The program in Gender and Women's Studies combines the field of women's studies with the study of masculinities, sexualities, and the intersections of gender with other social categories. Each of these areas brings to the study of society and culture the perspective of gender as a category of analysis. Such analysis, rooted in feminist scholarship, challenges the distorted perception of human experience that results when a dominant group (such as men, heterosexuals, whites) is viewed as the unquestioned "norm,” omitting or casting as "abnormal” the experience of non-dominant groups. Such analysis insists that a liberal education opens our minds to the missing voices, experiences and concerns which expand our sense of the world and of knowledge itself.