Power, Culture and Gender

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

Gender equality and empowerment are key to effective foreign policy and global stability. Effective approaches to foreign and domestic policy—including those addressing the defining challenges of our time such as climate change, technological transformation, migration, and human rights—require a nuanced grasp of how gender and culture shape access to power, opportunity, and decision-making. Yet, across the world, we are also witnessing growing pushback against gender equality, as conservative, nationalist, and religious movements seek to reassert patriarchal norms and restrict women’s and gender-diverse people’s rights. This course explores the intersections of power, culture, and gender in shaping local and global realities, as well as the sources and manifestations of gender backlash. Drawing on feminist, postcolonial, and intersectional frameworks, students will explore how systems of domination—patriarchy, colonialism, capitalism, and nationalism—structure inequalities and how individuals and communities resist and transform them. Through global and regional case studies, the course analyzes both the sources of gendered power and the contemporary pushback against it.Students will gain conceptual and practical tools to design gender-responsive and culturally grounded strategies for policymaking, peacebuilding, and development—equipping them to address power and gender dynamics in today’s complex international environment.