Women, Power, and Politics

Catalog description

Women, Power, and Politics involves a critical examination of the impact of gender on the forms and distributions of power and politics, with primary reference to the experience of women in the United States. Major concerns of the course include the political meanings and import of "sex," "gender," and "politics;" the relationship between women and the state; how women organize collectively to influence state policies; and how the state facilitates and constrains women's access to and exercise of political power. The course is organized around four foci central to the study of women and politics. The first section of the course focuses on the meanings of "women," "gender," and "politics." In this section, we will consider how these concepts intersect and the ways in which each may be used to deepen our understanding of the workings of governments and political systems, and of women's relative political powerlessness. The second section of the course employs these concepts to understand the (re) emergence of the US feminist movement, its meanings, practices, and goals, and its transformation across US political history. In the third section, we turn to conventional electoral politics, focusing on women's candidacies, their campaigns, and women's voting behavior. In the final section of the course, we consider those general factors that might provide for increased gender equality and improved life status for women, in global, comparative perspective. Offered as POSC 346 , POSC 446 and WGST 346 .