This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies

A black and white photo from 1912 shows the outside of the woman suffrage headquarters. Signs urge the men of Ohio to back Amendment 23.

Woman suffrage headquarters on Upper Euclid Avenue in Cleveland in 1912. (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.)

Instructor(s)

MIT Course Number

SP.401 / WGS.401

As Taught In

Spring 2009

Level

Undergraduate

Course Features

Course Description

<p>This course is designed as an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Women's and Gender Studies, an academic area of study focused on the ways that sex and gender manifest themselves in social, cultural, and political contexts. The primary goal of this course is to familiarize students with key issues, questions and debates in Women's Studies scholarship, both historical and contemporary. This semester you will become acquainted with many of the critical questions and concepts feminist scholars have developed as tools for thinking about gendered experience. In addition, we will study the interconnections among systems of oppression (such as sexism, racism, classism, ethnocentrism, homophobia/heterosexism, transphobia, ableism and others.) In this course you will learn to "read" and analyze gender, exploring how it impacts our understanding of the world.<p>

Other OCW Versions

Two instructors alternate teaching this subject. Each version focuses on different topics to introduce students to women's and gender studies.

Archived versions: Question_avt logo

Kim Surkan. SP.401 Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies, Spring 2009. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare), https://ocw.mit.edu (Accessed). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA


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