Gender and International Development

Gender and development constitutes its own academic sub-field and has proven to be an enduring international policy and planning focus since the 1970s. With this in mind, the foundational questions that underlie this course are: 
• Why should the issue of gender constitute a legitimate planning tradition in its own right? 
• Why do the proliferating numbers of policies and plans for action in gender and development often fail to be implemented? 
• How do transnational relationships shape trends in gender and development? 
To address these questions, this course provides a critical overview of classical and contemporary theories of development linked to core concerns in gender and development including: sex ratio, reproductive rights, health and disease, violence, education, agriculture, urbanization and globalization. Each week a “core concepts” reading explores topic at hand in greater detail and introduces new debates. 

Course/Module aims: 
This course provides a critical overview of classical and contemporary theories of development linked to core concerns in gender and development including: sex ratio, reproductive rights, health and disease, violence, education, agriculture, urbanization and globalization. Each week a “core concepts” reading explores topic at hand in greater detail and introduces new debates.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to: 
Upon completion of the course, students will have developed skills to: 
• Explain when, how, and why gender emerged as a development issue 
• Articulate central themes of gender and development over time 
• Place course themes within in a wider context of social theory and development policy 
• Converse, with historical and ethnographic sensitivity, about a range of contemporary case studies 
• Analyze possible interventions based on case studies from different areas of the developing world 

The course is taught by Dr. Amelia Weinreb

 

 

 

Semester: 
2nd semester
Offered: 
2020