Principles of Gender Theory
Code: 106988Credits: 6
| Degree programme | Type | Course |
|---|---|---|
| Sociocultural Gender Studies | FB | 1 |
Contact lecturer
- Name :
- Anabella Di Tullio Arias
- Email :
- anabella.ditullio@uab.cat
Teaching staff
- Blanca Pérez Díaz
- Anabella Di Tullio Arias
Group languages
You can consult this information at the end of the document.
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites to take this course.
Objectives
This course introduces the principles of gender theory within the framework of contemporary feminist thought. Throughout the course, students will analyze the ways in which gender functions as an analytical category, a power relationship, and a technology of subjectivation, drawing on the diverse theoretical traditions that have contributed to its conceptualization. Concepts such as identity, power, discourse, difference, body, sexuality, justice, and materiality will be explored, ranging from the foundational debates on the sex/gender distinction to intersectional critiques of feminism’s unitary subject, including the ethics of care and feminist epistemologies. The course aims to develop students’ critical competence to analyze discourses, practices, and institutions from situated gender perspectives that are attentive to the interplay of multiple axes of inequality.
Objectives
- To become familiar with the main currents and debates in contemporary feminist theory regarding gender.
- To understand how gender is produced, regulated, and transformed in relation to other power structures such as race, class, and sexuality.
- Identify and compare different theoretical positions within feminism, recognizing their underlying assumptions and political implications.
- Develop the ability to critically read theoretical texts and analyze public discourse from a gender perspective.
- Develop conceptually rigorous arguments of one’s own, both orally and in writing.
Learning outcomes
- KM30 (Identify the fundamental establishing narratives of different feminist approaches, taking intersectional considerations and context into account.) Identify the fundamental establishing narratives of different feminist approaches, taking intersectional considerations and context into account.
- KM31 (Critically analyse popular discourses, particularly those related to ideology and ethnocentric and sexist biases.) Critically analyse popular discourses, particularly those related to ideology and ethnocentric and sexist biases.
- KM32 (Describe the fundamental principles of gender theory and relate them to the cultural substratum in which they are found.) Describe the fundamental principles of gender theory and relate them to the cultural substratum in which they are found.
- KM34 (Contrast debates on feminism and masculinities to find commonalities, clashes and possible biases derived from androcentric assumptions.) Contrast debates on feminism and masculinities to find commonalities, clashes and possible biases derived from androcentric assumptions.
- SM27 (Use genealogical accounts to contextualise different socio-cultural manifestations of gender from different periods.) Use genealogical accounts to contextualise different socio-cultural manifestations of gender from different periods.
- SM28 (Justify in an orderly, coherent and distinctive narrative the specifics of debates on gender, its branches and related aspects, in different socio-cultural contexts.) Justify in an orderly, coherent and distinctive narrative the specifics of debates on gender, its branches and related aspects, in different socio-cultural contexts.
- SM31 (Use organised and correct discourse both in writing and to be performed aloud, in the corresponding language, which relies on inclusive language and is suitable for all kinds of situations.) Use organised and correct discourse both in writing and to be performed aloud, in the corresponding language, which relies on inclusive language and is suitable for all kinds of situations.
Contents
Section 1. Introduction to Gender Theory.
The term “gender” in academic studies. The sex/gender distinction. The sex/gender system as a structure.
Authors: Mary Wollstonecraft, Simone de Beauvoir, Gayle Rubin, Joan Scott, Teresa de Lauretis, Anne Fausto-Sterling.
Section 2. Power, Body, and Subjectivation
Power as a relationship and as a mechanism. Gender as a technology of subjectivation. Body and normalization. Gender performativity. Vulnerable bodies, rebellious bodies.
Authors: Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, Monique Wittig, Sara Ahmed, Paul B. Preciado, Silvia Federici, Rita Segato.
Section 3. Difference, Equality, and Recognition
Equality versus difference. Recognition of identities versus a critique of essentialism. Feminist critique of Enlightenment universalism.
Authors: Nancy Fraser, Geneviève Fraisse, Martha Nussbaum, Carole Pateman, Iris Marion Young.
