The central mission of the Women's and Gender Studies Program is to use gender, along with race and class, as categories of analysis, to help students investigate the role that gender plays in our history, art, politics, education, sports, health, culture and family. The program grew out of the limitations that instructors perceived in the liberal arts curriculum as it was traditionally structured, with its overwhelming concentration on the perspective of privileged men. The program addresses issues of neglect, omission, and bias in curricula while honing those critical thinking skills vital to a liberal education. With the assistance of the community-based Friends of Women's and Gender Studies, the program sponsors visiting scholars, lectures, films, and conferences devoted to the advancement of women's and gender studies.