The course will employ a variety of instructional methods, including the following: lectures, class debates, video presentations, guest speakers, discussions and other small group learning activities.
Note: This course can count towards an Associate of Arts specialization in Gender, Sexualities and Women's Studies.
- Introduction and overview: why study women?
- Fighting for gender equality: the changing status of women in the Western world.
- Women's status worldwide.
- Theorizing inequality: feminist analyses of women's status in society.
- Biology, society, sex and gender: what makes women's and men's lives different?
- Gender socialization: the role of family, peers and the education system.
- The mass media and the social construction of femininity.
- Linguistic sexism.
- Gender and differences in verbal and non-verbal communication.
- Female sexuality and sexual relationships.
- 'A woman's place'? The role of marriage and family in women's lives.
- Women and paid work.
- Women and equality: a stalled revolution?
At the conclusion of the course the successful student will be able to:
- Identify historical changes in the situation of women, especially within the Canadian context.
- Evaluate the situation of women in Canada within the context of women's status in other parts of the world.
- Compare and assess a range of sociological explanations for women's subordinate status in societies worldwide.
- Explain the history of the twentieth century women's movement and the differences between competing feminist theories of women's inequality.
- Explain the limitations of mainstream feminist theories within the changing Canadian cultural mosaic and discuss the emergence of complementary and alternative approaches.
- Discuss the significance of debates about the origins (biological and/or societal) of gender differences.
- Explain and assess the strengths and weaknesses of different theories of gender socialization.
- Discuss the role of the family, mass media and other socio-cultural institutions in shaping women's lives.
- Explain the evolution of women's work in the home and their progress in paid employment, and discuss the implications of these changes.
- Evaluate the success of the feminist movement(s) with regards to the contemporary status of women in Canada and elsewhere in the world, and consider the directions and potential for feminism in the future.
- Demonstrate competence in utilizing a variety of sources of sociological evidence in order to assess the current status of women in society.
Evaluation will be based on course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with Douglas College policy. The instructor will provide a written course outline with specific criteria during the first week of classes.
Instructors may use a student’s record of attendance and/or level of active participation in the course as part of the student’s graded performance. Where this occurs, expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation will be clearly defined in the Instructor Course Outline.
An example of a possible evaluation scheme would be:
Test #1 15%
Test #2 15%
Final Exam 25%
Reading Journal 20%
Research Assignment 25%
Total 100%
Students may conduct research with human participants as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with college policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans.
Texts and other required readings will be updated periodically. Typical examples are:
- Kimmel, M. and Holler, J. (2011) The Gendered Society. Oxford University Press.