Sex, Gender and Power

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2010:

For the purposes of considering requests for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.

The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website : http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

This subject is an introduction to the study of gender, sex and sexuality exploring the recent histories of feminisms and feminist thinking about gender, difference and the origins of sexual inequality. Key themes include: structures and institutions of sexual inequality including the family, marriage, mothering, sexual divisions of labour, masculinities and femininities, bodies and sexualities. and their relationships to the workings of power, especially the intersections of gender and sexuality with "race", ethnicity, class and nation. The final section of the course considers "third world" feminisms and postfeminism in a transnational and global context.

Students who successfully complete this subject

• complete the subject with the ability to demonstrate a sound understanding of the main developments in feminist theorising about sex, gender and identity and of the issues involved in debates about feminist knowledges.
• a sound understanding of the main frameworks for the analysis of gender relations within social structures and institutions and debates about feminist knowledges, with a particular focus on cross-cultural comparisons of such frameworks
• an awareness of the main developments in feminist thinking about the origins and historical development of gender inequality
• a good understanding of the main developments in feminist thinking about the relationships between culture, gender and identity and the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity and class.

A reader will be available in the university bookshop.

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Biomedicine
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Environments
• Bachelor of Music
• Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Engineering

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

Students who successfully complete this subject will:

• demonstrate research skills through competent use of the library and other information sources.
• show critical thinking and analysis and ability to communicate knowledge intelligibly and economically through recommended reading, essay writing and tutorial discussion, and by determining the strength of an argument.
• demonstrate understanding of social, ethical and cultural context through the contextualisation of judgements, developing a critical self-awareness, being open to new ideas and possibilities and by constructing an argument.

This is a core subject for the minor in the interdisciplinary program in Gender Studies. This subject may also be completed as part of the interdisciplinary program in Asian studies, and as part of the social theory minor and sequence and the BA in Anthropology and Social Theory. Students who have completed 131-116 prior to 2008 may not enrol in this subject.

This subject satisfies the third-year breadth requirement for third-year students in the Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Biomedicine when taken in 2010 only.