WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY AFRICA

FACULTY OF SOCIAL GENDER AND

TRANSFORMATIVE SCIENCES

Course Title Introduction to Gender Studies

Course Code SS122
Lecturer Information
Email
Contact Numbers

Course Description and Objectives

Description This course offers an introduction to Gender
Studies, an interdisciplinary academic field
that explores critical questions about the
meaning of gender in society.
Aim The aim of this course is to introduce to
students key concepts, history and the
development of feminism, current debates and
topical issues.
Course Objectives  Understand how Gender Studies as a
discipline developed and its value in
contemporary society.
 Apply the fundamental perspectives in
Gender Studies to solving and
addressing everyday life social
problems and issues.
 Understand the role of Gender Studies
in society, and in particular, its function
as a science and tool for advocacy and
social change.

Assessment of students Coursework 30%

Examination 70%
Assignment 1 Discuss the factors leading to the rise of
African Feminism (Due 23 March 2019)
Assignment 2 Using the Cycle of Violence provided,
examine the actions of both the abuser and the
victim (Due 17 April 2019)
Instructional methods Class lectures
 Seminar presentations
Group discussions

Course Outline
TOPIC 1: Introduction and key terms Gender/Sex, Gender and sex (roles),
Triple Roles, Domestic labor, Socialization,
Gender equality and equity

TOPIC 2: Patriarchy Meaning of Patriarchy, Emergence of

patriarchy, patriarchy and inequalities

TOPIC 3: Introduction to Feminism History of Western Feminism

Feminist waves
Feminist theories
Radical Feminism, Marxist Feminism,
Liberal Feminism, Black Feminism
(b)Post-Colonial Feminism/Third World
Feminism
History of Post-Colonial Feminism
African Feminism and African Feminists
Zimbabwean Feminists

TOPIC 4: Theoretical Perspectives on Biological explanation:

Gender Hormones and brains, Brain lateralization,
Evolutionary Perspective ,Psychoanalytic
theory
The Social Perspective
The social construction of gender, Social
learning theory, Cognitive Development
Theory

TOPIC 5: Gender and Social Institutions Gender issues in education

Obstacles to girls’ education
Gender issues in the workplace
Women and work, Obstacles to job satisfaction
and achievement
Gender issues in the media
Male and female images

TOPIC 6: Introduction to Human Rights International and Regional Instruments

and Instruments (CEDAW, SADC Gender Protocol etc.)
 Constitution of Zimbabwe (Section, 17, 80, 81
and 82)
(b) Domestic laws
Domestic Violence Act (2007), Sexual
offences Act (2001), Legal Age of Majority
Act (1982), Trafficking in Persons Act (2014),
Equal Pay Act (1980)

TOPIC 7: Gender Based Violence Forms of Domestic Violence, Cycle of

Violence, Effects of Domestic Violence,
Strategies to end Domestic Violence

Reading List

Acker, J. (1999) ‘Rewriting Class, Race, and Gender: Problems in Feminist Rethinking’, pp. 44–
69 in M.M. Ferree, J. Lorber and B.B. Hess (Eds) Revisioning Gender. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Amadiume, I. (1987) Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society.
London: Zed Books.
Bacchi, C.L. (1999) Women, Policy and Politics: The Construction of Policy Problems. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.

Bem, S.L. (1993) The Lenses of Gender: Transforming the Debate on Sexual Inequality. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Bem, S.L. (1998) An Unconventional Family. New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press.

Bourdieu, P. (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice, trans. R. Nice. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.
Braidotti, R. (1994) Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Feminist Theory.
New York: Columbia University Press.

Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York and
London: Routledge.
Butler, J. (1993) Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’. New York and London:
Routledge.

Calasanti, T. and C.A. Bailey (1991) ‘Gender Inequality and the Division of Household Labor in
the United States and Sweden: A Socialist-Feminist Approach’, Social Problems 38: 34–53.
Chodorow, N. (1978) The Reproduction of Mothering. Berkeley: University of California Press
Cixous, H. and C. Clément (1986) The Newly Born Woman, trans. B. Wing. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press. (Orig. 1975.)
Collins, P.H. (1990) Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of
Empowerment. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman.
Connell, R.W. (1987) Gender and Power. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Connell, R.W. (1995) Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Delphy, C. (1993) ‘Rethinking Sex and Gender’, Women’s Studies International Forum 16: 1–9.