Feminist and Gender Studies FYE Course Selections

FG110/PY143-Introduction to Feminist and Gender Studies/Psychology of Gender

Feminist and Gender Studies: FG110/PY143

Block I: Eileen Bresnahan, FG110, Introduction to Feminist and Gender Studies
Meets one unit of Critical Perspectives: Diverse Cultures and Critiques.

Block II: Tomi-Ann Roberts, PY143, Psychology of Gender,
Meets one unit of Critical Perspectives: Diverse Cultures and Critiques.

Introduction to the Study of Gender: Theories and Psychology

This course will explore gender as a primary organizing principle of social life and of human consciousness. It brings together two introductory courses in Feminist and Gender Studies (FGS), offering a comprehensive look at gender's historical and contemporary importance to social structure across cultures and at its continuing importance in the individual lives and psychology of women and men in modern societies, attempting to explain the origins, perpetuation, and reproduction of gendered understandings and social differentiation. Issues that intersect with gender - such as race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and nationality - will as well be considered throughout the course. Students who complete this course will have earned two units of the 5.5 units needed to complete the FGS minor (or of the 11.75 units needed for an FGS major).

The first block will introduce students in an interdisciplinary fashion to the basic concepts, theory, terminology, methods, and questions of the discipline of feminist and gender studies (also often known as women's studies). These will include sex/gender; patriarchy; masculinity/femininity; violence against women; women's movements, achievements, and resistances; and social construction.

The second block will be an examination of research and theory on psychological gender differences and similarities. The block will explore the ways in which gender is a system of meanings that operate at the individual, interactional, and cultural level to structure people's lives. Special attention will be given to methodological issues around collecting, analyzing and interpreting psychological data about gender.

A set of linked one-block courses that must be taken together, with one instructor in each block; separate grades will be given for each block.