INTL 421/521 Gender and International Development     Summer 2009

Professor Anita M. Weiss

T, Th 7/21-8/11, 2009
    4-8:20 pm, 348 PLC

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This course analyzes the changing roles, opportunities and expectations of Third World women and men as their societies undergo social upheavals associated with development, and the resultant impact this has on gender relations and power. We begin with an overview of terminology and concepts, complemented by a theoretical review which interrogates issues of representation and process. We then turn to looking at economic, cultural and political forces affecting women’s lives in comparative contexts and the interconnection between gender, development and social change. These topics include changing gender roles in the global political economy given the ongoing processes of globalization, participation and policy initiatives at the global level, international human rights concerns, and the role of the United Nations in addressing women’s global empowerment. We conclude with global efforts to empower women, including the effects of the various U.N. conferences and the role of the U.N. Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) and global efforts, in particular, to ratify and implement the U.N. CEDAW Convention.

 Course Objectives:
1. To understand the variety of ‘traditional’ gender relations that existed in the pre-colonial Third World, particularly differentiating between male-farming system and female-farming system societies, and the effects that colonialism had on such gender relations;
2. To gain awareness of the range of issues that affect women’s roles and rights in the Third World today as their societies undergo the process of development, how the development process affects men and women differently, and how changing power relations between men and women have consequences for development prospects;
3. To understand the historical process of women’s marginalization in the global economy and women’s current status, particularly in export processing zones, global assembly lines, and in UNSNA calculations;
4. To understand the role played by the United Nations and other donor agencies in the development process, particularly: i) how development projects affect local gendered power relations; and ii) global efforts to prioritize women’s empowerment (e.g., the U.N. Decade for Women; the 1995 Beijing conference; the 2000 Beijing+5 conference; and the CEDAW Convention);
5. To gain an understanding of the circumstances by which “women transformed international development.”

for questions regarding this site please e-mail Professor Anita Weiss