Section 4. Justice, Care, and Relations of Dependency
Critique of the autonomous liberal subject. Interdependence and relational justice. Ethics of care and care as a political issue.
Authors: Carol Gilligan, Joan Tronto, Eva Kittay, María Puig de la Bellacasa, The Care Collective.
Section 5. Intersectionality and Relationships of Multiple Oppression
Intersectionality: origins and development. Critiques of the notion of “woman” as the sole subject of feminism. Non-hegemonic feminisms.
Authors: Kimberlé Crenshaw, Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks, Angela Davis, Gloria Anzaldúa, Maria Rodó.
Section 6. Science, Knowledge, and Gender
Science and Objectivity: A Critique of the Neutral Point of View. Situated Knowledge and Embodied Knowledges. Nature and Gender: How the Logic of Domination Is Articulated.
Authors: Donna Haraway, Sandra Harding, Alicia Puleo, Karen J. Warren, Val Plumwood.
Learning activities and methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tutorials. | 22.5 | 0.9 | |
| Preparation of topics and texts. Presentation preparation. Textual analysis preparation. Exam preparation. | 75 | 3 | |
| Course presentation. Theoretical presentations of the main concepts. Textual analysis. Evaluation of course content and methodology | 45 | 1.8 |
Classroom sessions will combine lectures with time set aside for the analysis and group discussion of the texts.
Active and collaborative learning methods.
Moodle will be used to share materials and post grades.
Assessment
Continuous assessment activities
| Title | Weight | Hours | ECTS | Learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Final exam | 50% | 4 | 0.16 | KM30, KM31, KM32, SM27, SM28, SM31 |
| Text commentary | 30% | 2.5 | 0.1 | KM30, KM31, KM32, KM34, SM27, SM28, SM31 |
| Oral presentation | 20% | 1 | 0.04 | KM30, KM31, KM32, KM34, SM27, SM28, SM31 |
Course assessment is continuous and requires class attendance and consistent participation throughout the course.
To pass the course, students must earn a grade of at least 5 on the final exam. If this requirement is not met, students must take the retake exam. Students may also take the retake exam to make up a text analysis assignment or improve their exam grade.
Students who have completed less than 30% of the assessment activities will receive a grade of “not evaluable.”
Active participation in class beyond the required presentation will be taken into account.
At the time each assessment activity is conducted, students will be informed of the procedure and date for reviewing exams.
If a student commits any irregularity that could lead to a significant change in the grade for an assessment, that assessment will be graded as a 0, regardless of any disciplinary proceedings that may be initiated. If multiple irregularities occur in the assessments for the same course, the final grade for that course will be 0.
Assessment dates are announced at the beginning of the academic year and cannot be changed.
Use of AI
Restricted use: For this course, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is permitted exclusively for support tasks, such as bibliographic or information searches, text correction, or translations. Students must clearly identify which parts were generated using this technology, specify the tools used, and include a critical reflection on how these tools influenced the process and the final result of the activity, as well as the link and all corresponding prompts. Failure to disclose the use of AI in this graded assignment will be considered a breach of academic integrity and may result in a partial or total deduction from the assignment grade, or more severe penalties in serious cases.
This course does not include a single evaluation system.
Bibliography
Ahmed, Sara (2015). La política cultural de las emociones. UNAM.
Anzaldúa, Gloria E. (1987). Borderlands/La Frontera. Aunt Lute Books.
Beauvoir, Simone de. (1949). El segundo sexo. Ediciones Cátedra.
Butler, Judith. (1993). Cuerpos que importan. Paidós.
Butler, Judith. (2004). Deshaciendo el género. Paidós.
Camps, Victoria (2021). Tiempos de cuidados. Otra forma de estar en el mundo. Arpa & Alfil Editores.
Collins, Patricia Hill. (2000). Interseccionalidad. Blackwell.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé (1989). “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics”, University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1, pp. 139-167.
Davis, Angela Y. (1981). Mujeres, raza y clase. Women's Press.
De Lauretis, Teresa (1996). \"La tecnología del género\". Mora, Revista del Área Interdisciplinaria de Estudios de la Mujer, (2), 1-26.
