ASOK15428U Gender and development CANCELLED

This course employs a comparative perspective to examine how gender affects and is impacted by the theories, experiences and policies of international development.  Underlying the discussions is a normative debate on the “rules” of inequality. We will begin by discussing the historical evolution of how the concept of gender has been constructed, conceptualized, and integrated into international development theory and practice.  We will then examine how greater attention to gender issues has challenged the assumptions behind the theoretical frameworks and the policy prescriptions guiding international development.  Here, we will focus on the contributions that feminist scholars have made in re-theorizing women’s role in the economy by looking at issues of intra-household dynamics of power, distribution, and control; reproductive and unpaid work; and productive work, especially in the informal sectors and in the contemporary context of shifting structures of global production.  Finally, we will examine how feminist activists and scholars have organized to improve women’s power and position in the economies of the South.  Here we will examine theories of empowerment, gender and the welfare state.  We will conclude with a debate on the future prospects of the growing field of transnational feminist movements.  Although there are no specific course prerequisites for this course, students are expected to have some background in international development and in a social science discipline