Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

A sociological study of the position of women and men in major social institutions in western industrial societies, in particular Canada. Social institutions that may be examined include: the family, education, the economy, the polity, law, and the mass media. Particular attention will be paid to social policy issues. Students with credit for SA 292 (when offered as gender relations) or GSWS 308 (or WS 308) may not take SA 335 for further credit.

COURSE DETAILS:

The concept of gender, and issue of inequality, has long been central to feminist thought. Although feminists agree that gender relations need not correspond to anatomy, little consensus exist on how to engage, disrupt and unsettle relations of domination. This course begins with the basic premise that gender is an organizing principle of society, evidenced by the different social positions occupied by men and women. Using a sociological approach, the course will examine how gender is socially constructed and identify social structures, institutions and cultural producers that reinforce the social boundaries that define gender.

Because gender does not operate in a vacuum, gender will be discussed in relation to its intersection with other social locations such as race, social class, sexuality, age, nationality and ethnicity. We will examine how differences based on gender are created and sustained, with particular attention to how other important basis of personal identity – race, class, ethnicity, nationality, migration status – interact with patterns of gender relations. Since gender relations are inevitably relations of domination, the course relies heavily on various feminist theories and their analysis of gender, as it intersects with race, social class, ethnicity, nationality and immigrant status. To hone understanding of the effects of gender and other forms of difference, particular focus will be paid to the migration/work nexus as a social issue, a gendered institution and policy framework indispensable for the formation and development of transnational neoliberal Canada.

While the course looks at differences between men and women overall, it also focuses on women’s experiences from multiple angles with the objective of generating unasked questions and interpretations, as well as broadening and complicating feminist analysis of the historical, political, social and economic relations that shape and gender women’s lives differently.

This course has a lecture/seminar format.

Grading

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

Custom courseware.

REQUIRED READING: