About Gender and Development
This course addresses issues relating to gender and development. The emphasis is on theories and practices that address the interface between the material and discursive dimension of gender inequality and transformative politics, historical development of feminism, and its impacts, social formation of masculinities and felinities and their intersection with class, ethnicity, and other structural hierarchies; and the significance of gender differentiation and interrelationships in social intervention. The main issues that the course raises include: conceptualizing gender and sex, gender roles, gender mainstreaming, feminist movement, women and economic issues, such as power relation and violence, women’s assertiveness and political participation, social exclusion of women and development, feminist alternatives to development, international initiatives and national policies on women affairs. Also the course will review social and structural factors contributing for gender differentiation, such as social values, position in hierarchies of control, access to paid employment, resources, and gender life experience. Generally, it assesses the link between gender inequality issues with the development of a given society.