Federici, Silvia. (2004). Caliban y la bruja. Traficantes de Sueños.
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. (2000). Cuerpos sexuados. La Marca Editora.
Foucault, Michel. (1976-1984). Historia de la sexualidad (Vols. 1-3). Siglo XXI.
Fraisse, Geneviève (1991). Musa de la razón: La democracia excluyente y la diferencia de los sexos. Cátedra.
Fraser, Nancy (2006). La justicia social en la era de la política de la identidad: redistribución, reconocimiento y participación. En N. Fraser & A. Honneth, ¿Redistribución o reconocimiento? Un debate político-filosófico (pp. 21-67). Morata.
Gilligan, Carol (1985). La moral y la teoría. Psicología del desarrollo femenino, Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Harding, Sandra. (1986). Ciencia y feminismo. Siglo XXI.
Haraway, Donna J. (1985). Ciencia, ciborgs y mujeres. Cátedra.
Held, Virginia (2006). The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global. Oxford University Press.
hooks, bell (2015). Teoría feminista: De los márgenes al centro. Routledge.
Kittay, Eva (1999). Love's Labor: Essays on women, equality, and dependency. Routledge.
Laqueur, Thomas (1994). La construcción del sexo. Cuerpo y género desde los griegos hasta Freud. Crítica.
Maffía, Diana y Cabral, Mauro (2009). Los sexos ¿son o se hacen? En D. Maffía (Comp.), Sexualidades migrantes. Género y transgénero (pp. 95-107). Librería de mujeres editoras.
Nussbaum, Martha (2002). Las mujeres y el desarrollo humano: El enfoque de las capacidades. Herder.
Nussbaum, Martha (2006). Las fronteras de la justicia: consideraciones sobre la exclusión. Paidós.
Plumwood, Val (2004). Naturaleza, yo y género: feminismo, filosofía medioambiental y crítica del racionalismo en Agra Romero, Mª Xosé, Ecología y feminismo, Editorial Comares.
Preciado, Paul B. (2008). Testo Yonqui. Espasa Calpe.
Puig de la Bellacasa, Maria (2017). Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds. University of Minnesota Press.
Puleo, Alicia (2017). Perspectivas ecofeministas de la ciencia y el conocimiento. La crítica al sesgo andro-antropocéntrico. Daimon. Revista Internacional de Filosofía, Suplemento 6 (2017), pp. 41-54.
Puleo, Alicia (2022). Claves ecofeministas para rebeldes que aman a la Tierra y a los animales. Plaza y Valdés.
Rodó-Zárate, Maria (2021). Interseccionalidad. Desigualdades, lugares y emociones. Bellaterra.
Rubin, G. (1986). El tráfico de mujeres: notas sobre la \"economía política\" del sexo. Nueva Antropología, VIII(30), 95-145.
Scott, J. W. (2011). Género: ¿Todavía una categoría útil para el análisis? La Manzana De La Discordia, 6(1), 95–101.
Segato, Rita Laura. (2016). El sexo y la norma: frente estatal, patriarcado, desposesión, colonidad. Prometeo Libros.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. (1988). ¿Puede hablar un cuerpo subalterno?. Macmillan.
The Care Collective (2021). El manifest de les cures. La política de la interdependència. Tigre de Paper.
Tronto, Joan(1993). Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care. Routledge.
Tronto, Joan (2024). Democracia y cuidado. Mercados, igualdad y justicia. El cuidado en el centro de la vida humana. Raig Verd Editorial.
Vergès, Françoise (2022). Un feminismo descolonial. Traficantes de Sueños.
Warren, Karen J. (2004). El poder y la promesa de un feminismo ecológico en Agra Romero, Mª Xosé, Ecología y feminismo, Editorial Comares.
Wollstonecraft, Mary (1792). Vindicación de los derechos de la mujer. Penguin Books.
Young, Iris Marion (2006). Responsabilidad por la justicia. Routledge.
Software
There is no specific software for this subject.
Course groups and languages
The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE
| Type of teaching | Group | Language | Semester | Shift |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan/Spanish | second semester | morning-mixed |
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan/Spanish | second semester | morning-mixed |