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Gender, Sexuality & Inequalities - SOC00015I

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• Department: Sociology
• Module co-ordinator: Prof. Ellen Annandale
• Credit value: 10 credits
• Credit level: I
• Academic year of delivery: 2022-23
  • See module specification for other years: 2021-22

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Autumn Term 2022-23
B	Spring Term 2022-23

Module aims

Many contemporary societies tend to divide people into discrete categories on the basis of sexual difference. We often hear how men and women are more naturally suited to different tasks, behaviours and roles and this has, historically, placed certain limits on what people are allowed or feel able to do. However when we look historically and cross culturally, different societies have had different ways of categorising people on the basis of their genitals, sexual practices or the way they present themselves. This module explores theory and research on gender and sexualities and other social inequalities as fundamental to social order. We will problematize the concepts of sex and gender, which are often taken as a natural hierarchically structured binary division between people. We will explore the social construction of gender and sexuality through the lens of key social institutions (e.g. sport, the media, health, law and employment).

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module students will be able to:

• Distinguish between different ways of understanding sex and gender
• Demonstrate how expectations around gender are dependent on social, cultural and historical factors
• Challenge the idea of inequalities as determined by biologically hardwired differences
• Indicate how gender, sex and sexuality are intersected by other forms of social inequalities
• Question issues of structure and agency in relation to people s decisions about their bodies

Indicative assessment

Task	Length	% of module mark
Visiting Student Assessment Essay	N/A	100

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	Length	% of module mark
Visiting Student Assessment Essay	N/A	100

Module feedback

Feedback is in written form.

Indicative reading

Bhattacharyya, G. (2002) Sexuality and Society. London: Routledge

Connell, R. (2009) Gender. 2nd ed. London: Polity

Connell, R. (2000) Masculinities 2nd ed. London: Polity

Fausto- Sterling, A. (2012) Sex/Gender. Biology in a Social World. Routledge

Fine, C. (2011) Delusions of Gender. London: Icon

Fuller, L.K. (2006) Sport, Rhetoric & Gender: Historical Perspectives and Media Representations. New York: Palgrave McMillan

Holmes, M. (2007) What is Gender? London: Sage

Johnson. P. (2012) Homosexuality and the European Court of Human Rights. London: Routledge

Rahman, M. and Jackson, S. (2010) Gender and Sexuality: Sociological Approaches. Cambridge: Polity Press

Richardson, D. (2007) Introducing Gender and Womens Studies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan