Prof Sylvia Chant STC417a and Dr Martina Klett-Davies

Ms Jordana Ramalho

This course is available on the BA in Geography, BSc in Environment and Development, BSc in Environmental Policy with Economics and BSc in Geography with Economics. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

It would be an advantage if students have some grounding in gender and/or development issues from a second year course such as GY200 Economy, Society and Space, or GY202 Introduction to Development in the South.

An analysis of the geography of gender at a global scale covering high income countries, emerging economies and developing nations. The course focuses on the variability of gender roles and relations and their socio-spatial implications in different geographical contexts.

MT: Gender in the Global South- 'Engendering' the development agenda; Conceptualising and measuring gender inequality; the UNDP gender indices and beyond; Fertility, reproduction and health; Households and families; Employment and and the 'informalisation' and 'feminisation' of labour; Gender dimensions of national and international migration; Gender and development policy; Girls and GAD; Men and masculinities.

LT: Gender in high income and emerging economies: Gender inequality in a global context; Production and reproduction; Gender work and identity; Theorising the changing organisation of work, gender divisions between paid and unpaid work;  Global cities: polarisation and feminisation of work; Migrant workers and the global care chain. Changing gender divisions in high income and emerging economies – China; Economic crisis and gender equality; Policies for gender equality.

10 hours of lectures and 9 hours of classes in the MT. 10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the LT.

Students will be expected to produce one essay per term, and will also be expected to give class papers.

No one book covers the entire syllabus, but the following are useful basic reading:

MT: Benedek, W., Kisaakye, E. & Oberleitner, G. (2002) (Eds), Human Rights of Women: International Instruments and African Experiences, London: Zed; Chant, S. (Ed.) (2010) The International Handbook of Gender and Poverty: Concepts, Research, Policy, Cheltenham: Elgar; Cornwall, A., Harrison, E. & Whitehead, A. (Eds) (2007), Feminisms in Development, London: Zed; Jackson, C. and Pearson, R. (Eds) (1998), Feminist Visions of Development, London: Routledge; Kabeer, N. (2003) Gender Mainstreaming in Poverty Eradication and the Millennium Development Goals, London: Commonwealth Secretariat.

LT: Ehrenrich, B. & Hochschild, A. (2004) Global Women: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy, New York: Jain, D. and Elson, D (Eds) (2011) Harvesting Feminist Knowledge for Public Policy; Lutz, H. (2011) The New Maids, London: Zed; McDowell, L. (2009) Working Bodies: Interactive Service Employment and Workplace Identities, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell; Sassen, S. (2007) Sociology of Globalization, London: W.W. Norton. 

Exam (75%, duration: 3 hours) in the main exam period.
Essay (25%, 2500 words) in the LT.

This is a small course but one which seems to have had high levels of student satisfaction and a good cluster of 2.1 and first class marks over the years