Sociology of Gender

2021/2022

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

3

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

School of Sociology

Course type:

Elective course

When:

3 year, 2 module

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Why should we study “gender” as sociologists? Like other elements of our social identity and membership in social groups, gender often operates as a background to what we do in our daily lives. And it is this salience that makes it so fascinating to begin exercising our sociological imagination and uncovering “gendered” patterns of behaviour within “gendered” social spaces and institutions (organisations, workplaces, the family). In this course thus we will focus on theoretical perspectives that approach gender as a social construct – as a practice, process, and discourse. But gender does not exist in a vacuum. In this course, we will also look at how gender intersects with other parts of our identities and other social structures of inequality such as class, race/ethnicity, and sexuality. This will help us to begin to think about multiple masculinities and femininities.

Learning Objectives

• The aim of this course is to introduce students to the main theoretical approaches in the field of the sociology of gender and provide them with an opportunity to discuss these theories in class and apply them to various real-life issues and events.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• The students will learn about the historical roots of the sociology of gender: how sex/gender figured in sociological accounts prior to more critical debates of the 1970s; how ideas that had emerged dueing the "second wave feminism" entered sociology; and what influence these ideas had on sociological analysis.
• The students will learn about the main theoretical ideas in the sociology of gender. They will also discuss in class how the perspective known in sociology as the social constructionism can be applied to "gender" (i.e. how people as social agents have the ability to actively reflect on and engage with different social norms and expectations regarding what it means to be men and women).
• The students will learn and discuss how gender relations and hierarchies influence the process of migration, with the focus on labor migration and the so-called transnational care chains.
• The students will learn and discuss how the most intimate elements of our daily lives – sexual and romantic experiences - are shaped by society.
• The students will learn how gender hierarchies, inequalities, and identies are (re)produced and negotiated by partners in the family. One of the centrail issues here is the system of the gendered division of labour. The students will discuss how this division is reproduced through unpaid labour at home as well as paid labour at work, and how it forms the basis for a gender identity.
• The students will learn how gender relations and identities play out in organizations (i.e. at work). The students will also learn about and discuss the main relevant concepts and theories: gender pay gap, the gender pyramid, 'glass ceiling', 'sticky floor', 'glass cliff', glass escalator; sexual harassment at work; emotional labour, the gendered division of labour; the theory of gendered organisations.
• The students will learn the key terms and concepts used in a sub-field of social sciences referred to as masculinities' studies (or men and masculinities). The students will also discuss the main theoretical overlpas in studies of masculinities and in studies looking at the lives and experiences of women.

Course Contents

• The sociology of gender: what is it? Why study it?
• The social construction of gender
• Men and Masculinities
• Gender, sexuality and intimacy
• Gender in the family
• Gender, work and organisations
• Gender and migration

Assessment Elements

• Посещение занятий
• Тест №1
• Reading reflection
  The reading reflection assignment is meant to encourage students to reflect on what they have read. It allows students to begin to internalize the information by summaring it in their own words. It also helps students to make connections between what they have read and what they already know. Finally, the reading reflection assignment provides feedback to the lecturer for just-in-time discussion of topics that are confusing to students.
• Эссе
  Penalty for late submission: 2.5 points per day. For example: if your mark was meant to be 10/10 but you submitted within one day (24 hours) after the deadline, you will receive 7.5/10.
• Тест №2
• Тест №3
• Тест №4

Interim Assessment

• 2021/2022 2nd module
  0.1 * Тест №1 + 0.15 * Reading reflection + 0.35 * Эссе + 0.1 * Тест №4 + 0.1 * Тест №2 + 0.1 * Посещение занятий + 0.1 * Тест №3

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Kim, Y. (2011). Transnational Migration, Media and Identity of Asian Women : Diasporic Daughters. New York: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=441818
• Гендерная сегрегация и трудовая мобильность на российском рынке труда, Мальцева, И. О., 2006

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Eichler, M. (2012). Militarizing Men : Gender, Conscription, and War in Post-Soviet Russia. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1516666
• Women, Gender and Labour Migration. Historical and global Perspectives. (2004). Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsnar&AN=edsnar.oai.pure.rug.nl.publications.eced3cec.f9b1.4cd5.93db.3267e0baeb84