WMST3013 Gendering Politics and Policy: Justice, Rights and Representation

2018

4.5

1 x 2-hour workshop weekly

WMST3003 has been successfully completed

Associated Majors: Women's Studies

This topic proposes to consider a wide range of contemporary debates emanating from feminist political theory and its challenge to traditional thought in the political sciences, which have implications for gender politics, policy and the law. The topic draws on an interdisciplinary approach and thus students will be introduced to theoretical challenges and case studies around some of the following areas: gender and the state, gender and justice, feminism and the law, feminist philosophy, citizenship and representation, gender and social policy, gender and human rights and women and political participation.

This topic considers a wide range of contemporary debates emanating from feminist political theory and its challenge to traditional thought in the political sciences. Bearing in mind that many intellectual challenges have not arisen exclusively from within the discipline of politics the topic will draw on an inter-disciplinary approach. The aim of the topic therefore is to introduce students to a wide range of debates related to the topic theme such as Female Suffrage and Maternal Citizenship, Gender and the State, the Politics of Gender and Race, Gender and the Law, Gender and Public Policy and Gender and Human Rights.

Students sucessfully completing this topic should be able to:

• Critically evaluate the main theories and modes of explanation for considering questions related to gender, the state, citizenship and justice;
• Rresearch gender issues related to politics and policy making, present finding both verbally and in written form, in accordance with good scholarly practice;
• Identify and demonstrate ways in which women are disempowered and empowered in culturally specific social, economic and political circumstances;
• Undertake an independent research paper on a substantive issue, encompassed within this topic, pursuant to the specific specialist interest of the student