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 high income and emerging economies: Gender inequality in a global context; Production and reproduction; Gender 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 – in the UK, USA, Germany, China and in the Scandinavian and Eastern European countries; Policies for gender equality.

LT: 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 the 'informalisation' and 'feminisation' of labour; Gender dimensions of national and international migration; Gender and development policy; Girls and GAD; Men and masculinities.

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: Evans, M. (2017) The Persistence of Gender Inequality; Jain, D. and Elson, D (Eds) (2011) Harvesting Feminist Knowledge for Public Policy; Karamessini, M, and Rubery, J. (2014) Women and Austerity: The Economic Crisis and the Future for Gender Equality; Lutz, H. (2011) The New Maids, London: Zed; McDowell, L. (2013) Working Lives: Gender, Migration and Employment in Britain, 1945–2007 Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell; McDowell, L. (2009) Working Bodies: Interactive Service Employment and Workplace Identities; Perry, G. (2017) The Descent of Man, London: Penguin; Sassen, S. (2007) Sociology of Globalization, London: W.W. Norton; Taylor, Y. (2016) Fitting Into Place? Class and Gender Geographies and Temporalities.

LT: Benedek, W., Kisaakye, E. & Oberleitner, G. (2002) (Eds), Human Rights of Women: International Instruments and African Experiences, London: Zed; Benería, L., Berik,G.  & Floro,M. Gender, Development and Globalisation, 2nd ed., 2015; 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; UN Women, Progress of the World’s Women 2015-16: Transforming Economies, Realising Rights,2015

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