Gender and Feminism

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Few facts about us are as significant for our identities and life prospects as our gender. Yet what sort of “fact” is the fact of one’s gender? Are gender differences biological, social, or cultural in origin? Are they all three? How does gender affect our ethical development? Should it? How does the ethical and political significance of gender intersect with other facts about us, such as our race, ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status, cultural context, and sexual orientation? Should our understanding of gender lead us to take up feminist ethics and politics? What should count as feminist ethics or politics? This course will bring a philosophical lens to these kinds of questions about gender and feminism. To explore these questions, we will study a range of topics including gender constitution and gender oppression, norms of masculinity and femininity, intersectionality, sexual orientation and sexual ethics, and feminist ethical and political theories.