F0616 Gender and the Politics of Everday Life (formerly The Feminist Politics of Work. The Domestic Labor Debates)

The course will be divided into three sections.

In the first part we will examine some of the controversies surrounding the key categories of gender, sex, and sexuality. What is gender? Where does it come from? Why does it matter? How is gender related to constructions of sexuality and to the sexed body?

The second part of the course will focus on the politics of the gendered body. How and to what effect are our bodies—their size, shape, and capacities—shaped according to ideals of masculinity and femininity? What are the possibilities and limitations of various forms of feminist resistance to these norms and practices of embodiment?

In the third part of the course we will turn our attention to the experience and organization of work. How is work organized with respect to gender? What role does work play in the allocation of power in society? What part does the gender division of labor play in the perpetuation of gender difference and inequality? What are the relationships between the systems of waged labor and unwaged domestic labor, work and family, capitalism and patriarchy? More specifically, we will explore the \"politics of housework\" in the context of both the household and the global economy, consider and assess the Italian \"wages for housework\" movement, and investigate the practice of sex work and the international politics of trafficking and migration.

Methods of teaching: lecture, discussion, and small-group work.