Gender Issues in Development (DEVT90040)

As a fundamental cross-cutting theme in development theory and practice today, gender discourse and practices have gone beyond the exclusive focus on feminist activism in the 1970s. What began as a preoccupation with women's discrimination and disadvantage and the lack of their visibility in development initiatives became a broader concern with the nature of relations between men and women. Drawing on the scholarship in gender studies, development studies, political science, sociology and anthropology, the subject will examine key gender and development concepts and debates through case studies from the developing world. It will cover important themes in the gender and development literature such as power and inequalities, economic development and poverty, work and labour, and marriage and family as well as sexualities, masculinities, childhood, violence, and HIV/AIDS. Various dimensions of difference such as race, ethnicity, class, nationality, and religion intersect with gender and sexuality to form myriad lived experiences and perspectives. The subject will investigate these themes through an intersectional lens in order to address the complex realities we experience and embody.