Sociology of Gender Relations

Recommended Prerequisites

General rules of access to 3rd cycles are applicable. 

Teaching Methods

Oral presentations will be complemented by class forums and opinion courts. In the weekly sessions, the group discussions will be focused on the strategies to integrate particular social theories about gender relations into selected research topics.

Learning Outcomes

The aim of this curricular unit is to promote and/or reinforce advanced theoretical and methodological competences concerned with the integration of sociological perspectives on sex/gender relations into students’ researches.

The students attending the course will:

• demonstrate an understanding of a wide range of sociological accounts of gender relations;
• gain a high level of awareness of the way gender relations impregnate on every dimension of social life;
• become familiar with theories and frameworks for analysing gender relations in different social contexts;
• be able to apply a wide range of theories to understand the substantive issues involved in gender relations and social change;
• expand transferable skills of verbal and written communication and self-reliant learning.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

 Sex/Gender social relations will be addressed under a plurality of historical and theoretical perspectives. The first step encompasses the re-examination of the theoretical debates on central dichotomies – sex/gender; equality/difference; mainstreaming/empowerment; essentialism/intersectionality; desconstructivism/neomaterialism;

The second step is centred on the analysis of the workings of sex/gender relations in some of the foremost objects of sociological analysis, namely, education, family, work and employment, culture, and politics.

Head Lecturer(s)

Virgínia do Carmo Ferreira

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Students’ class work (pro-activity and scientific level will be valued): 12.5%
Oral presentations: 37.5%
And a written essay (scientific paper): 50.0%

Bibliography

BACCHI, Carol;; EVELINE, Joan — Mainstreaming Politics. Adelaide UP, 2010

FERREIRA, Virgínia — “Relações Sociais de Sexo e Segregação do Emprego”, UC, 2004

FERREIRA, Virgínia — “Para uma redefinição da cidadania”. In Anabela Rodrigues [et al.], Direitos Humanos das Mulheres. Coimbra Edit, 2005

HACKETT, Elizabeth;; HASLANGER, Sally — Theorizing Feminisms, Oxford UP, 2006

KIMMEL, Michael — The Gendered Society. 3rd ed. Oxford UP, 2008

MATERIAL Feminisms. Stacy Alaimo & S. Hekman (ed). Indiana UP, 2008

VARIKAS, Eleni (2006) — Penser le sexe et le genre, Paris, PUF

POLITICS, gender, and concepts. Gary Goertz & Amy Mazur (ed). Cambridge UP 2008

RAPOSO, Vera — O poder de Eva. Almedina, 2004

THE GENDERED Society Reader. Michael Kimmel & A. Aronson (ed.) — 3rd ed, Oxford UP, 2007

WALBY, Sylvia — Globalization & Inequalities. Sage, 2009

VLEUTEN, Ann van der — The Price of Gender Equality, Ashgate, 2007