Gender, Human Rights and Development

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2008:

Objectives:

A candidate who has successfully completed the subject should:

• Have a critical understanding of the key human rights instruments and development policies and programs that have sought to promote womens equality since 1945
• Understand the interrelationship between womens enjoyment of human rights and their equal participation in, and benefiting from, economic development
• Understand the theoretical debates about how best to conceptualise sex/ gender [in]equality, the different legal conceptions of sex/gender equality, and the problems associated with measuring and assessing substantive equality
• Appreciate the new contributions by postcolonial legal scholars to understanding the diversity of womens experiences of inequality and the role played by customary and colonial laws as well as international economic institutions
• Appreciate the critical contributions of womens movements and nongovernmental organisations to advancing womens equality
• Be able to critically assess the strategies used to promote womens advancement in both the human rights and economic development fields and propose alternative approaches
• Understand the role of men in achieving gender equality
• Understand how to utilise the many international institutions and mechanisms that have a role to play in advancing womens equality.

Syllabus:

This subject will trace the history and examine the impact of the strategies adopted by advocates for womens equality in the fields of human rights law and economic development.

Principal topics will include:

• The links between human rights and economic development to improve womens economic and social status
• The tensions between these strategies and the consolidation of the market-led development model during the 1990s
• Impediments to the realisation of womens equality and how these might be overcome, including conceptual inadequacies in relating to equality and gender, institutional marginalisation, gender bias in the law, the limits of legal liberalism, fears of cultural imperialism and lack of political will
• The work of postcolonial feminists, uncovering some of the hidden histories of womens resistance to colonial laws and policies
• The limitations and potential of law in promoting womens equality and social justice.

• Examination 3 hours (100%) (23 January 2009)
  or
• Research paper 10,000 words (100%) (16 February 2009) (topic approved by the subject coordinator)

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

Objectives:

A candidate who has successfully completed the subject should:

• Have a critical understanding of the key human rights instruments and development policies and programs that have sought to promote womens equality since 1945
• Understand the interrelationship between womens enjoyment of human rights and their equal participation in, and benefiting from, economic development
• Understand the theoretical debates about how best to conceptualise sex/ gender [in]equality, the different legal conceptions of sex/gender equality, and the problems associated with measuring and assessing substantive equality
• Appreciate the new contributions by postcolonial legal scholars to understanding the diversity of womens experiences of inequality and the role played by customary and colonial laws as well as international economic institutions
• Appreciate the critical contributions of womens movements and nongovernmental organisations to advancing womens equality
• Be able to critically assess the strategies used to promote womens advancement in both the human rights and economic development fields and propose alternative approaches
• Understand the role of men in achieving gender equality
• Understand how to utilise the many international institutions and mechanisms that have a role to play in advancing womens equality.

Syllabus:

This subject will trace the history and examine the impact of the strategies adopted by advocates for womens equality in the fields of human rights law and economic development.

Principal topics will include:

• The links between human rights and economic development to improve womens economic and social status
• The tensions between these strategies and the consolidation of the market-led development model during the 1990s
• Impediments to the realisation of womens equality and how these might be overcome, including conceptual inadequacies in relating to equality and gender, institutional marginalisation, gender bias in the law, the limits of legal liberalism, fears of cultural imperialism and lack of political will
• The work of postcolonial feminists, uncovering some of the hidden histories of womens resistance to colonial laws and policies
• The limitations and potential of law in promoting womens equality and social justice.

• Examination 3 hours (100%) (23 January 2009)
  or
• Research paper 10,000 words (100%) (16 February 2009) (topic approved by the subject coordinator)