Course Catalogue

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Despite claims to improved gender equality, gender remains an organising principle of social relations and gender politics are still an area of contestation and debate in contemporary societies. The way in which we organise everyday life around differences between women and men and binary notions of gender draws on particular understandings about sexed bodies and produces gendered outcomes.

The course will focus predominantly on everyday life: we will look at how gender inequalities are embedded, negotiated and challenged in everyday life, and through this we will examine the connections between personal and collective experience and larger social and political structures. We will consider how gender relations are enmeshed with practices of power, and how a critical examination of power dynamics can unlock the potential for social change.

Lecture: 1 hour per week for 10 weeks.

Seminar: 1 hour per week for 10 weeks.

Mandatory Entry Requirements

Entry to Honours Sociology requires a grade point average of 12 (Grade C) over Sociology 2A and Sociology 2B as a first attempt.

None

None.

This course is assessed through:

1. A reflective diary, worth 40% of the mark (weekly entries (300 word) x 5 weeks= 1,500 words)

2. A 2,500 word essay worth 60% of the mark

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. Where, exceptionally, reassessment on Honours courses is required to satisfy professional/accreditation requirements, only the overall course grade achieved at the first attempt will contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below.

The aim of the course is to deepen students' understandings of sociological perspectives on gender, building on teaching on gender at level 1 and level 2. The course will explore how gender relates to sex, how it shapes social structures and power dynamics, how it articulates with other forms of inequality, and how it is experienced and negotiated in everyday life by different social actors and groups. The course will provide students with a framework for thinking critically about gender and everyday life.

By the end of this programme students will be able to:

• identify and evaluate key concepts related to the sociological analysis of gender;

• critically apply relevant theories and concepts from sociology and related disciplines to the analysis of gender relations and inequalities in everyday life;

• demonstrate an awareness of methodological, ethical and political issues associated with sociological research in the field of gender studies;

• evaluate competing arguments about gender in current public and political debates.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.