166-227 International Gender Politics

Note

Available as 166-327 at 3rd-year level.

Availability

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Normally 25 points of first-year Politics; students with only 12.5 points in Politics may apply to the 2nd/3rd-year coordinator.

Contact

Subject Description

Subject will look at issues of gender and sexuality in an international context, starting from the idea of the importance of women's rights as human rights, and of gendering international relations. It will cover war and militarism and their effect on women, women's peace movements, the international division of labour, development and environmentalism, the effects of religious fundamentalisms, the politics of population and reproductive technologies, international trafficking in women, sexual violence, femicide, clioridectomy, the organisation of homosexuality and heterosexuality. It will also consider women's initiatives internationally for peace, the environment and against violence. Students who complete this subject should be able to: understand the ways in which gender politics might affect the study of international relations; understand how government policy and other forces operating in Australia and other western countries are affecting the lives and opportunities of women and relationships between men and women in the rest of the world; be familiar with developments in feminist theory on the issues of human rights, cultural relativism; have an understanding of international gender politics which can enrich their study of other subjects in the social sciences.

Assessment

Written work totalling 5000 words.