COURSE DESCRIPTION
Analyzes historical and contemporary social, cultural, political, and economic factors affecting the role of women. Uses selected literature about women in the modern world as a basis for study and discussion. Lecture 3 hours per week.
GENERAL COURSE PURPOSE
SSC 205 provides students with an opportunity to look at the major social and cultural factors that affect the role of women. It provides an understanding of how one of the most basic aspects of personal identity, gender, is socially and culturally shaped. By examining society from women's viewpoint it offers an alternative perspective on self and society.
ENTRY LEVEL COMPETENCIES
No prerequisites
COURSE OBJECTIVES
To provide students with the knowledge and the concepts necessary to understand women’s position and perspective in contemporary societies. By the end of the course students should be able to knowledgeably discuss:
B. The place women occupy in the contemporary world
C. The factors that account for that placement
D. How women respond to that placement
E. Possible directions of change
B. The historical roots of contemporary gender roles
C. Socialization to gender roles
D. Gender and self
E. Macro-structural factors influencing women’s roles: Family, economy and choice of education, polity, religion
F. Differences among women themselves-class, race, age
G. Changes in women’s situations
H. Recent approaches to reconceptualizing women’s worlds.