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Gender, Rights, & Leadership in History (HIST10017)
Undergraduate level 1Points: 12.5Dual-Delivery (Parkville)
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About this subject
- Overview
- Eligibility and requirements
- Assessment
- Dates and times
- Further information
- Timetable(opens in new window)
Contact information
Semester 2
Overview
Availability | Semester 2 - Dual-Delivery |
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Fees | Look up fees |
This subject introduces key issues in the history of sex, gender, power and identity. Students will be encouraged to think critically about ideas about gender across diverse places and times and how they have constrained or enabled change. We will examine the challenges faced by women (and people of other minoritized genders and sexualities) in gaining legal and political recognition. Attention will be given both to structural inequalities and changing assumptions about masculinity and femininity, gender relations, sex roles and sexual practices.
The subject focuses first on women’s struggles for rights – to education, the vote, work, citizenship, rights within marriage, reproductive rights – as well as campaigns for recognition of diverse sexualities and of gendered violence. We will analyse these historical contests about gender, within and across lines of race, class and sexuality, reflecting also on how imperialism, colonialism, capitalism and socialism shaped such contests and how people tackled multiple bases of oppression. We will examine struggles to achieve equal rights, so often a goal of the modern state, but also strategies to uphold them across diverse social and political contexts. We ask however what would constitute progress in these areas, to what extent it has been achieved, and why progress is also sometimes reversed.
Secondly the subject focuses on the challenges that women have faced historically in exercising leadership and political power. We critically analyse the experiences of some of the most iconic and mythologised women leaders, as well as a selection of significant women who inherited or were appointed or elected to national leadership. Most of the world’s nations have never had a woman leader. Does history help us understand why this is so? And what does this mean for how women are considered as leaders and for the history of women and power? We also examine the experiences of women and people of other minoritized genders and sexualities who led campaigns for social, political and economic reform.
Students will read a range of primary sources and learn continually to reflect on the gendered nature of history. The subject will include case studies from Australia, Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Classes will be two one-hour lectures with a 1-hour tutorial a week.
Intended learning outcomes
On completion of this subject, students should be able to:
- describe the different ways women have been involved in shaping major world events;
- be open to new ideas and possibilities and expressing responses to them through constructing an intellectual argument, and demonstrate research skills through competent use of primary materials which are textual and visual alongside scholarly literature and other sources of information;
- reflect critically on various interpretations of leadership and gender in different times and places;
- be able to communicate knowledge intelligibly and economically through written work and class discussions;
- identify how gender and power have been culturally and socially constructed in history and the present;
- analyse the intersection of gender, class, race and ethnicity in power structures, and recognise how these are shaped over time.
Generic skills
Student who successfully complete this subject should be able to:
- apply knowledge gained alongside critical thinking skills to solve problems in contexts such as workplaces and communities;
- be open to new ideas and perspectives;
- take challenges in their thinking, considering multiple possibilities and viewpoints, while always responding in an ethical and responsible manner, and
- develop time management and planning skills.
Last updated: 19 April 2024
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
None
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
None
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 19 April 2024
Assessment
Description | Timing | Percentage |
---|---|---|
Document analysis
| Week 4 | 15% |
Essay plan
| Mid semester | 20% |
Research essay
| Week 11 | 35% |
Reflective task
| During the examination period | 30% |
Researching History Module
| Early in the teaching period | 0% |
Hurdle requirement: 75% of tutorials need to be attended. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked. All pieces of assessment must be submitted to pass this subject. | Throughout the semester | N/A |
Additional details
Note: Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per day. After five working days late assessment will not be marked. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked.
Last updated: 19 April 2024
Dates & times
- Semester 2
Principal coordinator Annabelle Baldwin Mode of delivery Dual-Delivery (Parkville) Contact hours 24 x 1 hour lectures and 11 x 1 hour tutorials Total time commitment 170 hours Teaching period 25 July 2022 to 23 October 2022 Last self-enrol date 5 August 2022 Census date 31 August 2022 Last date to withdraw without fail 23 September 2022 Assessment period ends 18 November 2022 Semester 2 contact information
Last updated: 19 April 2024
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
There are no specifically prescribed or recommended texts for this subject.
- Breadth options
This subject is available as breadth in the following courses:
- Bachelor of Biomedicine
- Bachelor of Commerce
- Bachelor of Design
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Animation)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Film and Television)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Music Theatre)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Production)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Screenwriting)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Theatre)
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Art)
- Bachelor of Music
- Bachelor of Science
- Available through the Community Access Program
About the Community Access Program (CAP)
This subject is available through the Community Access Program (also called Single Subject Studies) which allows you to enrol in single subjects offered by the University of Melbourne, without the commitment required to complete a whole degree.
Entry requirements including prerequisites may apply. Please refer to the CAP applications page for further information.
- Available to Study Abroad and/or Study Exchange Students
This subject is available to students studying at the University from eligible overseas institutions on exchange and study abroad. Students are required to satisfy any listed requirements, such as pre- and co-requisites, for enrolment in the subject.
Last updated: 19 April 2024