✔societal norm of heterosexual couples in which man has more power than
the woman.
Heterosexism - ANS ✔✔inherent superiority of one sexual orientation overall others and heterosexual
dominance
Homophobia - ANS ✔✔fear or hatred of homosexuals
Intersex - ANS ✔✔a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't seem to fit the
typical definitions of female or male.
LGBTQ - ANS ✔✔lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender, queer
Pansexuality - ANS ✔✔attraction to members of all sexes and gender identities
queer - ANS ✔✔people who do do not embrace the heterosexual/homo binary or who- are gender fluid
Rules of gender - ANS ✔✔societal expectations for rigid distinctions b/w males and females
sex - ANS ✔✔biological characteristics with which one is born
sexual orientation - ANS ✔✔refers to a person's preference for emotional and sexual relationships with
individuals of the same sex, the other sex, or either sex
Transgender - ANS ✔✔individuals who gender expressions differs from their sex assigned at birth
Transsexual - ANS ✔✔people who change sex from what they were at birth
, Transphobia - ANS ✔✔fear or hatred of trans people
Curanderas - ANS ✔✔Hispanic healers who used massage in their tradition of folk medicine
the male gaze - ANS ✔✔
Decolonial feminism - ANS ✔✔intersectional feminism: undoing the structural, psychic, and spiritual
effects
Disidentification - ANS ✔✔Jose Munoz to describe a strategy used by LGBTQ people of color
Globalization - ANS ✔✔transnational interactive process between people, corporations, and national
governments that Is powered by economic trade and investment
Imperialism - ANS ✔✔One country's domination over another country's economic, political, and cultural
institutions.
First Wave Feminism - ANS ✔✔started in the mid-1800s when women demanded the right to vote
Suffrage Movement - ANS ✔✔movement dedicated to achieving women's right to vote
Second Wave Feminism - ANS ✔✔The feminist movement starting in the 1960s, particularly in America,
where women campaigned for social and economic rights in addition to the more basic rights they had
won during first-wave.
Seneca Falls Convention - ANS ✔✔(1848) the first national women's rights convention at which the
Declaration of Sentiments was written
Third Wave Feminism - ANS ✔✔evolved around the late 1980s and into the 1990s; an extension of as
well as a response to the shortcomings of the second wave
Patriarchy - ANS ✔✔institutional systems that privilege male authority, power, physicality, ways of
knowing, control, and lineage.
the personal is political - ANS ✔✔A feminist philosophy and slogan meaning that our personal lives are
interwoven with our social, cultural, and political surroundings and suggesting that our personal choices
and identities are political statements.
Identify Politics - ANS ✔✔ways that our politics are influenced by our social identities
hegemony - ANS ✔✔power exercised through indirect and cultural control, as opposed to domination,
which relies on coercion and force.
Androcentrism - ANS ✔✔Men at the center
Essentialism - ANS ✔✔
PRACTICE QUESTIONS, ANSWERS & EXAM REVIEW
Androgyny - ANS ✔✔combination of masculine and feminine characteristics
Cisgender - ANS ✔✔people whose gender identity or expression matches their assigned gender at birth
gender expression - ANS ✔✔the way in which a person expresses their gender identity, typically through
their appearance, dress, and behavior.
gender identity - ANS ✔✔how people see themselves, as male or female, or something else
hegemonic masculinity - ANS ✔✔Masculine gender role that encourages competition for power,
subordination of women, control over fears and emotions, and heterosexual behavior
Heteronormativity - ANS ✔✔presumption that heterosexuality is ideal & normal, desirable, inherently
right & should be rewarded
Heteropatriarchy - ANS ✔✔societal norm of heterosexual couples in which man has more power than
the woman.
Heterosexism - ANS ✔✔inherent superiority of one sexual orientation overall others and heterosexual
dominance
Homophobia - ANS ✔✔fear or hatred of homosexuals
Intersex - ANS ✔✔a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't seem to fit the
typical definitions of female or male.
LGBTQ - ANS ✔✔lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender, queer
Pansexuality - ANS ✔✔attraction to members of all sexes and gender identities
queer - ANS ✔✔people who do do not embrace the heterosexual/homo binary or who- are gender fluid
Rules of gender - ANS ✔✔societal expectations for rigid distinctions b/w males and females
sex - ANS ✔✔biological characteristics with which one is born
sexual orientation - ANS ✔✔refers to a person's preference for emotional and sexual relationships with
individuals of the same sex, the other sex, or either sex
Transgender - ANS ✔✔individuals who gender expressions differs from their sex assigned at birth
Transsexual - ANS ✔✔people who change sex from what they were at birth
, Transphobia - ANS ✔✔fear or hatred of trans people
Curanderas - ANS ✔✔Hispanic healers who used massage in their tradition of folk medicine
the male gaze - ANS ✔✔
Decolonial feminism - ANS ✔✔intersectional feminism: undoing the structural, psychic, and spiritual
effects
Disidentification - ANS ✔✔Jose Munoz to describe a strategy used by LGBTQ people of color
Globalization - ANS ✔✔transnational interactive process between people, corporations, and national
governments that Is powered by economic trade and investment
Imperialism - ANS ✔✔One country's domination over another country's economic, political, and cultural
institutions.
First Wave Feminism - ANS ✔✔started in the mid-1800s when women demanded the right to vote
Suffrage Movement - ANS ✔✔movement dedicated to achieving women's right to vote
Second Wave Feminism - ANS ✔✔The feminist movement starting in the 1960s, particularly in America,
where women campaigned for social and economic rights in addition to the more basic rights they had
won during first-wave.
Seneca Falls Convention - ANS ✔✔(1848) the first national women's rights convention at which the
Declaration of Sentiments was written
Third Wave Feminism - ANS ✔✔evolved around the late 1980s and into the 1990s; an extension of as
well as a response to the shortcomings of the second wave
Patriarchy - ANS ✔✔institutional systems that privilege male authority, power, physicality, ways of
knowing, control, and lineage.
the personal is political - ANS ✔✔A feminist philosophy and slogan meaning that our personal lives are
interwoven with our social, cultural, and political surroundings and suggesting that our personal choices
and identities are political statements.
Identify Politics - ANS ✔✔ways that our politics are influenced by our social identities
hegemony - ANS ✔✔power exercised through indirect and cultural control, as opposed to domination,
which relies on coercion and force.
Androcentrism - ANS ✔✔Men at the center
Essentialism - ANS ✔✔
