SOC 204 - Gender Identities, Interactions and Relations

1. Analyze masculinity, femininity, and gender construction.
2. Describe current and historical political events including social movements, suffrage, and significant legislation affecting sex and gender relations.
3. Examine family issues including roles and family structures, and analyze men’s and women’s different experiences of love and marriage.
4. Explain the current-day phenomenon of masculinity and its significance for understanding sex/gender systems.
5. Identify issues concerning gender in the workplace, in the media, in medical and information technology, and within organized religion.
6. Place gender and gendered experience in global perspective

1. Analyze masculinity, femininity, and gender construction.
2. Develop skills to theoretically evaluate everyday experiences as a gendered being.
3. Describe current and historical political events including social movements, suffrage, and significant legislation affecting sex and gender relations.
4. Examine family issues including roles and family structures.
5. Analyze men’s and women’s different experiences of love and marriage.
6. Describe the current-day phenomenon of masculinity and explain its significance for understanding sex/gender systems.
7. Describe important professional and workplace issues facing women and men.
8. Identify issues concerning gender and the media.
9. Locate women’s and men’s spiritual issues in relation to organized religion.
10. Examine men’s and women’s relationships with medical and information technology.
11. Place gender and gendered experience in global perspective.

1. Sex Versus Gender
   1. The Social Construction of Gender
   2. Masculinities
   3. Femininities
2. Theoretical Perspectives
   1. Societal-Level Approaches to Understanding Sex and Gender
      1. Conflict Theory
      2. Structural Functionalism
      3. Feminist Perspectives
      4. Other Perspectives (e.g. Liberalism)
   2. Individual-Level Approaches to Understanding Sex and Gender
      1. Biological Approaches
      2. Psychoanalytic Theory
      3. Cognitive-Development Theories
      4. Learning Theories
3. Law and Politics: Hot Issues
   1. Significant Historical Events in Sex/Gender Relations
      1. Legislation
      2. Social Movements
   2. Significant Current Events Concerning Sex/Gender Relations
      1. Legislation
      2. Social Movements
4. Gender and the Family
   1. Mother Role and Father Role
   2. Family Structures
   3. Alternative Families
   4. Work and the Family
5. His and Her Experience of Love and Marriage
   1. Love and Marriage in Historical Perspective
   2. Modern Love and Marriage
   3. Gay and Lesbian Issues
   4. Research on Sexuality
6. Masculinity
   1. Social Construction of Gender
   2. Power
   3. Violence
   4. Men’s Movements
7. Gender in the Workplace
   1. Significant Legislation Concerning the Workplace
   2. Changing Roles
8. Gender Representations in the Media
   1. Objectification
   2. Media Influences on Men and Women: Behavioral Outcomes
   3. Sexism in Language and Communication
9. Gender and Religion
   1. Christianity
   2. Judaism
   3. Islam
   4. Non-Western Religions
10. Gender and Medicine
    1. Men’s Health, Women’s Health
    2. The Politics of Pregnancy
    3. Reproductive Technologies and Power Struggles
11. Global Perspectives
    1. Development, Post-Colonial and Post-Modern Theories
    2. Role of the United Nations’ “Decade for Women”
    3. Patriarchy in Global Perspective