MODULE DETAILS

Description

1. Brief description and aims of module:

This module will examine the histories and representations of gender, seeking to understand how gender is constructed by societies, institutions and individuals over three centuries by focussing on Britain and the USA. It will consider how configurations of masculinity and femininity have shifted during a period of significant social, political and cultural change through discussions around topics such as  civil rights, societal roles and expected behaviours. It will also address how issues of class, sexual orientation, and race have intersected traditional gender consciousness and engage with new historical approaches which consider the part emotion plays in shaping constructions of gender. Students will be encouraged to critically examine their own assumptions, and, most importantly, to question popular and common-sense notions of gender. In doing so, the module enables students to consider the ways in which gender is central to making sense of the world around us today.

2. Outline syllabus: 

The syllabus may include some or all of the following topics:

• Understanding Gender/Key theoretical concepts

• Empire and Manifest Destiny: Gender roles in the age of expansion. 

• Suffrage: Gender and the Vote

• After the Vote: Between First and Second Waves of Feminism. 

• Intersectional Divides: Religion, Class, Race and Gender. 

• Mrs America and Mrs Whitehouse: Anti-Feminism during the Second Wave of Feminism. 

• Glass Ceilings: Gender and sexuality in the workplace, family, and civil society. 

• Sexual Revolutions: Medicine, the body, reproduction, consent and transgender identities.  

• Changing attitudes to masculinity

3. Teaching and learning activities: 

Lectures and workshops, small group seminars, one-to-one tutorials, drafting, feedback and response to feedback, visits

Assessment Details